Columbia, SC Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

The City of Columbia's Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), adopted August 20, 2019 and periodically revised, regulates which plant species may be used to satisfy the city's mandatory landscaping requirements under Article 5, Sec. 3, Landscaping. Subsection (c)(1), Species, sets three rules for material installed to meet the Ordinance's buffer yard, street protective yard, parking lot, or general site landscaping requirements. First, vegetation must be adapted to site conditions, with native, drought-tolerant plants 'encouraged' but not mandatory to cut irrigation dependency. Second, and controlling here: 'the use of species identified as invasive plant pest species by the South Carolina Exotic Pest Plant Council is prohibited' (Sec.

3(c)(1)b). 3(c)(3) to curb disease and insect spread. Because the ban is embedded in the general landscaping standards, it reaches every context where the UDO requires planting: transitional buffer yards between incompatible land uses (Sec. 3(d)) and street protective yards along public rights-of-way (Sec. 3(e)). Landscaping required by this Section must be installed before a Certificate of Occupancy issues (Sec. 3(c)(1)a), so a plan naming a Pest Plant Council species is caught at permitting review, not left to after-the-fact inspection. Existing vegetation may count toward the requirement if it is in fair or better condition and protected during construction (Sec.

3(c)(2)), but that credit does not let an already-present invasive specimen satisfy the requirement. The rule governs new required plantings tied to development approvals; it does not create a citywide mandate to remove pre-existing invasive plants outside that landscaping-plan context.