Sacramento County, CA Landscaping Rules: Grass Height Limits (2026)

There is no single ordinance setting a maximum height for a healthy, maintained lawn in unincorporated Sacramento County the way some cities cap turf at a set number of inches. Instead, two County mechanisms apply. First, the property-maintenance nuisance provisions in County Code Title 16, Chapter 16.18 (Nuisances) treat dead or dying vegetation as a violation: vegetation that is completely dead, over twelve inches in height, and covering more than fifty percent of the front or side yard visible from any street is declared a nuisance, as is vegetation overgrown into the public right-of-way at least twelve inches. Owners must irrigate, mow, and trim plant materials and remove overgrown, dead, diseased, or decaying growth. Second, during fire season the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District enforces weed abatement (see weed-ordinances): on residential parcels under one-half acre, weeds must be cut to no more than one inch in height and the cuttings removed. So a green, watered lawn left somewhat long is generally not itself a violation, but a tall, dried, dead, or weedy yard can trigger nuisance abatement, code enforcement, or fire-district action. Enforcement is complaint-driven; for unincorporated areas residents call 311.