Pottstown, PA Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

Pottstown amended the International Property Maintenance Code's weed provision through Section 302 of Chapter 5, Code Enforcement. 4 requires that all premises and exterior properties within 100 feet of any habitable structure or building be kept free from weeds taller than six inches, but it carves out an exception for naturalized areas, riparian buffers, managed meadows, and other no-mow zones the municipality designates. Even inside that exception, the same sentence flatly states that all noxious weeds are prohibited throughout any premises and exterior properties, so the height exemption never covers a species the state has flagged as noxious or invasive.

The zoning code supplies the standard for what counts: Section 1400's definition of MANAGED MEADOW requires that such an area be kept free of species identified in the most-recent Noxious Weed Control Law adopted by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and the most-recent Invasive Plant Species List promulgated by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, both of which the Borough expressly incorporates by reference rather than maintaining its own separate list. A managed meadow also cannot include woody trees and shrubs and must be composed primarily of native herbaceous plant material to qualify for the no-mow exemption at all.

Enforcement of the property maintenance provisions runs through the Licensing and Inspections Department under the adopted 2018 IPMC framework at Section 301, the same office that issues property maintenance and use-and-occupancy certificates elsewhere in Chapter 5.