Tigard, OR Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Tigard Municipal Code § 6.02.020 is the rule a Tigard property owner meets first when planning a natural or meadow-style yard. Subsection A says no responsible party can allow noxious vegetation, as defined in § 6.01.020.M.1 through M.7, to be on the property or in the right-of-way abutting the property. Subsection B requires the responsible party to cut down or destroy grass, shrubbery, brush, bushes, weeds or other noxious vegetation as often as needed to prevent them from becoming unsightly or, in the case of weeds or other noxious vegetation, from maturing or from going to seed.

The definition in § 6.01.020 starts with weeds more than 10 inches high and grass more than 10 inches high. It also covers poison oak, poison ivy or similar vegetation, vegetation likely to cause fire, blackberry bushes that extend into a right-of-way or across a property line, and vegetation that is a health hazard or that impairs the view of the right-of-way. Paragraph 9 excludes vegetation that constitutes an agricultural crop unless it is a health, fire or traffic hazard. The definition prints no exception for native or meadow plantings.

Subsection C bans planting or allowing five named invasive plants: English ivy, giant hogweed, purple loosestrife, Japanese knotweed and Himalayan blackberry. Greenway easements follow § 6.02.040: land stays in its natural topographic condition and grass is kept cut to a height not exceeding 10 inches, except when some natural condition prevents cutting.

Native plants are named elsewhere in Title 18. Section 18.510.020.C exempts planting of native plant species and non-native vegetation removal from the sensitive lands provisions when performed under the direction of the city, and § 18.510.020.B.5 allows removal of poison oak, tansy ragwort, blackberry, English ivy, or other noxious vegetation with no approval required. Section 18.420.060.D.2.c gives preference in a discretionary urban forestry plan review to proposals that use native plant species in landscape design.