In 1992, the State of California enacted the Water Conservation in Landscaping Act, (AB 325) requiring the adoption of water efficient landscape ordinances by cities and counties throughout the state. To assist local agencies, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) developed a Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (MWELO) that established water efficient landscape design standards for urban landscapes.  This MWELO served as a template for local agencies to utilize in the development of their own local water efficient landscape ordinance.

As the drought continued to worsen, the State updated the Model Ordinance and required cities and local agencies to update and amend their versions of the ordinance to reflect more stringent water conservation standards. In response to the State’s update of the MWELO, the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) and the Orange County Division of the League of California Cities formed a stakeholder group who developed a locally-crafted Orange County MWELO. The goals of a locally-crafted ordinance was to meet the “at least as effective as” component of the State’s Ordinance, as well as to minimize the cost of compliance, and to provide consistency between local jurisdictions. In 2010, the City of Garden Grove adopted the Ordinance to amend Title 9 (Zoning Code) of the Garden Grove Municipal Code and adopted the Guidelines to incorporate updated landscape water efficiency provisions based on the Countywide Model.

In response to the ongoing concerns for California’s extended period of drought, on April 1, 2015, Governor Brown signed an Executive Order B-29-15 directing DWR to update the MWELO through expedited regulations.  The directive specifically listed five items that were to be addressed in the revised MWELO: (1) more efficient irrigation systems; (2) graywater usage; (3) on-site stormwater capture; (4) limiting the percentage of turf planted in landscapes; and (5) requiring local agency reporting on implementation and enforcement. DWR thereafter adopted new regulations updating the MWELO.  Pursuant to these State regulations, local agencies are required to either adopt the updated MWELO or their own local or regional ordinances that are “at least as effective as” the updated MWELO in conserving water.

Responding again to the latest required update, Municipal Water District of Orange County, in collaboration with the Association of California Cities (ACC-OC) and the Orange County Chapter of the Building Industry Association (BIA), formed another stakeholder group to develop an updated Countywide Model Ordinance that would set Guidelines that would comply with the new State Law requirements. The updated Countywide Model Ordinance and Guidelines were reviewed by DWR and was found to satisfy the new State requirements.

The proposed Zoning Code Amendment No. A-020-2017 would update Garden Grove’s landscape water efficiency provisions to comply with Governor Brown’s April 1, 2015 Executive Order and updated MWELO.  These changes are based on the updated Countywide Model Ordinance and Guidelines, which DWR has found to “at least as effective as” the State MWELO.  Significant changes are discussed below and are summarized as follows:

The most significant changes contained in the DWR’s updated MWELO include the following: 1) the threshold size of landscaped area has been reduced, as noted below, resulting in an increase in applicability of the landscape water efficiency provisions; 2) the Maximum Applied Water Allowance (MAWA) has been lowered from 70% to 55% for residential landscape projects and 45% for non-residential landscape projects; and 3) local agencies are now required to annually report to DWR on the implementation and enforcement of their local water efficient landscape ordinances.

Currently, the City’s existing water efficient landscape standards are applicable to landscape areas that are 2,500 square feet or larger for new and rehabilitated landscape projects, except that the existing threshold for new landscape projects by individual homeowners on residential lots is 5,000 square feet, and there is no water efficiency requirement for rehabilitated landscape projects by individual homeowners.

The proposed changes, which are mandated by the State, will require new landscape projects as small as 500 square feet and landscape rehabilitation projects as small as 2,500 square feet, to comply with the revised water efficiency requirements. The size threshold applies to residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional projects that require a permit, plan check, or design review. Recognizing the special landscape management needs of cemeteries, new and rehabilitated cemeteries are limited to Sections 2.9 and 2.10 of Appendix 1, Title 9.  Projects that have new landscape areas between 500 to 2,500 square feet can comply either through meeting the water calculation approach or through the prescriptive approach. The prescriptive approach includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Incorporation of compost to a depth of 6 inches of the landscape area

• Use of climate adapted plants

• Providing a minimum of 3 inches of mulch

• Turf area to not exceed 25 percent of landscape area

• Installation of automatic irrigation controller with evapotranspiration or soil moisture sensing data.

It is recommended that the City Council:

• Conduct a Public Hearing;

   

• Introduce and conduct the first reading of the attached Ordinance approving Amendment No. A-020-2017 to amend Title 9 of the Municipal Code adopting water efficient landscape regulations consistent with recent changes to state law.