Madera County, CA Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Madera County actively regulates overgrown and dry vegetation through a formal Weed Abatement ordinance in Madera County Code Title 7 (Health and Sanitation), Chapter 7.26, applying to vacant, undeveloped, and improved lots in the unincorporated areas. The County has declared that the growth and accumulation of weeds in the unincorporated areas poses a fire, safety, and public-health risk and is a seasonal, recurring nuisance. The program runs on a fixed annual cycle administered by the Madera County Fire Department. Each year, the Fire Department mails affected property owners a notice on or before March 1, and the nuisance must be abated on or before May 1. The Fire Chief has discretion to extend the May 1 deadline, but only if notice of the new deadline is published at least once a week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, with the first publication no later than April 20. Required clearance is a thirty-foot strip from each property line and street frontage on vacant lots, and a thirty-foot strip around the exterior of improvements on improved lots; improved lots under three acres may instead mow the whole lot to within one-half inch to one inch of the ground. If an owner fails to abate by May 1, a $250 fine is assessed against the property, plus the County's costs of abating the nuisance and all administrative fees; once approved by the Board of Supervisors, those charges become a special assessment for weed-abatement costs collected on the property tax roll.