Victorville | Desert Design and Site Rules

Victorville Desert Design and Site Rules: Joshua Trees, Climate, Flood Plain, Highway Noise and Landscaping

Victorville sits in the High Desert of San Bernardino County, and its code says so in several places: a rule on Joshua trees, a building design table for wind, frost and heat, a flood plain district along the Mojave River, sound walls on two state highways, and landscape rules built around rock and water-wise plants. Each of these can change what fits on a lot or what a project costs. This page collects them, along with the walls and design rules that apply to new homes. The Victorville overview gives the short version.

Joshua Trees and the State Housing Routes

Section 16-3.08.050, which carries out SB 9, SB 684 and SB 1123, lists site conditions that remove a lot from those fast routes. One of them is unique to the desert: "Habitat for protected species including properties containing one or more Western Joshua Trees." On such a lot, "All existing discretionary review processing and zoning requirements shall apply." In plain terms, a second home or a small-lot map there goes through the normal process with its hearings and environmental review, where one exists for that project type. ADUs are handled under a different section and are not on this list.

The same list removes prime farmland, wetlands, land under a conservation easement, a hazardous waste site unless it has been cleaned up, an earthquake fault zone unless the project meets the seismic building rules, flood hazard areas and floodways unless a small-lot project can address the concern, and land "Within a very high fire hazard severity zone, unless fire safety risks are adequately mitigated." Ordinance No. 2455, adopted June 3, 2025, adopted a Fire Hazard Severity Zone Map; the Code Comparative Table lists it as omitted from the printed code, so check the map itself with the City. The single-family design guidelines also name Joshua trees among the plants that "will evoke the high-desert's natural environment" in landscaping.

Climate and Building Design

Section 16-5.04.040 fills in Table R301.2 of the California Residential Code for Victorville. That table gives the local weather and ground figures an engineer must design to.

Source: Victorville Municipal Code Sec. 16-5.04.040.

The Seismic Design Category is the earthquake design class a structural engineer uses for the framing, bracing and foundation of a new building; Victorville's is E. The frost line is how deep footings must go to sit below ground that freezes. The table marks no special wind region and no windborne debris zone. Wind-powered generators need a conditional use permit and a building site of at least one acre in AE, S-R and R-1, and are not allowed in R-2, R-3 or R-4. Solar panels are permitted in every district, and the single-family design guidelines call for "all residential projects over one hundred units to generate electricity on site through solar power, to the maximum extent feasible."

The Mojave River and Flood Areas

Table 7-1 says "All areas of the City zoned FP are within the Mojave River, which does not allow for any permanent development with the exception of flood control structures." Grazing, crops and other open uses may be allowed with the City and the San Bernardino County Flood Control District. Article 13 divides the flood plain into "Zone FP-1, designated floodway," the channel and nearby land the flood needs to pass, and "Zone FP-2, restrictive zone," where "depths and velocities are generally low."

Outside the FP district, Article 16 of Chapter 5 applies to every special flood hazard area on the federal flood maps. A new home or a "substantial improvement," which the code defines as work costing at least fifty percent of the building's market value, must have its lowest floor at or above the base flood elevation. The base flood is "a flood which has a one percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year." In an AO zone the floor must sit above the highest adjacent grade by the depth number on the flood map, or by two feet where the map shows none. Section 16-5.04.040 notes that the City "initially entered the National Flood Insurance Program December 1, 1987" and lists eleven flood maps "all current as of September 2, 2016."

Highways 18 and 395: Sound Barriers

Section 16-3.08.035 applies to residential developments along Highway 18 (Palmdale Road) and Highway 395. The applicant must set up or join a Landscape Maintenance Assessment District (LMAD), a district that charges owners for the landscaping it maintains, and build a landscaped sound barrier:

• "The sound barrier shall be 30-feet wide measured from edge of highway right-of-way."
• A six-foot high decorative wall on top of a five-foot high dirt berm, with slopes no steeper than three feet across for each foot of rise.
• "All single-family and multi-family residential units within 150 feet of the right-of-way of Highways 18 and 395 shall be limited to one-story only unless the required noise study determines alternative noise mitigation."
• A noise study with the application, showing how indoor noise will stay below a Community Noise Equivalent Level (CNEL), a 24-hour average noise level, of 45 dB, and outdoor noise behind the barrier below 65 dB.
• Landscaping and irrigation installed before a certificate of occupancy for any home, with the applicant paying all costs.

Walls and Fences

Section 16-3.08.030 requires "six-foot high masonry block walls" along the perimeter of new residential developments and subdivisions, including interior side and rear project lines and street frontages without homes facing them, and along all street side yards in a single-family subdivision. Walls between lots inside a subdivision are required when the same developer builds two or more homes at once. Walls are not needed along lot lines next to open space. Razor wire and barbed wire are banned everywhere, chain link on any new multi-family development, and chain link in front and street side yards of single-family lots in districts with lots under half an acre. The design guidelines add that walls along assessment district landscaping need pilasters, which are wall columns, no more than one hundred feet apart.

Desert Landscaping

Sources: Victorville Municipal Code Sec. 16-3.24.030 and Sec. 16-3.08.090(e).

The landscape standards apply to "small tract lots," single-family lots under half an acre in a recorded tract, where the building permit for the house was issued after January 20, 2015. Older small tract lots keep their landscaping but must avoid exposed dirt and may have up to 75 percent rock at plant maturity. Front yards converted to drought tolerant landscaping "must permanently remain drought tolerant." Apartment sites follow a different rule: decorative rock may cover no more than 25 percent of the landscape area, the plan must include ground covers, shrubs, trees and turf, and each site needs two 24-inch box trees for each half acre.

Chapter 13.60, Water Efficient Landscaping, applies only to "designated water users," which it defines as customers "served by a water purveyor (other than the Victorville Water District)." Customers of the Victorville Water District follow the district's own conservation ordinance. For designated water users, new residential developments "shall limit water-intensive landscape and turf area" to ten percent of a lot of nine thousand square feet or less, and on larger lots up to one acre to ten percent of the first nine thousand square feet plus five percent of the rest. "Water-intensive landscape or turf shall only be located in rear yards."

Design Rules for New Houses

• Roofs. "Asphalt roof shingles are prohibited with the concurrent construction of two or more houses by the same developer." Rooftop equipment must be screened.
• Styles. The guidelines list styles that suit the desert, starting with "Mid-Century Modem/Desert Modem" (the code's spelling of Modern) and "Desert Prairie," along with Craftsman, Cottage, Spanish and Ranch styles.
• Porches. "A minimum of fifty percent of all dwellings within a housing tract shall include a front porch and/or front second story balcony," at least six feet deep, and porches of at least seventy-five square feet.
• Driveways. A primary driveway may be nine to eighteen feet wide at the property line, or twenty-four feet for a street-facing three-car garage. A secondary driveway for an RV may be up to fourteen feet wide.
• Variety. A matching floor plan and elevation "should be separated by three lots," and tracts need a set number of floor plans and elevations by size. Tract developers "shall utilize licensed architects for the landscaping and residential dwelling design."
• Lots. "Through lots, flag lots and reverse frontage lots are prohibited."

The guidelines say "Where mandatory language is used, such as 'shall' or 'will', these guidelines are mandatory," while "may" and "should" are guidance for the reviewing body. Developments with fewer than five homes "shall consist of custom exterior designs," reviewed by the Zoning Administrator.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the Victorville overview, the property tax, fire zones and insurance page and the energy code page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)