York County, VA Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

York County's grass and weed ordinance applies different standards depending on the property. Section 19-6(b) requires owners of occupied residential property to keep grass and lawn areas at twelve inches or less, up to a maximum coverage of one-half acre, and Section 19-6(c) extends a similar twelve-inch cap to grass, weeds, and foreign growth on other occupied or vacant, developed or undeveloped property within 150 feet of a neighboring building or within 50 feet of a road right-of-way in a platted subdivision. The County Administrator can also order mowing on any property found, in consultation with Animal Control, to be breeding or harboring insects, reptiles, or rodents.

Farmed or grazed land zoned RC, RR, IL, or IG, protected wetlands, golf-course hazard areas, mature woodland with a four-foot canopy, and land buffered from neighbors by a fifty-foot wooded strip meeting the Type 50 Transitional Buffer standard are exempt under subsection (e). Before the county acts, the County Administrator must mail or personally deliver written notice giving the owner seven days to cut the grass or weeds; only one such notice is required per property per growing season, after which county crews may mow immediately and bill the owner for the cost.

Unpaid bills become a lien on the property, certified to the County Treasurer for collection like taxes. A separate civil penalty applies on top of the abatement billing.