New York Fertilizer Law, Watering Restrictions, and Wetland Setbacks by Town

Statewide rules

The Nutrient Runoff Law

Environmental Conservation Law Article 17, Title 21 — in effect since January 1, 2012

"Lawn" means any non-crop land covered by grass; gardens, pasture, trees, shrubs, and turf farms are excluded.

New York's blackout is four months. Connecticut's phosphorus-only ban runs December 1 to March 15 — the Connecticut lawn rules by town has the full calendar — and Massachusetts has no calendar at all, relying on soil-test rules instead: the Massachusetts water restrictions and lawn rules by town.

Wetland setbacks: freshwater and tidal

Freshwater wetlands (ECL Article 24; 6 NYCRR Part 664): DEC regulates mapped freshwater wetlands and a 100-foot adjacent area around them; grading, filling, and clearing in the adjacent area need a DEC permit. Amendments enacted in 2022 and effective January 1, 2025 extend jurisdiction to unmapped wetlands of 12.4 acres or more, dropping to 7.5 acres on January 1, 2028, and to smaller wetlands of “unusual importance.”

Tidal wetlands (ECL Article 25; 6 NYCRR Part 661): DEC regulates tidal wetlands and an adjacent area extending up to 300 feet landward — 150 feet in New York City — bounded by the 10-foot elevation contour or a lawful, functional bulkhead.

Salt spray and sandy soil shape what survives near the water line, too — see the best sod for coastal lawns.

Town wetlands codes on Long Island and in Westchester add local setbacks on top of DEC's and often require Conservation Board or Trustees approval. The town rows below carry these where verified.

Watering days

New York has no statewide drought watering schedule comparable to Massachusetts'. Long Island's suppliers set the rules because the island sits on a sole-source aquifer: the Suffolk County Water Authority, Nassau's water districts, and dozens of village systems.

Suffolk County Water Authority odd-even watering guidance and any current restriction: verify at scwa.com. Nassau's districts publish the same kind of guidance district by district — verify with the supplier named on your bill.

Westchester and Hudson Valley towns draw from reservoirs and municipal systems and impose restrictions during declared droughts by local notice.

New sod needs water every day for roughly two weeks — here is what the first 14 days actually take. On Long Island that means working inside odd-even guidance from day one, and sod delivery across Long Island is scheduled with that in mind.

Long Island counties: where the calendar tightens

ECL 17-2105 lets counties go further than the state, and the three counties CT Sod serves most have. This is the table that decides whether a fall install gets starter fertilizer.

Suffolk's Department of Health Services also runs a Turf Management Course for landscape professionals under the same chapter; the next session was scheduled for September 16, 2026.

Hamptons clearing limits

In most of the state, how big the lawn gets is a budget question. On the East End it is a zoning question: East Hampton and Southampton cap how much of a residential lot may be cleared of native vegetation at all, and a new lawn counts as clearing.

East Hampton

Town Code 255-2-60, Residential District Provisions (added 2004, amended 2005 and 2007), caps the area of a residential lot that may be cleared of indigenous natural vegetation, scaled by lot size:

• Flag strips and driveway easements are excluded from lot area, and their driveway clearing is not counted.
• A native remnant counts as uncleared only if it was never cleared or, if revegetated, exceeds 400 square feet and is at least 10 feet wide.
• Any project requiring a building permit and additional clearing needs a survey with clearing lines and calculations before a certificate of occupancy.
• Removal of dead wood and non-native invasives is allowed.
• Lots in the Agricultural, Water Recharge, or Harbor Protection Overlay Districts follow those districts' own rules (255-3-60, 255-3-70), and a Natural Resources Special Permit (255-4-20) governs clearing near sensitive features.

Worked example: a one-acre lot (43,560 square feet) may clear 10,000 plus 10,890, about 20,890 square feet — so the house, driveway, pool, and patio come out of the same budget as the lawn. A two-acre lot gets about 31,780. A 6,000 square foot sod lawn on a one-acre East Hampton lot is legal only if the rest of the site's clearing leaves room for it. The Montauk and Water Mill lawns in our portfolio were laid inside envelopes like these.

Southampton

Chapter 330, Article XIIIA, Land Disturbance, regulates tree removal and grade changes beyond two-foot contours town-wide; the Aquifer Protection Overlay District carries clearing restrictions, and land disturbance above 50 percent of the natural vegetation on a site requires landscape plans stamped by a registered landscape architect (330-69.6A).

In May 2026 the Town Board held a third hearing on a new site disturbance permit that would require Department of Land Management review of any clearing or substantial regrading over 2,000 square feet on lots larger than a half acre outside groundwater protection areas, and of any clearing on undisturbed lots under a half acre. That permit was proposed as of May 2026; confirm whether it was adopted before you plan around it.

The Villages of East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Southampton, and the other East End villages have their own codes on top of the towns' — verify with the village before clearing inside village limits. Our Hamptons install crews work inside these limits every season.

Leaf blowers

No statewide rule. Several Long Island and Westchester villages and towns restrict gas leaf blowers seasonally — reported so far: Larchmont, Rye, Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, and Bronxville in Westchester; Southampton Village, East Hampton Village, and Huntington on Long Island. Treat every name on that list as reported; verify dates and hours with the municipality before scheduling work. The town rows below carry the same flag.

Dig Safely New York

Any excavation — and sod prep that strips an old lawn or regrades counts — requires notice to Dig Safely New York (811) at least two working days before the work. The call is free; skipping it is not.

Towns A to Z

17 towns and villages verified so far, newest batch September 3, 2026. Every other municipality in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess, and Orange follows the statewide rules above plus its water supplier's schedule — use the finder at the top of the page to check whether your town has been verified yet.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• NYSDEC, Lawn Fertilizer (NYS Nutrient Runoff Law)
• NYSDEC, FAQ for Lawn Fertilizer
• NYSDEC, Text of the Nutrient Runoff Law
• ECL 17-2103 (Justia)
• Suffolk County Code Chapter 459, Fertilizer
• Suffolk County Healthy Lawns, Clean Water
• East Hampton Town Trustees, Lawn Fertilizer
• Cornell, lawn soil test report guidance (county blackout dates)

The rules above describe a job done in the right order: the clearing and wetlands check before the design, the water supplier call before the sod order, starter fertilizer timed to the county calendar, and a crew that knows which villages let a blower run at all.

CT Sod delivers and installs across Long Island, the Hamptons, Westchester, and the Hudson Valley — sod installation across New York has the full map — and will walk through the fertilizer, watering, and permit questions for a specific address before a quote.