My city passed such a stupid law after I moved in, luckily like many such nanny laws they don't apply to my house as I'm in the rural residential section of town and our representative is very good about adding language excepting us from such stupidity.
Now as far as using another part of your yard, of it's not flat I can recommend railroad ties and 10" anchor screws to hold back 3/4 minus stone. My side yard is so steep that it drops over 20" over 12', I was able to make it level using 4 layers of ties and a 14 ton load of stone, total cost was like $600.