Knoxville, TN Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

Knoxville requires a landscape plan as part of site plan review for multi-family and townhouse development, nonresidential and mixed-use development, parking lots, and planned developments, and that plan has to clear the plant-selection standards in Article 12. Species must be able to survive and thrive in East Tennessee, drawn where possible from the City of Knoxville's Tree List, with native and drought-tolerant species specifically encouraged. The same section then states the prohibition outright: invasive species are barred. An identical line appears in the article's purpose statement. The rule reaches projects that trigger a required landscape plan; it does not separately regulate ordinary single-family yard planting outside that review.