Jefferson County, AL Property Maintenance: Vacant Lot Maintenance (2026)

30(A) of the county's Weed and Litter Ordinance (Ordinance No. 1188, enacted February 20, 1990, amended by Ordinance No. 1223 on December 11, 1990) governs every parcel in the unincorporated area of Jefferson County, the ordinance expressly excludes Birmingham, Hoover, Bessemer, Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Trussville and the county's other cities, which enforce their own codes. The rule targets land that is "not under cultivation for useful and productive purposes," the classic vacant-lot scenario: an owner, proprietor, or tenant in charge of such a parcel must keep it "free from injurious, noxious of unsightly weeds," and the ordinance sets the bright-line test at 12 inches, anything taller is "deemed to be unsightly" as a matter of law, with no case-by-case judgment call.

The definition of "weeds" reaches beyond common grasses to "an economically useless plant," a "tree or shrub of low economic value that tends to grow freely," and any "vegetable life of exuberant growth and injurious effect," so a lot choked with volunteer saplings or brush is covered exactly like one overgrown with common weeds. 40). 50(D) exempts only land owned or lawfully occupied by the county itself.