Charlottesville, VA Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Section 5-149 defines "weeds" broadly: any plant, grass, weed, brush or other herbaceous or woody vegetation, except trees, purposefully planted and maintained ornamental shrubbery, vegetable and flower gardens, cultivated crops, natural-state public recreational areas and trails, and streamside vegetation left to control erosion. Subsection (b)(1)(i) sets the eighteen-inch ceiling for any developed lot or parcel in the city; a companion clause, (b)(1)(ii), applies a narrower 150-foot buffer standard to undeveloped lots instead. The same section separately bars overhanging or dead limbs, branches or hedges that obstruct a street, sidewalk or alley, or threaten to fall on passersby, and declares both conditions public nuisances.

Enforcement runs through the director of Neighborhood Development Services: on finding a violation, the director serves written notice, by hand delivery, first-class mail to the address on the real estate tax records, or, for undeveloped land, posting on the property, giving the owner ten calendar days to cut, remove or otherwise abate the growth. If the condition is not corrected within that ten-day window, the director may have it abated directly and bill the property owner for the cost plus a seventy-five dollar administrative handling charge.

Charges unpaid after thirty days become a lien against the property, enforceable the same way as an unpaid local tax lien under § 5-4. A separate provision, § 5-155, imposes an additional year-round duty on owners and occupants abutting any public street right-of-way, including the strip between the sidewalk and curb, to keep grass and weeds cut there.