Bethlehem, PA Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

07 of the Codified Ordinances defines 'Noxious Weeds' as all grasses, annual plants and vegetation other than trees or shrubs, expressly carving out cultivated flowers and gardens. Subsection (b) sets the operative rule: no one owning or holding real estate may allow noxious weed growth over one foot high if the growth sits within 200 feet of any building or public right-of-way. The ordinance also requires that weeds cut to bring a property into compliance be physically removed from the lot at the time of cutting, not left to decompose in place.

09 lets the Bureau hire labor and buy materials to cut the growth itself, then certifies the cost plus a 20 percent penalty to the City Solicitor as a lien filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton or Lehigh County, whichever county the parcel sits in. 10 makes the property owner equally liable with any tenant for the violation and for the cost of any City-performed abatement. The current one-foot/200-foot rule traces to Ordinance 3130 (passed 7/21/1987), was amended by Ordinance 4045 (11/21/2000), and was most recently updated by Ordinance 2017-14 (4/18/2017), the same amendment that added the City's running-bamboo rules to the same section.