Kokomo, IN Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Section 95.01 defines a "weed" as any deleterious, unhealthful, or noxious vegetative growth, including trees, grass, shrubs, flowers, or vines, that is incompatible with surrounding vegetation, dangerous to public health and safety, or a nuisance to neighboring properties; "rank vegetation" is growth that has become profuse and unmanageable past the eight-inch threshold. Agricultural crops, including hay and pasture, are expressly excluded from the definition. Every owner of real property in the city, meaning whoever the Howard County Auditor's records show as responsible for property taxes, must cut and remove weeds and rank vegetation; renting the property to a tenant does not relieve the owner of that duty.

When the Department of Engineering, Traffic and Inspection Services finds a violation, it mails the owner a written notice by certified or first-class mail giving at least five days to cut and remove the growth. After an initial mailed notice, the city may instead post a continuous abatement notice at the property for each later violation in the same year. If the owner still does not comply, the city or its contractors may enter the property to cut the vegetation, then bill the owner by certified mail for the actual abatement cost plus administrative charges, payable to the City Controller.

Unpaid bills, after ten days, are certified to the Howard County Auditor and placed on the property's tax duplicate, collected as delinquent taxes; properties in a Special Flood Hazard Area under § 159.03 get added discretion before that certification after two unsuccessful collection attempts. An aggrieved landowner can appeal a notice or bill to the Kokomo Board of Public Works and Safety under § 95.02 by filing written objections within five days for notices, or ten days for bills, which triggers a hearing where the Board's decision is final.