Lawn Watering Restrictions in Titusville

Titusville homes at odd-numbered addresses water on Wednesday and Saturday and even-numbered addresses on Thursday and Sunday while Daylight Saving Time is in effect, dropping to Saturday only or Sunday only under Eastern Standard Time.

The schedule is set by Titusville Code Sec. 21-61, adopted by Ord. No. 28-2014, which gives one set of days for the Daylight Saving Time months and a shorter set for the Eastern Standard Time months (Titusville Code Sec. 21-61, landscape irrigation schedules). Non-residential property, such as businesses, public property and rights-of-way, has its own days.

The city Irrigation Restrictions page posts its spring and summer schedule under a dated heading and sums it up as only twice a week (City of Titusville Irrigation Restrictions page). It lists odd-numbered residential addresses for Saturday and Wednesday, even-numbered residential addresses for Sunday and Thursday, and all commercial and non-residential addresses for Tuesday and Friday, and it notes that the schedule changes each fall and spring as clocks switch between Eastern Standard Time and Daylight Saving Time. The page also reminds residents that irrigation is meant to supplement rainfall, not to be a yard's primary water source.

The city FAQ frames both limits as a maximum: once a week in Eastern Standard Time and up to twice a week in Daylight Saving Time, adding that lawns with large bedding areas and plantings can often be watered less and stay healthy (City of Titusville FAQ on lawn watering).

On a Titusville watering day, sprinklers may run from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. except between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., and each zone may get no more than three-fourths inch of water and no more than one hour.

Sec. 21-61 caps every watering day at three-fourths inch per irrigation zone and one hour per zone, and it limits all landscape irrigation to the amount needed to meet landscape needs (Titusville Code Sec. 21-61). The city FAQ adds that the irrigation day starts at 12:01 a.m. and ends at 11:59 p.m., answers no to a controller set to run from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., and calls 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the period of highest evaporation (City of Titusville FAQ).

For setting run times, the Titusville Water Smart page says only one-half to three-fourths inch of water per zone is needed for a healthy lawn and describes a catch can test: scatter five to ten small shallow cans in one zone, run the system for 15 minutes, measure the depth in each can, and repeat for each zone (City of Titusville Water Smart page). The same page advises watering early in the morning to limit evaporation, since evening watering may cause fungus and disease, keeping different sprinkler head types and turf and plant beds in separate zones, giving the system a monthly checkup and resetting the timer after power outages. Signs that turf needs water, according to the city FAQ, are folded leaf blades, footprints that stay in the grass and a blue-grey color.

Titusville code counts an address as even when it ends in 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8 or in the letters A through M, and as odd when it ends in 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9 or in the letters N through Z.

The definitions in Sec. 21-60 treat an address as the house number of a physical location, rural route numbers included and post office boxes excluded; in a mobile home park or similar community where the Postal Service uses the lot number for delivery, the lot number is the address (Titusville Code Chapter 21, Article II). A property with no address waters on the odd-numbered schedule under Sec. 21-61.

In the Titusville code, residential landscape irrigation covers any housing unit with sanitary and kitchen facilities, including multiple housing units and mobile homes. Non-residential irrigation covers the rest, such as public, commercial and industrial property, hotel and motel units, and public medians and rights-of-way. The code's definition of landscape irrigation leaves out agricultural crops, nursery plants, cemeteries, golf course greens, tees, fairways and primary roughs, and the vegetation of playgrounds and football, baseball and soccer fields.

Titusville allows hand watering with an automatic shut-off nozzle, drip and micro-spray systems, new landscape for a set period, watering in of chemicals and short system repairs on any day, under section 21-62 of the city code.

The exceptions in Sec. 21-62 are specific (Titusville Code Sec. 21-62). Micro-spray, micro-jet, drip or bubbler systems may run anytime. New landscape may be watered at any time on any day for the first thirty days and every other day for the next thirty days, one sixty-day period in all, using only the minimum needed. Watering in insecticides, pesticides, fertilizers, fungicides or herbicides is allowed on any day within twenty-four hours of application when law, the manufacturer or best management practices require it, at no more than one-fourth inch per application unless those rules require more. Systems may be run for maintenance and repair at any time, up to twenty minutes per hour per zone. Discharge from a water-to-air air-conditioning unit is not limited, and water from wet detention treatment ponds may be used anytime if the pond is not topped up from ground, off-site surface or public supply water.

The hose rule has a detail the city FAQ spells out: an automatic shutoff nozzle shuts off when the hand lets go, and setting the nozzle so it stays open or laying a running hose on the ground is prohibited; a hose attached to a sprinkler must follow the schedule (City of Titusville FAQ on hose watering). A missed watering day cannot be made up on another day; the FAQ says to wait for the next scheduled day or water by hand with a shutoff nozzle.

For hardship cases, Sec. 21-65 lets the water resources director grant a variance from the specific days when strict application would cause substantial economic, health or other hardship, and a property split into zones may water different zones on different days, but no single zone may water more than two days a week in Daylight Saving Time or one day a week in Eastern Standard Time (Titusville Code Sec. 21-65).

Yes: the Titusville schedule covers city potable water, private wells and reclaimed water alike, and every automatic sprinkler system installed after May 1, 1991 must have a working rain sensor.

The city FAQ states that Titusville irrigation restrictions apply to city potable, well and reclaimed water (City of Titusville FAQ), and Code Sec. 21-63 holds reclaimed water customers to the same schedules and exceptions (Titusville Code Sec. 21-63). The Titusville reclaimed water service page puts it plainly for that system: reclaimed water falls under the same irrigation restrictions as well water (City of Titusville reclaimed water page). The Titusville reclaimed water guide covers that system's fees and plants.

Sec. 21-64 requires anyone irrigating with an automatic lawn sprinkler system installed after May 1, 1991 to install, maintain and operate a rain sensor device or switch that overrides the system after adequate rainfall (Titusville Code Sec. 21-64). State law sets a parallel duty: Florida Statutes section 373.62 says anyone who buys and installs an automatic landscape irrigation system must install, maintain and operate technology that stops it during periods of sufficient moisture, and a licensed contractor working on such a system must test each of those devices and repair or replace any that fail before finishing other work (Florida Statutes section 373.62).

Titusville code names the St. Johns River Water Management District as the District for its watering rules, and the city Water Conservation page reposts District water shortage notices.

The Titusville code itself names the District: the definitions in Chapter 21, Article II say District means the St. Johns River Water Management District (Titusville Code Sec. 21-60). At the state level, the District's Rule 40C-2.042, General Permit by Rule, in the chapter on permitting consumptive uses of water, has a latest version effective 12/11/2025, lists section 373.62 among the laws it implements, and references a District form titled CUP Application for Landscape Irrigation for One Additional Day per Week (Florida Administrative Code Rule 40C-2.042). Florida Statutes section 373.609 makes it the duty of police officers and other appropriate city and county officials, on request, to help a water management district enforce its rules (Florida Statutes section 373.609).

The Titusville Water Conservation page reposts District water shortage notices and a drought status box, so it is the page to check for any District notice (City of Titusville Water Conservation page). Separately, Code Sec. 21-43 lets the mayor, or in the mayor's absence the vice-mayor, proclaim a critical water supply system emergency and prohibit or limit water use until it ends (Titusville Code Sec. 21-43).

Under section 21-66 of the Titusville code, a first violation brings a written warning and repeat violations within six months bring fines of $100, then $250, then $500, while the city FAQ says initial fines start at $100 per occurrence.

Sec. 21-66, as amended by Ord. No. 19-2020, authorizes law enforcement and code enforcement officers to enforce the schedule and lets the water resources director authorize employees to issue written warnings (Titusville Code Sec. 21-66). Its penalty list reads: first violation, written warning; second violation within six months of the previous one, $100; third, $250; subsequent violations, $500. For the water supply emergency sections, 21-41 through 21-46, the director may also enforce by discontinuing water service, reclaimed water included.

The two city sources word the first step differently. The code begins with a written warning, while the FAQ answer on penalties says violations may result in fines that start at $100 and apply to each occurrence (City of Titusville FAQ on penalties).

Complaints about a neighbor go to the Conservation Office at 321-567-3865; the FAQ says a flyer noting the restrictions is sent to the neighbor, and fines may follow if the watering continues. The Water Conservation Program, which shares that number, lists its mailing address as 2000 S. Washington Avenue (City of Titusville Irrigation Restrictions page).

Last verified: October 21, 2026, after a new check of Titusville Code Secs. 21-43 and 21-60 to 21-66, the city Irrigation Restrictions, Water Smart, Water Conservation and reclaimed water pages, the lawn watering answers in the city FAQ, Rule 40C-2.042 on flrules.org and Florida Statutes sections 373.62 and 373.609.