City officials are updating Celina’s landscaping requirements to conserve water.
Celina City Council amended the city’s landscaping ordinance for single-family homes, multifamily developments and non-residential areas at a Nov. 10 meeting.
The changes will give homeowners greater flexibility to incorporate drought-tolerant plants in their yards while tightening restrictions on grass for apartments and non-residential areas.
What residents should know
In the new ordinance, city officials eliminated a previous 30% cap on xeriscaping in the front and visible side yards of residential lots, according to a presentation by Development Services Director Dusty McAfee. Xeriscaping is a style of landscaping that limits mowed grass in favor of native and drought-tolerant plants.
During peak season, roughly half of Celina’s water is used for outdoor irrigation, especially on non-native grass that needs to be watered regularly to prevent it from going dormant, McAfee said at a Jan. 13 meeting.
“It’s not the trees; it’s the grass—specifically, the watering of grass during summer, that uses the water,” he said in January.
Homeowners can now use xeriscaping on up to 100% of their yards and eliminate grass entirely, though they still have to incorporate trees and planting beds.
Giving homeowners the option to use less grass in their landscaping can help the city save water and help residents save on water bills, city officials said.
More details
For many apartments and non-residential areas, grass will be largely prohibited. The new ordinance also differentiates between functional and non-functional turf.
Functional turf means grass that people use for recreation, like a sports field or a park used to host events. Non-functional turf is grass that only serves an aesthetic purpose, like the grass in the buffer between sidewalks and the street.
Irrigation will only be allowed for functional turf grass in multifamily and non-residential areas.
Grass can still be planted in some non-functional areas if city staff makes an exception, like for a grassy area in the back of an apartment complex, but can only be watered during the initial establishment period.
How we got here
City officials first began considering xeriscaping rules last year, McAfee said.
Staff solicited feedback on water conservation strategies from the developer and builder communities starting in summer 2025, per his presentation.
City officials held discussions about how to incorporate xeriscaping in the city's landscaping guidelines in January, February, June, July and October.
During that time, the council updated the city’s landscaping designs for roadway medians at a June 9 meeting to eliminate grass entirely going forward.
“We won’t speak out of both sides of our mouths when we tell residents to conserve water while at the same time we’re watering grass all the way down Preston,” council member Philip Ferguson said about median design guidelines in January. “That’s stupid, in my opinion.”
Going forward
City staff will update other parts of the city’s rules like building codes to match the new standards for grass and xeriscaping, McAfee said.
These rules will only apply to new developments, city staff clarified in a report. They will not be applied retroactively to existing developments.
