Cocoa, FL Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Cocoa's property-maintenance code puts a hard number on overgrown yards. Sec. 6-901 requires every owner, agent, custodian, lessee and occupant of real property in the city to cut and keep weeds, grass and underbrush at no more than twelve inches, and to clear trash, debris, refuse and junked appliances from the lot. Sec. 6-1001(d) repeats the twelve-inch ceiling under the general property-maintenance article and separately bans noxious weeds outright, defining weeds as grasses, annual plants and other vegetation apart from trees, shrubs, cultivated flowers and gardens.

Large parcels get a narrower duty: an owner of more than five contiguous acres under common ownership only has to mow a hundred-foot-wide strip along any public street, drainage or utility easement, or wherever the land touches occupied property, while clearing trash and debris from the whole tract. Uncut growth beyond that limit is a declared nuisance under Sec. 6-900. Enforcement starts with a code enforcement officer's notice to abate, served by hand delivery where possible or by certified mail, giving the owner ten days to cut the lot or appeal to the code enforcement board.

If the ten days pass without action, city crews or a contractor cut the property, and the cost of that work plus a one-hundred-dollar administrative fee is billed to the owner and becomes an assessment lien against the parcel, collectible the same way the city forecloses unpaid tax liens.