Fairfield, CT Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Section 91-5, in the Streets and Sidewalks chapter, targets vegetation growing on land or a sidewalk within the Town's right-of-way that adjoins a street, road, highway, or other public property. It does not impose an automatic height ceiling that a homeowner must self-enforce; rather, it requires the owner or possessor of that adjoining land to cut or mow bushes, hedges, weeds, thistles, and briars only after the Director of Public Works determines, and directs, that the growth constitutes a traffic or fire hazard or a public nuisance.

Once that direction issues, the owner has 10 days to comply. If the owner fails to act within that window, the Director of Public Works may have the Town perform the cutting and then charge the owner for the cost of the work. An unpaid charge becomes a lien against the property once the Town records a certificate of lien in the Town Clerk's Office, and that filing must happen within 60 days after the work is completed. Because the trigger is the Director's hazard-or-nuisance finding rather than a fixed inches-tall threshold, Fairfield's ordinance operates as a complaint- or inspection-driven abatement tool focused on street-frontage sight lines and fire risk, not a general residential lawn-height code covering an entire yard.