Harrisburg, PA Property Maintenance: Vacant Lot Maintenance (2026)

Two chapters of the Harrisburg Codified Ordinances reach an unimproved lot. Section 3-363.2 requires all premises and exterior property within the City to be maintained free from tall grass and weeds in excess of 18 inches, and prohibits noxious weeds of any height. Section 3-363.1 defines tall grass and weeds as all grasses, annual plants and vegetation other than trees or shrubs, and excludes cultivated flowers and gardens.

Chapter 6-305, Vacant Lots, adds the sanitation layer. Section 6-305.1 keeps every vacant lot free from the growth of noxious weeds and other offensive vegetation and free of accumulations of rubbish, garbage, junk, abandoned vehicles, discarded property and similar materials. Nobody can deposit or dump those materials on a vacant lot unless the Director of Public Works has designated it as a disposal site. Section 6-305.2 places a separate duty on the owner to prohibit dumping or littering and to cause the material to be removed, so an owner answers for what a stranger leaves behind.

Section 6-305.3 bars maintaining or permitting vacant land on which pools of water stand or stagnate, and requires the land to be kept at all times clean, inoffensive and free from the accumulation of water. Section 6-305.4 bars opening or turning up ground or a lot filled with offensive matter that will emit offensive odors, except with the approval of the Health Officer, who must be notified at once if offensive matter is unearthed unknowingly. Section 6-301.14(A) adds that a vacant lot providing harborage or breeding areas for rats, flies, mosquitoes or other vectors can be required to be vectorproofed.

Enforcement of the weed rule runs through the issuance of an immediate non-traffic summary citation (§ 3-363.99). Notices under the Public Health Code give a reasonable time of not less than five nor more than 90 days and carry a right to a Board of Health hearing request within 15 days of service (§§ 6-103.6, 6-103.8).