Lenexa, KS Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Article 3-5-G of the Lenexa City Code makes it unlawful for a property owner, or any person who occupies or controls a lot, to permit Excessive Growth of Vegetation or Noxious Weeds. The height numbers sit in the definitions section, § 3-5-I-7. Vegetation on a developed residential lot is excessive at more than eight inches (8”). Everywhere else in the City the line is more than twelve inches (12”). Height is measured above the ground, or by length along the stem if the plant is matted down. The definition also sweeps in bushes, shrubs, flowers and other plants, whether cultivated or uncultivated, when they are not readily distinguishable from the surrounding excessive growth, so a flower bed that has merged into a weedy strip is treated as part of the strip. Stream Corridor zones defined in Section 4-1-O-2 are carved out, but Noxious Weeds still count there.

The duty does not stop at the lot line. Section 3-5-G-1 reaches the area between the property lines and the center line of any adjacent street or alley, including sidewalks, easements and rights-of-way. For Article 3-5-G, a Property Owner is the named owner in Johnson County Department of Records and Tax Administration records and includes an owner of property abutting those streets, alleys and rights-of-way.

Enforcement starts with an Order to Abate under § 3-5-G-2. The Order gives the owner ten (10) days to cut, destroy or remove the growth and ten days to ask in writing for an administrative hearing. If the owner neither abates nor requests a hearing, the City or its contractor can cut the vegetation and assess the cost, plus a reasonable administrative fee, against the owner. Unpaid costs can become a special assessment on the property. Section 3-5-G-3 exempts certain natural-state and agricultural areas, but the owner carries the burden of proof and must supply written evidence within ten days of the Order.