Summit County, OH Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Summit County Code of Ordinances Sec. 10, Noxious Weeds and Rank Vegetation, sets the county's weed-height standard for unincorporated territory. Subsection (a) defines rank vegetation as any growth of weeds or grass to a height of eight inches or higher on any improved property, and separately defines noxious weeds by reference to the list of Prohibited Noxious Weeds in Ohio Administrative Code 901:5-37-01. Improved property is defined broadly to include any parcel with a residence, place of business, or a lot in a subdivision that has received required subdivision improvements.

Subsection (b) formally determines that noxious weeds or rank vegetation on any improved property, or on the right-of-way portion of non-improved property, in any township of the county becomes a public nuisance once the calendar turns to May 1 each year. Subsection (c) requires the Clerk of County Council to publish that determination in a newspaper of general circulation every May 1, demanding that owners cut rank vegetation below eight inches and remove noxious weeds. Enforcement then runs through the township, not the county directly: under subsection (d), once a Zoning Inspector for the township finds a violation on a specific parcel, the inspector must serve written notice by certified mail to the owner's tax mailing address giving five days to remove the noxious weeds and cut the rank vegetation; if certified mail fails, the inspector switches to regular mail plus posting the notice on the property, which restarts a seven-day compliance window.

Subsection (e) lets the township do the cutting itself if the owner still does not comply, bill the owner for the cost, and, after 30 days unpaid, certify the expense to the County Fiscal Officer so it is placed on the property's tax duplicate as a lien, collected the way delinquent taxes are collected.