West Des Moines, IA Property Maintenance: Vacant Lot Maintenance (2026)

West Des Moines treats an unmowed vacant lot the same as an unmowed yard. City Code § 4-4-2(A) declares weeds or vegetation over ten inches, and any accumulation of dead weeds, grass, brush, or trees, a nuisance on any occupied or unoccupied lot or land, with narrow exceptions for landscaped trees and shrubs, erosion-control plantings, wooded areas over one acre, educational-study areas, cultivated gardens, approved streetscapes, public parks, and approved native planting areas on parcels other than single-family lots. Owners of vacant land must still cut all other vegetation at least once a year down to ten inches or less; there is no exemption for land that sits empty between building phases.

Enforcement runs through the nuisance chapter's own notice track: because subsection 4-4-2(A) is a weeds violation, the City skips personal service, certified mail, and newspaper publication and instead posts notice directly on the property (or on a sign if there is no building) and mails a copy by regular mail, per § 4-4-5(B)(3). The owner or responsible party then has seventy-two hours from posting to cut the lot. A Community Compliance Specialist is authorized to abate an uncorrected nuisance and assess the cost against the property the same way a property tax is collected, under § 4-4-8(B).

Anyone found violating the nuisance chapter three or more times at the same address within twelve months is declared a habitual violator under § 4-4-3, which strips away the normal notice-and-cure grace period on repeat calls.