Bartow County, GA Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Bartow County Code § 18-557 forbids a lot owner, occupant, or their agent or representative from permitting or maintaining any growth of undesirable vegetation, or an accumulation of weeds, trash, junk, filth, or other unsanitary, unsafe, or unfit conditions, that endangers public health or creates a general nuisance rendering adjacent real estate unsafe or inimical to safe human habitation. The article defines undesirable vegetation at § 18-554 as plants that, due to their natural growth characteristics, negatively affect public safety, health, or welfare by promoting rodents, dangerous wild animals, or infestations of mosquitoes, fleas, insects, or other vermin.

A violation is investigated the same way as any other unfit-property complaint under § 18-558: a public authority, or at least five residents, can file a request that triggers an investigation by the code enforcement officer, who may also inspect based on his own information. Because § 18-557 sits inside Article III, Unfit Property, rather than in the county's separate zoning ordinance, its reach covers both residential and non-residential lots in unincorporated Bartow County per § 18-553(b), whether occupied, vacant, developed, or undeveloped, and enforcement can proceed through citation or, for a persistent violation, the in rem court process described at § 18-558.