Encinitas Native Plant Ordinance, by Don Rideout

How it came about

Encinitas has become the first city in San Diego County, perhaps in the state, to adopt a native plant ordinance. How did this come about?

At least ten years ago the Encinitas planning commission began placing a requirement for 50% native plants on certain projects. No one objected and the practice became standard, though informal, for the planning commission.

Enter Joy Lyndes, a landscape architect and former environmental commissioner. She was appointed to the city council in 2021 to fill the remaining term of a council member who had to resign for health reasons. Joy asked for a committee to study whether the planning commission’s practice could become law. Meetings were held with the city’s environmental commission, planning commission and urban forest advisory committee. The consensus was to proceed.

In January 2023 the city council adopted a resolution to initiate preparation of the ordinance. The task was assigned to the planning department, but progress was slow at first due to several factors including a lack of subject matter expertise on the city staff.

In 2024 a group of interested citizens formed Native Plants for Encinitas (NP4E) to support the ordinance and participate in its development. Around the same time, Lyndes and mayor Bruce Ehlers drafted a budget request to contract with consultants to provide the necessary expertise. NP4E advocated for approval of the budget request, and $150,000 was approved. The San Diego-based firm SWCA Environmental Consultants was selected.

From that point, the pace of progress really picked up. Several community meetings were held to discuss various aspects of the ordinance. Among the key topics were:

• The definition of “native plant” and other terms
• What listing of species should be used
• Applicability and exemptions
• Required percentage of native plants
• Maintenance and enforcement
• Treatment of city owned property

All of the landscapes that would be subject to the ordinance would be designed by licensed landscape architects. These designers would need to have easy access to a list of acceptable native plants produced by an authoritative source. Calscape was selected as that source. The list of acceptable plants was then refined to be southern California species from 11 ecoregions, as shown in the map below. This method answered the first two bullet points. This broader regional plant palette is intentional. The ordinance is designed for urban landscapes that will be planted, irrigated and maintained by people, not for habitat restoration in conserved open space. Landscape architects also need enough flexibility to select plants that fit site conditions and are available through the nursery trade.

With the major elements of the ordinance laid out, the final steps were public hearings for approval. On February 19, 2026, the planning commission recommended approval of the ordinance as drafted. On March 25 the Encinitas city council unanimously approved the ordinance with minor changes.

What the ordinance requires

What does the ordinance say? How will it work?

The ordinance will apply to the following types of projects that require a discretionary permit and include a landscape plan. It does not create a separate permitting process, but instead sets a native plant standard within the existing one.

• A Design Review permit.
• A Major Use Permit for the Ecological Resource/Open Space/Parks (ER/OS/PK) Zone.
• City projects.

For the first two types of projects, the ordinance requires a minimum of fifty (50) percent of the total landscaped area of the project site shall be planted with southern California native plants. For areas that are within 50 ft. of conserved habitat, 100% of the landscaping must be southern California native. Landscaping areas that are City owned also require 100% southern California native plants.

Several types of projects are exempt, including:

• Single family homes and ADUs
• Active use areas of parks
• Cemeteries
• Playable portions of golf courses
• Community gardens, orchards and similar growing operations
• State owned land and beaches

In addition to these requirements, the city plans to offer incentives for other projects and individual homeowners to utilize native plants. Those incentives are still under consideration and will be finalized during the city’s budget process in the next few months.

Why the demonstration garden matters

A related project is underway for a native plant demonstration garden in one of the city’s neighborhood parks. When originally designed and constructed, that park was intended to have 100% natives other than the turf area. Over time quite a few non-native trees and plants were installed. The demonstration garden, centered around some large coast live oaks, will be a return to the original intent and will serve both as a training garden for city staff and an educational resource for the public. City staff will be able to learn how native plants grow and how they are planted, watered, pruned and maintained over time. For the public, the garden will offer a chance to become more familiar with native plants and to see how they can be used in everyday landscapes. Educational signage, website content, workshops, short videos and social media posts will extend that learning beyond the garden itself. While the ordinance applies only to certain permitted projects, the demonstration garden can help encourage broader understanding and voluntary use of native plants throughout the city.

What this could mean for Encinitas — and beyond

What will this mean for Encinitas? The ordinance is a long-range plan that will produce cumulative results for many years to come. The current pace of new construction means that much new native landscaping will be created, and at least half of it will be native. Residents will see native plantings that they may have never been exposed to before. Each landscape installation will be an opportunity to educate. Residents will learn about the colorful flowers, scents and wildlife value of plants such as oak, manzanita and ceanothus. We will see an increase in native trees and shrubs in parks, street medians, parking lots and HOA open spaces.

The mandate to design with natives will prompt more landscape architects and designers to learn about local species. The increase in purchase of natives will stimulate the horticultural trade to produce more and to introduce more species than are currently available. Home gardeners will begin to ask for plants that they have seen around town, and the city’s incentive program will reward them for doing so.

In the larger ecological context, these landscapes will offer a lifeline to wildlife, particularly birds, small mammals, reptiles, insects and other invertebrates. Street medians with native plants can create linkages, albeit very narrow, between larger patches of habitat such as San Elijo Lagoon, Indian Head Canyon and Batiquitos Lagoon. Parks and home gardens can contribute to steppingstone linkages.

This is a landmark achievement for Encinitas. The city is now the first in San Diego County to adopt a native plant ordinance, and that is a real milestone. It also means that other communities do not have to start from scratch. If you would like to pursue something similar in your own community, Don Rideout would be glad to share information and answer questions at don@rideouts.net.