In most cases, whenever a landscape plan is required, an irrigation plan must also be submitted prior to the issuance of a building permit. The city requires all landscape plans and irrigation plans to comply with Xeriscape principles set forth by South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD).  Systems must be designed to operate during non daylight hours between 5:00 pm and 9:00 am.

During imposed water restrictions,  additional restrictions may apply to both days and time period permitted for irrigating landscaped areas. Click here to view the SFWMD Website for more information on water restrictions which may be in effect.

An irrigation application must be submitted to the city by the subcontractor who will be doing the installation, and must be accompanied by two sets of irrigation plans, based on the approved landscape plan. Click here to download an Irrigation & Well Permit Application (102k).

The plan must be drawn to scale, and show the mainline, lateral lines, zones, head layout in each zone, along with the gallons per minute, source of water, rain sensor, pressure vacuum breaker and must indicate the make and model of the controller.  The plans must clearly show that high and low water demand areas are on separate zones. A legend for  sprinkler heads and other equipment must provided.

The system must have a controller capable of separating high and low water demand areas. Indexing valves are not considered adequate to provide effective control of the irrigation system to meet program scheduling for high and low water demand areas.

The system must have a rain sensor, and must minimize spray onto non-pervious areas.

Further, low trajectory spray nozzles are encouraged to reduce the effect of wind velocity and drip systems are encouraged to  promote water conservation.