Celina City Council has rewritten the city's landscaping ordinance for single-family homes, multifamily developments and non-residential areas, amending the rules on November 10 to cut back on grass and encourage drought-tolerant plants as the fast-growing city works to save water. The changes apply only to new developments and will not be applied retroactively to existing properties.
The update, reported by Community Impact Newspaper, gives homeowners far more freedom to landscape with xeriscaping, the practice of limiting mowed grass in favor of native and drought-tolerant plants. Under the old rules, residential front and visible side yards were capped at 30% xeriscaping; that cap is gone, and homeowners may now use xeriscaping on up to 100% of their yards, eliminating grass entirely if they choose, though they must still incorporate trees and planting beds. At the same time, the ordinance tightens grass restrictions for apartments and non-residential areas, largely prohibiting turf in those settings going forward.
Development Services Director Dusty McAfee has said turf is one of the city's biggest water users during peak summer periods, and that it's the grass itself being watered in summer — not trees — that drives up demand. City officials say less grass in landscaping can help Celina save water and help residents save on their own water bills. A presentation at a June 18 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, covered by starlocalmedia.com, put a finer point on the stakes: roughly half of the city's water use during peak summer heat comes from outdoor irrigation.
Functional Versus Non-Functional Turf
The ordinance draws a line between functional turf — grass used for recreation, such as a sports field or an event-hosting park — and non-functional turf, which serves a purely aesthetic purpose, like a sidewalk-to-street buffer strip. In multifamily and non-residential areas, irrigation will generally be allowed only for functional turf. City staff may still permit grass in some non-functional spots, such as the backyard of an apartment complex, but that grass can only be watered during its initial establishment period before the tap gets shut off.
City staff will also update other city rules, including building codes, to align with the new grass and xeriscaping standards, according to McAfee.
Months of Debate Before the Vote
The ordinance change didn't happen overnight. Celina officials began considering xeriscaping rules in 2025, per McAfee, and staff solicited feedback from the developer and builder community on water conservation strategies starting that summer. The topic came up repeatedly at council and commission meetings in January, February, June, July and October, including a July 14 council discussion of xeriscape design standards led by McAfee, according to meeting records posted by celinatx.new.swagit.com.
At that July 14 meeting, as reported by the same source that covered the ordinance news, council members were largely in favor of encouraging or requiring xeriscaping for commercial and multifamily developments but voiced concern about how regulations might affect single-family homeowners. They also favored carving out exceptions for functional turf covering parks, sports fields, playgrounds and golf courses. A consultant told the council that year-round watering restrictions would effectively keep residents in a constant mandatory conservation stage similar to Stage 1 of the city's current drought guidelines, and the same presentation set a goal of eventually pushing Stage 3 restrictions to a 30% reduction in water use.
The city had already taken a smaller, symbolic step earlier in the year. Council unanimously approved new design guidelines eliminating turf in future roadway medians at a June 9 meeting, with staff expecting the change to cut the water needed to maintain those medians by roughly 60%. Those standards apply to four- and six-lane roadways, the only roads in Celina with divided medians — and the move came after resident Philip Ferguson argued in January that it was, in his opinion, stupid for the city to urge water conservation while watering grass along Preston Road.
Celina Joins a Regional Shift
Celina isn't alone in rethinking lawns. Elsewhere in North Texas, Duncanville has approved a rule letting residents incorporate native grasses and plants into residential yards, while Flower Mound's code now distinguishes turf from non-turf lawns, defines weeds objectively and grants exemptions for native yards, according to Green Source Texas. Lewisville has taken a softer approach, promoting native gardening through its Roots for Wings program, while Grapevine enforces a notably strict six-inch residential grass-height limit compared with the 12-inch limits common in Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington.
Outside the Metroplex, Round Rock has approved landscaping-code amendments aimed at reducing irrigation needs in required landscape areas and decreasing non-functional turfgrass, per the city's own announcement. The pattern across these cities points to a broader recalibration of how Texas municipalities think about lawns amid persistent drought pressure, with Celina's new rules for new developments marking its latest move in that direction.
