Jackson County, GA Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

Jackson County's Unified Development Code addresses invasive species directly in its landscaping general provisions: invasive or potentially invasive plants are prohibited on any site subject to a tree protection and landscaping plan (§ 1250(b)). The rule sits inside the broader purpose clause for the county's buffer, tree protection and landscaping article, which states that environmentally sound landscaping means restricting invasive and potentially invasive species because they can cause severe economic and environmental harm, including crop damage and degradation of native habitats, and can engender significant control costs (§ 1211).

The same general-provisions section pushes development toward native plants, discourages more than 25 percent of any one species on a site, bars artificial plants, trees or vegetation outright, and requires all landscaping to meet ANSI A300 standards unless the Public Development Department approves otherwise (§ 1250). Compliance is checked at the permit stage: every tree protection and landscaping plan submitted for a land-disturbance, development or building permit must be prepared and stamped by a registered landscape architect, include a planting schedule identifying every species by Latin and common name, and draw only from species the public development director has approved on the county's landscape planting list unless that department authorizes a substitute (§§ 1256, 1258).

A plan showing an invasive species, or any species outside the approved list without department sign-off, can be rejected or held pending revision before a building permit issues, and a landscape architect's stamp does not excuse noncompliance discovered at inspection.