Allentown, PA Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

Chapter 135, Abandoned Real Property; Blight, requires mortgagees to register a property with the Bureau of Building Standards and Safety within 10 days of a mortgage default inspection, and it sets maintenance standards for those registered properties in § 135-6. Subsection D lists what counts as acceptable yard maintenance: grass, ground covers, bushes, shrubs, hedges or similar plantings, decorative rock or bark, or artificial turf or sod designed specifically for residential installation. The same subsection draws the line on what is not acceptable: weeds, gravel, broken concrete, asphalt, or similar material do not satisfy the maintenance standard, even though gravel might otherwise look like a low-maintenance substitute for grass.

Subsection E requires that whatever ground cover is used, including turf, be watered, irrigated, cut, mowed, and kept free of trimmings, so installed turf still has to be kept in usable condition rather than left to accumulate debris. Failure to meet these yard standards is enforceable the same way as the rest of Chapter 135: the Code Enforcement Officer, a Magisterial District Judge, or a court of competent jurisdiction can find a violation and issue a citation or notice of violation, and registration itself carries a nonrefundable $200 fee under § 135-13.

This chapter applies specifically to properties that have entered mortgage default and been placed on the City's vacant-property registry, not to every residential yard citywide, so the artificial-turf allowance is tied to that registration status rather than a general landscaping permit.