Minnehaha County, SD Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Minnehaha County has not codified any ordinance regulating native, prairie, or pollinator landscaping on private residential lots. SDCL Chapter 11-2 county zoning leaves yard composition substantially unregulated outside building setback, lot coverage, and stormwater constraints. The substantive statewide constraint that does bite is SDCL Chapter 38-22 (Weed and Pest Control): every landowner — regardless of intended landscape style — must control the 11 state-listed noxious weeds, so a deliberately unmown prairie restoration must still be kept free of Canada thistle, leafy spurge, perennial sow thistle, hoary cress, Russian knapweed, purple loosestrife, salt cedar, absinth wormwood, plumeless thistle, musk thistle, and yellow toadflax. The County Weed Supervisor (SDCL 38-22-14) can require treatment regardless of whether the planting is intended as native landscape. Inside Sioux Falls, the city's tall-grass ordinance under Title 96 applies — Sioux Falls historically accommodates managed natural landscapes through a documented landscape plan, but unmown areas can still draw nuisance complaints. Other Minnehaha municipalities each set their own approach. The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department and DANR Forestry Division publish voluntary native-plant guidance but have no rulemaking authority over residential yard design. Homeowners' associations in unincorporated subdivisions may set stricter aesthetic CC&Rs, enforceable as private contract — South Dakota has no statute analogous to the Florida or Colorado xeriscape-protection laws that would override an HOA ban on native landscaping.