Union County, NC Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

Article 55, Section 55.100 of the Union County Unified Development Ordinance (effective October 6, 2014, amended through 07.01.2021) governs materials, maintenance and design for required landscaping and screening in unincorporated Union County, outside every town's corporate limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction. Its "Tree and Plant Species" clause disqualifies any species on NCDOT's Invasive Exotic Plants of North Carolina list from being credited toward the article's landscaping and screening counts, whether the requirement comes from perimeter parking lot landscaping, land use buffers, or screening around equipment. The same section requires all qualifying trees and plants to be well-suited to on-site soil and rated for survival in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 7b, and to meet American Standard for Nursery Stock (ANSI Z60.1) specifications.

It separately bars substituting artificial plants, trees, or other artificial vegetation for any required planting, and requires ground cover, not mulch alone, on any required landscape area not planted in trees and shrubs. The property owner bears responsibility for maintaining and protecting all required landscaping, and Section 55.100 states plainly that failure to maintain it is itself a violation of the ordinance. A related discretionary provision in Article 55's tree preservation rules lets the permit-issuing authority waive the tree-replacement mitigation requirement when removed trees are diseased, dying, or of an invasive or undesirable species, but that waiver is separate from the landscaping-credit ban in Section 55.100.