Gwinnett County, GA Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Section 14-286(a) states the core rule plainly: premises and exterior property must be kept free of grass, weeds, or uncultivated vegetation over 12 inches tall. Two exceptions follow in the same subsection: any parcel zoned RA-200, the county's Agriculture-Residence District, that is larger than one acre, and any parcel in a single-family residential zoning classification larger than three acres. Subsection (b) adds a separate duty for property abutting a right-of-way: owners cannot let yard trimmings accumulate on a public street or sidewalk. Subsection (c) requires the unpaved portions of front yards to be maintained with grass, ground cover, or other landscaping sufficient to keep the soil from eroding.

The section, adopted by Ord. No. GCID 2023-0497 on June 6, 2023, sits in Article VII, Division 2 of Chapter 14, the county's Property Maintenance Ordinance, whose stated purpose under § 14-256 is protecting public health, safety, and general welfare, and whose scope under § 14-257 reaches every commercial, office, industrial, multifamily, and single-family structure and premises in the unincorporated county. The same article's transfer-of-ownership rule, § 14-260, keeps a cited property from changing hands, being mortgaged, or being leased until the violation is fixed or the new owner formally accepts responsibility for the correction in writing.