Apple Valley, MN Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

A protective buffer zone under § 152.57 is the strip between the water body edge and a line parallel to it upland. The width is 16.5 feet for properties abutting Alimagnet, Farquar, Lac Lavon, Long, Keller and Scout Lakes, and for any stormwater pond that was not built in or on a pre-existing wetland. Natural and replacement wetlands take the width shown on the city's wetland map held by the Public Works Department, or the width set by the wetland's ranking in the city's Surface Water Management Plan. The section applies to property in plats or natural resources management permit (NRMP) applications filed on or after its effective date. It does not apply where the project creates no more than 0.2 acres of new impervious surface or sends no runoff toward the abutting water body.

Where the buffer already holds a continuous growth of perennial vegetation confirmed by city inspection, that vegetation stays, with erosion corrected and weeds and rank vegetation removed as the city requires. Where it does not, the owner must establish a native plant buffer. The establishment plan lists the plants or seed mix, the installation method, replanting or reseeding if establishment does not take, a planting diagram, all materials used and a stormwater pollution prevention plan. Section 152.02 defines a native plant as one whose original source is no further than 300 miles for trees and shrubs, or 200 miles for all other plants, from the site of planting. A cultivar derived from native plants does not count.

Once a buffer exists, the owner or occupant cannot mow, burn, plow, graze, apply pesticide or fertilizer, or introduce non-native species without written city approval. Approval covers pulling or spot-treating noxious weeds, removing diseased or hazardous plants, managed mowing, burning and chemical application to maintain a healthy native plant community, native plantings that enhance the buffer, and pervious multi-purpose trails that keep ten feet of buffer from the water body edge. Structures, retaining walls, impervious surface, dumped yard waste or soil, and installed beaches, rocks or boulders are barred. The city holds a security until the buffer has been established for no less than 18 months or two growing seasons, and a recorded document at the Dakota County Recorder's Office preserves the buffer in perpetuity.

Elsewhere in the city, § 94.36 requires every property owner to cut and prevent growth of weeds, grasses and rank vegetation or other uncontrolled plant growth in excess of eight inches in height. The exemption names natural areas defined as woods, pastures, parks, bogs, marshes, and agricultural areas. It does not name residential yards or gardens.