Does Your Irrigation System Cross City Property?

When a residential irrigation system extends beyond your property line — into a public right-of-way (ROW), such as the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street — an additional permit is typically required from the municipality's public works or engineering department. This is separate from the standard building permit for the irrigation system itself.

What Is a Right-of-Way?

A public right-of-way is land that the local government owns or controls for public use. For residential properties, the most common ROW areas are:

  • Parkway strip (also called a devil strip, tree lawn, or boulevard): the grassed strip between the sidewalk and the street curb
  • Street verge or berm: any area between your property line and the street in jurisdictions without sidewalks
  • Utility easements: strips of land along property boundaries reserved for utility lines

The grass in the parkway strip in front of your home is typically your responsibility to maintain, but the land itself belongs to the municipality. Installing irrigation heads, piping, or valves in this area requires explicit permission from your city's public works department.

Why a Separate ROW Permit Is Required

Right-of-way encroachment permits exist for several practical reasons:

  • Utility lines (water, gas, electric, telecom) run in the ROW. Digging without notification risks striking live utilities — requiring an 811 call before any digging, but also a documented permit for the encroachment.
  • The city needs to know where private irrigation infrastructure exists so it can be avoided during road repair, utility work, or curb replacement.
  • Sprinkler heads in a ROW present a safety hazard if struck by vehicles or if they create ice on sidewalks or streets during winter operation.

How to Handle ROW Irrigation Permitting

  1. Contact your city's public works or engineering department — not the building department — and ask about ROW encroachment permits for irrigation. This is a separate process from your building permit.
  2. Call 811 (Call Before You Dig) at least 3 business days before any digging in or near a ROW. Utility lines will be located and marked. This is a legal requirement in all 50 states.
  3. Show ROW irrigation on your building permit site plan. Note that some zones extend into the ROW. Your building department may require or note the ROW permit requirement.
  4. Design ROW irrigation conservatively. Pop-up heads in ROWs should retract fully to grade. Avoid head placement in vehicle paths or within 6 inches of sidewalk edges.
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Some Cities Prohibit ROW Irrigation Entirely

Certain municipalities, particularly in water-scarce regions (Las Vegas, Phoenix, parts of Southern California), prohibit irrigation of parkway strips as part of water conservation ordinances. Check your city's landscaping and water use codes before installing any irrigation in a ROW area.

Utility Easements and Irrigation

Utility easements on your property — the strips reserved for underground utility lines that often run along property boundaries — present similar issues. You generally may not install permanent structures (including valve boxes and concrete pads for backflow devices) within utility easements. Piping can typically cross an easement perpendicular to the easement direction, but running piping parallel within an easement may be restricted. Check with your city's engineering department for easement-specific rules.

Watering a parkway strip with a hose or portable sprinkler typically requires no permit. Installing permanent in-ground irrigation heads or piping in a parkway strip (city ROW) requires an encroachment permit from your city's public works department in most jurisdictions. The standard irrigation building permit does not cover encroachment into city right-of-way.

If the city discovers unauthorized encroachment in a ROW — typically when doing road or utility work — they may require you to remove the irrigation at your own expense, potentially disrupting your landscaping and requiring re-installation after the city work is complete. A retroactive encroachment permit, if the city offers one, may involve fees and penalties. Worst case, utility work that strikes your unpermitted irrigation piping may result in your being responsible for repair costs.

Related: How to Get a Permit · No Permit Consequences · Permit Checker Tool