New Bedford, MA Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Section 22-18 requires every owner of land abutting a street or public place to remove grass, bushes, weeds, and other plant growth (city-approved street trees excepted) that has spread directly over any bricked, blacktopped, cement, cobbled, paved, or slated sidewalk, and from the strip of street where the sidewalk or curb meets the roadway. That clearing duty runs within 72 hours of written notice from any of a long list of named city officials: a building inspector, fire prevention inspector, health inspector, police officer, traffic meter person, forestry division head, or the public infrastructure department commissioner (or their designated representatives).

Separately, the same 72-hour clock applies once any of that plant growth exceeds three inches in height anywhere on the lot, again triggered by written notice from the same officials. Notice can be served in hand to an individual, or for commercial, industrial, or trust property, to whoever city records list as the current owner, including by certified mail. For municipal property, property being taken for unpaid assessments, or parcels with no locatable owner, the city itself is responsible. Every notice must go out on a standardized form identifying the reason, location, date, method used, and the issuing official and department, giving owners a documented paper trail before any fine attaches.