Buffalo, NY Property Maintenance: Vacant Lot Maintenance (2026)

Chapter 341, Article II, General Standards, opens at § 341-5 by declaring that residential, commercial, storage, and industrial buildings, whether occupied or vacant, and accessory structures must be maintained under the article so as to protect the character of the property and surrounding areas. Section 341-6, Maintenance of open areas, then lists specific obligations covering drainage, fences, paved areas, and, critically for unimproved land, subsection E requiring yards, courts, and vacant lots to be kept clean and free of physical hazards, rodent harborage, and infestation, with subsection F adding that noxious or health-detrimental undergrowth must be eliminated.

The City's Schedule of Fines and Penalties at § 137-7 lists 'Maintenance of open areas' violations as a Fine Class D offense. Separately, City-owned vacant lots are governed by a distinct rule: § 133-9 puts the duty of cutting overgrown weeds, grass, brush, and vegetation and removing garbage, tree limbs, and debris from City-owned vacant lots on the Commissioner of Street Sanitation, on the same annual May 1 to June 1 cycle used for private-land weed cutting under Chapter 341, Article I. Buffalo therefore runs two parallel vacant-lot tracks: private owners answer to the general § 341-6 clean-and-hazard-free standard enforced through the Chapter 137 fine schedule, while City-held parcels are the Commissioner of Street Sanitation's own maintenance responsibility.