Sherman, TX Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

The height rule for the City of Sherman, Texas sits in Chapter 6, Health and Sanitation, Article 6.05, Sanitary Nuisances. Section 6.05.001(a) reaches any owner, occupant or person in control of occupied or unoccupied premises containing less than two acres. The offense is permitting weeds, grass or other vegetation on the premises to grow to a height of greater than twelve inches. Because the person in control is covered along with the owner, a tenant who runs the property can be the one cited.

Two acres or more is treated differently. Subsection (b) applies the same twelve-inch limit only within one hundred feet of an adjacent property under different ownership that contains habitable buildings. Subsection (d) adds a continuing duty: whoever supervises or controls a lot, tract or parcel must cut and remove vegetation as often as necessary, and subsection (e) extends the section to railroad rights-of-way in the city.

Subsection (c) lists defenses, among them cultivated trees, cultivated shrubs, flowers or other decorative ornamental plants under cultivation, and agricultural crops other than grass or hay. Plain turf or weeds left to grow does not fit any of them.

Procedure comes from § 6.05.004. A notice of violation is not required before a citation. Before the city enters to abate or files a lien, it gives written notice by certified mail to the address on the county tax rolls, or by posting. The notice gives ten days to correct. The city can then mow, fill, drain or level and bill the owner, with an administrative fee of eighty dollars. Unpaid statements after thirty days can become a lien filed with the county clerk, and the owner has fifteen days to appeal the reasonableness of charges to the city council.