Woodland HOA Guide: Local Rules for Boards and Owners

Woodland uses landscaping and lighting districts, formed under the state’s 1972 Landscaping and Lighting Act, to maintain public improvements in newer neighborhoods. The Spring Lake district, the largest, covered 2,968 parcels in its 2023-24 engineer’s report. It pays for landscaped parkways along arterial and collector roads, greenbelts, neighborhood parks, drainage channels and ponds, street trees, about 1,740 street lights and signals at 18 intersections. The Spring Lake district’s maximum rate rises each year with a construction labor cost index.

Spring Lake homes also pay the Spring Lake Mello-Roos special tax and a Sports Park maintenance tax. Our Spring Lake guide explains all three.

Before the association budgets for parkway or park landscaping, ask the city which areas a district maintains and compare that with your recorded maps. Yolo County lists these charges on the tax bill as direct levies, which the county does not set, so call the district whose phone number is printed on the bill. City Finance: (530) 661-5831.

FEMA maps show the Cache Creek 100-year floodplain covering part of Woodland, with flood depths of one to ten feet. The city counts about 1,000 properties in it, including 779 residential addresses as of December 2023 and much of the industrial area. The city says these properties are subject to mandatory flood insurance, which can cost several thousand dollars a year for a single-family home, and stay in the floodplain until a project provides at least 100-year protection.

The city and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have studied a Lower Cache Creek project to give Woodland the 200-year protection state law requires for urban areas. The City Council certified the project’s environmental report and approved the city’s project in February 2021. Ask the city for its current status before you rely on any date.

If your association is in or near the mapped floodplain, check whether common buildings are inside it and ask your insurance professional how the master policy treats flood.

Chapter 12.48 of the city code protects trees, with trunk diameter measured 54 inches above the ground. On developed residential property, the city requires review before removing or doing major maintenance on:

• a heritage oak, meaning a valley oak 33 inches or more in diameter, anywhere on the property
• any tree 24 inches or more in diameter within 20 feet of the sidewalk

Hire an ISA Certified Arborist with a Woodland business license, and send the Private Tree Modification Review Form with the contractor’s quotes to Urban Forestry before work starts. Street trees need a city tree permit to plant, remove or top. Removing a reviewed tree without the form costs $500 for a tree 24 to 36 inches across and $1,000 for a larger one. A heritage oak removed from private property without a permit costs $1,000 per tree, plus replacement. Urban Forestry: (530) 661-2000.

Code Compliance takes questions at (530) 661-5826. Your association’s rules can be stricter than the city’s.

The city defines a short-term rental as a home rented for 30 or fewer consecutive days. It allows them only in five downtown and corridor mixed-use zones, with a Zoning Administrator Permit. Only an owner who has owned the home for at least two years may apply. Each person may hold one permit, and it cannot be transferred. Approved hosts need a local contact, a city business license and transient occupancy tax registration. Planning: (530) 661-5913.

Your CC&Rs can restrict rentals too. Civil Code section 4741 limits how far an association can restrict rentals generally, but it does not stop an association from prohibiting rentals of 30 days or less.

On ADUs, the city allows a junior ADU of up to 500 square feet of interior space inside an existing single-family home, and it runs a pre-approved ADU plan program. Planning can tell you the current size and setback rules.

The city says water waste is prohibited at all times. That means:

• no runoff into gutters and storm drains
• no hosing down driveways, sidewalks or other hard surfaces, except for health and safety
• no watering during rain or for 48 hours after
• fountains must recirculate, hoses need shut-off nozzles and leaks must be repaired

Neighbors can report water waste online or through the myWoodland app. Water Conservation: (530) 661-2067.

City rebate funding was refreshed on July 1, 2026, first come, first served. The list includes $150 for a weather-based irrigation controller, $100 for plant-based mulch for residents and businesses, a compost bin rebate and up to $75 per address for a residential street tree. The program pages do not say whether HOA common-area accounts qualify, so ask before planning around them.

A state law passed in 2023 (AB 1572) will bar the use of drinking water on nonfunctional turf in HOA common areas starting January 1, 2029. On owners’ lots, Civil Code section 4735 prevents an association from banning low-water plants or artificial turf as a replacement for lawn.

Under the noise ordinance (section 9.28.090), construction noise is not allowed before 7 a.m. or after 6 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays, or before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m. on Sundays. The city lists blowers among the noise sources it regulates. The building inspector can allow other hours for urgent public health and safety work. Put these hours in your landscape and construction contracts.

The city’s collection flyer asks residents to wheel carts to the curb by 5 a.m. on collection day, at least three feet apart and three feet from mailboxes, cars and poles. Environmental Services: (530) 661-2060.