East Brunswick, NJ Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

East Brunswick Township Code § 166-10, Maintenance of Landscaping, sits inside Chapter 166, the Property Maintenance Code. The opening sentence requires premises to be kept so that lawns, hedges and bushes are trimmed and kept from becoming overgrown. Subsection A supplies the number: turf grass and weeds cannot exceed 10 inches in height, and they cannot exceed 10 inches in length if matted down over twenty five percent of the grassed area on the subject property. Subsection B requires shrubs and trees to be trimmed so they do not impair the vision of pedestrians on sidewalks or of vehicular traffic and do not impede pedestrian movement. Subsection C carves out heavily wooded properties, which can be maintained in a natural state.

Under § 166-3.1, the Zoning and Code Enforcement Officer, or a designee within the East Brunswick Department of Planning & Engineering, administers the Property Maintenance Code. Whenever the township gives written notice of a property maintenance problem, the notice has to be signed by that officer, identify the offending condition with specificity, give an opportunity to cure within a reasonable time specified with certainty, include photographic or other visual evidence, and state that failure to cure can lead to a summons and other remedies available to the Township.

Chapter 61 adds a separate removal track for overgrowth. Under § 61-1 the Chief of Public Safety, a designee or the Code Enforcement Officer can order the owner or tenant of any lands in the township to remove brush, weeds and obnoxious growth within ten (10) days after written notice. If the owner ignores the order, a private contractor does the work under the Code Enforcement Officer's direction and the certified cost becomes a lien added to the taxes under § 61-4. Land abutting public roads, sidewalks and gutters carries a shorter clock: grass, weeds and impediments come out within three (3) days after notice under § 61-5.