Smyrna, GA Property Maintenance: Vacant Lot Maintenance (2026)

Chapter 46 of the Smyrna Code ties vacant land to the same cleanliness duty as built property. Section 46-115 obliges owners, occupants and inhabitants of a building or dwelling to keep the exterior, including premises, yards, lawns, courts and alleys, clean, clear and free of any accumulation or deposits of the items specified in the article, and then closes with one sentence: the same duty rests upon the owner of any vacant lot. Section 46-111(a) reaches improved and unimproved property alike and requires it to be free of waste, litter, trash, dead animals and rubbish, with weeds, underbrush and high grass kept down.

The height measure sits in Section 80-4, which bars grass or weeds over eight inches on unimproved property, and in Section 46-118, which defines high grass and weeds as growth over eight inches and/or gone to seed, whichever is lower. Section 80-5 separately makes it unlawful to leave rusted, wrecked, junked, dismantled or inoperative motor vehicles, boats, trailers, watercraft, appliances or machinery in outside storage on a vacant lot. Section 46-116 exempts a person holding a valid occupation tax certificate for dealing in those items from Sections 46-114 and 46-115.

Section 46-112 sets the abatement path. If the owner refuses or fails to comply after ten days' written notice addressed to the owner and delivered to the property by the sanitation department, the city removes the offensive matter and cuts the weeds and undergrowth. The work is done at the owner's expense, and the clerk issues an execution against the owner and against the property for the expense and all costs. The person returning the property for taxation in the city, or the person assessed if there was no return, is deemed the true owner. Section 80-7 separately requires at least seven days of notice before the compliance deadline for violations of Sections 80-1 through 80-6, delivered personally or by regular and certified mail with posting on the property.

Section 46-113 declares a nuisance wherever weeds, rubbish, filth or dead animals give flies a breeding place, rats a sanctuary or produce obnoxious odors. Section 80-33(c) adds that a finding by a governmental health department, health officer or building inspector that such property is a health or safety hazard is prima facie evidence of a violation.