Commerce City, CO Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Section 6-2012 of the Revised Municipal Code, adopted by Ordinance No. 2268 in April 2021, sets the maintenance duty separately for developed and undeveloped land. Any developed property, and any property of one acre or less regardless of development status, must keep weeds and grass no taller than eight inches "anywhere on or within the extended property." The code defines "extended property" to include the owner's lot plus the adjacent public right-of-way from the property line to the street centerline, so a homeowner is responsible for the strip between the sidewalk and the curb as well as the yard.

Undeveloped land larger than one acre gets a looser sixteen-inch limit on the parcel itself, with the tighter eight-inch limit still applying to any adjoining right-of-way. Four narrow carve-outs exist: ornamental grasses, wetlands, native grasses and other plants on the city's approved plant list, and farmed right-of-way strips that have grown commercial crops for three straight years, are larger than an acre, and have no curb, gutter or sidewalk. Section 6-1003 classifies a violation of this chapter as a civil infraction, prosecuted in municipal court or through the city's administrative hearing process, proved by a preponderance of the evidence unless incarceration is on the table for a repeat offender.

Under section 6-1004, the city manager or a peace officer can abate an overgrown lot without prior notice or a hearing when it sits on public property or poses an imminent danger, then recover the abatement cost plus a fifteen percent administrative fee through the collection process in section 3-2103. Where the chapter sets no dollar figure of its own, the citywide general penalty in Section 1-5 controls: up to a three-hundred-dollar fine, up to ninety days in jail, or both, with each day the violation continues counted as a separate offense.