"What are the watering rules in York Region?" is one of the most-asked questions every spring. The honest answer: there isn't one rule — there are nine, one per lower-tier municipality. The Region supplies the water; your city or township writes the bylaw that governs what you can do with it. Here's how that works, what most of those nine bylaws have in common, and how a smart sprinkler controller solves compliance automatically.
The two-tier system, in one diagram.
York Region is structured in two layers of government, and they each handle a different part of the water story.
Regional Municipality of York
Sources, treats, and supplies water across the upper tier. Coordinates drought response. Declares progressive water-conservation stages when supply is stressed. Operates the regional water-conservation programs (water-efficient landscaping rebates, etc.).
Your lower-tier town / city / township
Writes and enforces the actual water-use bylaw. Sets the odd/even rule, the time-of-day window, the exemptions for drip and hand-watering, the new-sod permit process, and the fine schedule for non-compliance. Adopts and enforces the Region's drought-stage restrictions when declared.
What this means in practice: if you live in Newmarket and your neighbour lives in East Gwillimbury, you might be governed by slightly different rules even though you both buy water from the same regional system. That's not unusual — it's how York Region has always worked.
"Most of the homeowners we talk to assume there's one set of York Region watering rules. There isn't. They're surprised when we mention that the Newmarket bylaw is technically different from the Aurora one — even though they're 10 minutes apart. The differences are usually small, but they exist."
What most York Region bylaws have in common.
Despite the patchwork, the structure across the nine municipalities is consistent. Almost every water-use bylaw in York Region is built on the same foundation:
Odd/even-day watering
Houses with odd-numbered addresses water on odd calendar days. Even on even days. Splits the load on the regional supply across the week.
Peak-hour restrictions
Most municipalities prohibit watering during the hottest part of the day (typically late morning through early evening) when evaporation is highest and demand on the supply spikes.
Drip / hand-watering exemptions
Drip irrigation, soaker hoses, and hand-held watering with a shut-off device are usually exempt from the day-of-week and time-of-day rules. They use far less water and don't waste any to overspray.
New-sod / new-landscape exemptions
Newly-installed sod and freshly-planted landscape projects can usually be watered outside the schedule for a defined establishment period (often 2-4 weeks). Most municipalities require a permit.
Drought-stage escalation
When the Region declares a drought stage, the local bylaw activates progressively stricter restrictions — first voluntary cuts, then mandatory limits, then outright bans on outdoor water use.
Fines for non-compliance
Most municipalities follow a warning-then-escalating-fine pattern. Specific amounts vary — check your bylaw. Repeat offences and watering during a drought-stage ban carry the steepest penalties.
This is the structure. The specifics — exact hour windows, exact fine amounts, exact exemption details — vary between municipalities and change year to year. Always check your municipality's current bylaw text before relying on a general summary.
Find your municipality's bylaw.
Each card below links to the official municipal home page. Search "water use bylaw" or "lawn watering schedule" once you're there — most municipalities publish current rules on their environmental services or public works pages.
Newmarket
→Town of Newmarket — central York Region.
newmarket.caAurora
→Town of Aurora — south of Newmarket.
aurora.caKing (incl. King City)
→Township of King — King City, Schomberg, Nobleton.
king.caRichmond Hill
→City of Richmond Hill — south-central York.
richmondhill.caVaughan
→City of Vaughan — Maple, Woodbridge, Thornhill (west).
vaughan.caMarkham
→City of Markham — Unionville, Cornell, Thornhill (east).
markham.caWhitchurch-Stouffville
→Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville — eastern York Region.
townofws.caEast Gwillimbury
→Town of East Gwillimbury — north of Newmarket.
eastgwillimbury.caGeorgina
→Town of Georgina — Lake Simcoe shoreline, far north.
georgina.caYork Region
→Regional Municipality — drought-stage declarations & water-conservation programs.
york.caA note on links: These point to official municipal home pages. Bylaw locations within each site vary and change. If a deep link is broken, search the site for "water use bylaw" or "lawn watering" — the rules are always there, just sometimes moved.
Drought-stage escalation — how restrictions tighten.
York Region monitors water-supply conditions across the upper tier and can declare progressive drought stages when supply is stressed. When a stage is declared, individual municipalities adopt and enforce the corresponding restrictions through their bylaws. The pattern is consistent across most municipalities:
Stage 1 — Reduce
Voluntary water-use reduction. Public messaging asks residents to cut outdoor water use. No penalties yet, but a signal that restrictions may be coming.
Stage 2 — Restrict
Mandatory restrictions on outdoor water use. Standard odd/even and time-of-day rules tighten. Penalties for non-compliance start applying.
Stage 3 — Ban
Outright ban on most outdoor water use. Lawn watering prohibited entirely. Drip and hand-watering exemptions may be reduced or withdrawn. Significant fines.
The exact thresholds for moving between stages, the exact rules at each stage, and the exact fine amounts are set by the Region and by each municipality. The pattern above is the framework — verify the current stage and rules with your municipality and the Region before drawing conclusions.
How a smart controller automates compliance.
Most non-compliance we see isn't deliberate. It's a homeowner whose mechanical timer is still running the same schedule from 2018, who didn't know the municipality changed the watering window, who isn't checking the Region's drought stage every week. A smart controller solves all of that.
- Odd/even compliance: Hydrawise can be programmed with the odd/even rule for your address, automatically scheduling runs only on the days your bylaw allows.
- Peak-hour avoidance: Schedule pre-dawn watering (4-7 a.m.) which falls outside virtually every municipal peak-hour restriction and beats evaporation losses by 30-40%.
- Weather-skip: Hydrawise pulls real-time forecast data and skips runs when rain is forecast — exactly the behaviour municipalities encourage even when restrictions aren't active.
- Drought-stage adaptation: If the Region moves to Stage 1 or Stage 2, you reprogram the schedule once in the app and the system stays compliant for the rest of the season.
- Drip-zone exemption: If you have drip zones for beds, vegetable gardens or trees, those zones can typically continue to run on a normal schedule even when spray zones are restricted (verify with your municipality).
The compliance angle is one reason every PJL install ships with Hunter Hydrawise as standard. The water-savings angle (typically 30-40% over a generic timer) is the other.
Want compliance handled automatically?
A Hydrawise smart controller programs to your municipality's rules once and stays compliant for the season. retrofit from $595 by zone count on existing systems, included as standard on every new PJL install.
See Hydrawise detailsThe bottom line
One Region, nine municipalities, nine bylaws. The structure is consistent — odd/even days, peak-hour restrictions, drip exemptions, drought escalation — but the specifics live at the municipal level. Find your municipality, read their current bylaw, and program your controller to match. Or skip the homework: book a Hydrawise retrofit, give us your municipality and address, and we'll set up the schedule to match local rules. Call (905) 960-0181.