Wicomico County, MD Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Q of the Nuisances chapter applies to all developed and vacant lots within a recorded subdivision, mobile home park or apartment project, plus unsubdivided parcels within 200 feet of and abutting one, excluding land used for agriculture or forestry. Within that reach, subsection Q(1), amended July 19, 2005 by Bill No. 2005-8, declares it a public nuisance to allow the uncontrolled growing of weeds higher than 10 inches, and requires that after any cutting the ordinance compels, the remaining stubble be no higher than six inches.

Enforcement runs through § 174-2: the county's designated agent serves written notice on the owner and occupier identifying the nuisance and the action required, giving no more than seven days to abate; if the property is unoccupied and the owner cannot be found, notice is posted on the property. If the deadline passes without compliance, § 174-2C lets the county enter the property and perform the mowing or clearing itself. Section 174-3 makes the failure to abate a civil infraction fined $100 to $1,000, with a second nuisance violation on the same property within 12 months adding an administrative fee under Chapter 141 on top of the fine, and each day the overgrown condition continues past the notice deadline counted as its own separate offense.

Costs the county incurs cutting the weeds become a lien against the property, collected in the same manner as delinquent real estate taxes, and the county can also sue the owner directly to recover those costs. The rule sits alongside a related exterior-property duty in § 160-95 requiring sidewalks, curbing and guttering be kept free of weeds, grass and plant growth, underscoring that overgrowth enforcement runs through more than one chapter of the county code.