Middletown, OH Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

06(a) of the Middletown Code of Ordinances carves out an exception to the city's six-inch weed law: an owner, occupant, or person in control of a lot may maintain native vegetation in a planned landscape instead of mowing it down. The process starts with a landscape plan submitted to the Development Code Administrator, who reviews it for conformity with the section before issuing a planned landscape certificate; that certificate can be reviewed and revoked later if the area stops meeting the rules. Two numeric limits apply to every certified area: the native vegetation must stay at least ten feet back from all public rights-of-way, including sidewalks, and from adjacent property lines, and it cannot cover more than fifty percent of the property.

The code is explicit that the point is a managed prairie planting, not an excuse to let a yard go wild: growth that becomes an unmanaged health hazard, or that hides accumulated trash creating a breeding ground for pests, defeats the purpose of the certificate. 06(a)(3) lists roughly sixty permitted species by scientific and common name, from Purple Coneflower and Butterflyweed to Big Blue Stem and Prairie Dropseed, and the Bulls Run Arboretum is named the final arbiter of any plant identification dispute. 06(b) lets the Public Works & Utilities Director maintain city-owned public land as a natural landscape without going through the certificate process at all.