Dallas, University Park & Highland Park Watering Rules (2026)

A lot of the yards we work on sit within a mile of each other but fall under three different governments. A house on the north side of Lovers Lane in University Park, a house in Highland Park off Armstrong, and a house in Preston Hollow all have their own watering rules. They look almost the same on paper, which is exactly why people mix them up.

This is the version we give homeowners at the controller. It is a summary, not legal advice, and cities do change their ordinances. Each section links to the city’s own page, and that page is the one that counts.

Why three sets of rules?

University Park and Highland Park are separate cities, often called the Park Cities, surrounded by Dallas. They do not buy water from Dallas Water Utilities. Both get their water from the Dallas County Park Cities Municipal Utility District, which draws from Grapevine Lake, according to the City of University Park’s water supply page. Each city writes its own conservation ordinance.

Preston Hollow, Bluffview, Greenway Parks, Devonshire and the M Streets are neighborhoods inside the City of Dallas, so they follow the Dallas ordinance. If you are not sure which city you are in, look at your water bill. It tells you who your provider is.

City of Dallas

The City of Dallas water conservation ordinance sets these limits for sprinklers and hose-end sprinklers:

Twice a week at most. Even-numbered addresses water on Sunday and Thursday. Odd-numbered addresses water on Wednesday and Saturday. Addresses without a number follow the even schedule.
No watering on Monday, Tuesday or Friday.
No sprinkler watering from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on any day of the year. This used to apply only from April through October. Dallas made it year-round in 2026, and a lot of controllers in Dallas neighborhoods are still set to the old rule.
Hand watering, soaker hoses and drip irrigation are allowed on any day and at any hour.
Automatic systems must have rain and freeze sensors installed.
No watering during rain, no spraying driveways, sidewalks or streets, and no runoff into the street or a drain.

Dallas lists fines of $250 to $2,000 per incident, with a warning on a first offense. The Dallas FAQ page also notes that irrigation professionals working on a system are exempt from the day and time limits while they are on site. That is why you may see a crew testing zones at noon on a Tuesday.

A quiet residential street under arching live oaks, with brick and limestone homes behind green lawns and grass parkways — Most of the Park Cities and the Dallas neighborhoods around them sit under the same heavy tree canopy, but not under the same water rules.

University Park

The City of University Park watering restrictions follow the same day pattern as Dallas: even addresses on Sunday and Thursday, odd addresses on Wednesday and Saturday, twice a week all year.

The daytime rule is where it differs. In University Park, the 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. limit on sprinklers runs from April 1 through October 31. Outside that window, the twice-a-week rule still applies, but the daytime ban does not.

Exempt from the schedule: hand watering with a hose, drip irrigation, soaker hoses and watering cans. The city also allows watering outside the schedule while a system is being repaired or tested, and for new landscaping in its first 30 days. Automatic systems need a freeze sensor, and sprinklers may not spray onto pavement or other hard surfaces.

The city’s Park Cities Water My Yard page points residents to a free weekly watering recommendation, which we come back to below.

Highland Park

The Town of Highland Park water conservation page sets the same day split: even addresses on Sunday and Thursday, odd addresses on Saturday and Wednesday. From April 1 through October 31, there is no sprinkler watering from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Hand watering and soaker hoses are allowed.

Highland Park also takes requests for a temporary variance from the twice-a-week schedule, through a form on the town website. That matters most when you are putting in new sod or a new bed.

The three side by side

	Dallas	University Park	Highland Park
Even address	Sun, Thu	Sun, Thu	Sun, Thu
Odd address	Wed, Sat	Wed, Sat	Sat, Wed
No sprinklers 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.	All year	April 1 to Oct 31	April 1 to Oct 31
Hand watering, soaker	Any time	Any time	Any time
Drip	Any time	Exempt	Check with the town

What “twice a week” means at the controller

Twice a week means two watering days, not two start times. On each allowed day, you can run every zone, and you can split each zone into several short cycles. That is not a loophole. It is how clay soil should be watered anyway, and we explain why in our cycle and soak article.

Where people get into trouble:

Too many start times. A controller with three programs from three past owners can easily water on a Tuesday. We see this every week.
Long schedules that spill past 10 a.m. A big Preston Hollow lot with fourteen zones at fifteen minutes each runs three and a half hours. Start it at 7 a.m. and you are breaking the Dallas rule by the end. Start earlier, or tighten the run times.
A dead rain sensor. The controller keeps running through a thunderstorm, and that is a visible violation from the street.
Heads hitting the street. A tilted parkway head throws water on the asphalt every cycle. That is waste under all three ordinances.

If any of those sound familiar, our controller and wiring repair page covers what we do about them.

New sod, new beds and variances

Every one of these cities expects you to water new sod more than twice a week while it roots. The way you are allowed to do it differs.

In Dallas, the FAQ says temporary variances are granted for new seed or sod, and you should be ready to show proof of purchase of the sod, seed and soil amendments. A few new shrubs or a single tree do not need a variance, because you can hand water, soak or drip them any day.

University Park’s ordinance allows new landscaping to be watered outside the schedule for its first 30 days. Highland Park handles it through its variance request form. We cover the actual watering pattern for new grass in how to water new sod.

A free weekly number: WaterMyYard

The rules tell you the most you can water. They do not tell you how much your lawn needs this week. For that, WaterMyYard, a program run with Texas A&M AgriLife, sends a weekly recommendation based on nearby weather station data. You give it your address and sprinkler type, and it tells you how many minutes to run, or whether to skip the week entirely. University Park promotes it for Park Cities residents.

In spring and fall, the recommendation is often “no water needed.” That is the most useful thing it does.

Close-up of a black pop-up rotor head throwing a single stream of water over St. Augustine grass — A rotor head on a residential lawn. Rotors put water down more slowly than spray heads and need longer run times to apply the same amount.

Setting the controller to stay legal

When we finish a repair, this is the checklist we run through on the controller:

Delete leftover programs. One program for lawn zones, one for bed or drip zones if needed. No mystery Program C.
Set watering days by day of the week, not “every third day.” Interval settings drift onto days you are not allowed to water.
Pick a start time early enough that the last zone finishes before 10 a.m. On large systems, that can mean a 4 a.m. start.
Break long lawn zones into two or three cycles with a soak break in between.
Confirm the rain sensor or weather connection actually stops the system. On a smart controller, check that the address and weather source are set.
Turn on a freeze sensor or a temperature cutoff if the controller supports one.
Write the schedule on a card inside the controller door.

A smart controller can handle most of this well, but only if someone sets the city, days and zone details correctly. Many we see were installed and never set up past the Wi-Fi password. If you are thinking about one, read about smart controllers and the Dallas rebate first, because the rebate only covers some addresses.

Neighborhood notes

If you live in University Park, your controller should follow the University Park schedule even if your landscaper’s other customers are all in Dallas. In Highland Park, the same goes for the town’s rules. For Preston Hollow and the other Dallas neighborhoods, the year-round 10-to-6 limit is the one most often missed.

If you want us to set it for you, it is part of every repair visit. And if you just want to know whether your schedule is legal, take a picture of the controller’s program screen and call us. We can usually tell you over the phone.