Iowa City, IA Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

Section 14-5I-6 governs development in and around wetlands the city has determined are jurisdictional, with the stated purpose of preserving stormwater retention, water quality, wildlife habitat and flood control benefits. Any sensitive areas development plan touching a regulated wetland must include a wetland mitigation plan under subsection C, and subsection E requires an undisturbed one-hundred-foot natural buffer around a regulated wetland, with the base zone's own setback measured outward from the edge of that buffer, so, for example, a zone with a twenty-foot rear setback keeps buildings and parking at least one hundred twenty feet from the wetland itself.

Subsection F's design standards prohibit grading, dredging, clearing, filling or draining within a regulated wetland or its buffer unless the work is part of an approved mitigation plan or an expressly allowed use, and specifically bar planting foreign or invasive species, including intrusive native varieties, in either the wetland or the buffer, limiting supplemental planting to nonintrusive native species. The rule cuts only one way: removing foreign or invasive species already present in a regulated wetland or buffer may be permitted, but only as part of a wetland mitigation plan the city has approved, so a property owner cannot pull invasives on their own initiative without going through that review. S. Army Corps of Engineers or a qualified wetland specialist before a sensitive areas development plan can be submitted.