Lawrence board weighs code changes to allow native landscaping

Lawrence’s weed rules still treat anything over 12 inches as a nuisance, and that standard is now rubbing against the city’s push for native landscaping, pollinator habitat and water-saving yards.

The Sustainability Advisory Board is considering whether city code should be changed so property owners can keep meadows, permaculture plantings and xeriscaping without risking code enforcement. Michael Almon of the Sustainability Action Network told the board that many native plants grow taller than the city’s current weed-control threshold, which classifies excessive vegetation as anything over 12 inches. His point was simple: a rule written for mowed turf can make beneficial native plants look like violations.

Lawrence’s current weed ordinance, in Chapter 18, Article 3, declares weeds, woody vines, brush, uncultivated plants, grasses and other vegetation that attain excessive growth to be noxious and subject to eradication and abatement. The city’s code enforcement page still lists that ordinance, and the City Clerk says the official city code is the 2024 edition.

Almon said the city should revisit a recommendation developed in 2023 for a noxious-weeds and native-plants ordinance. That proposal was set aside while Lawrence worked on its new Land Development Code, with the expectation that native-plant rules might be folded in there. Almon said that did not happen in any meaningful way.

Under the concept now being discussed, property owners would be able to submit a managed natural landscaping plan to Parks, Recreation and Culture explaining what they want to plant and how they will maintain it. The city would not be giving up weed enforcement. Owners would still need to control invasive and noxious plants and, in most cases, trim or mow at least once a year, or use a prescribed burn if it is appropriate and permitted.

The issue has roots in Lawrence’s own policy history. In 2016, city planning staff said Chapter 18 had already been revised to clarify that agricultural crops are not included in the weed provisions, showing that the city has made targeted carve-outs when policy needs changed. The city has also taken a more flexible approach in parks management: in 2005 the City Commission asked Parks and Recreation to create a one-year pesticide-free pilot at Watson Park, and by 2008 the department had built an integrated pest management program with public input. The IPM policy manual was updated again in January 2025 to align with best management practices and the city’s sustainability commitments.

Native-plant advocates say the same logic should apply to yards, vacant lots and institutional landscapes. Prairie Park Nature Center, on the east side of Lawrence, sits within a 100-acre preserve that includes a five-acre lake and wetland, woodland and prairie habitats, a reminder of how deeply prairie ecology runs through the city’s identity. A 2023 backlash over herbicide use on a five-acre remnant prairie there sharpened the debate.

Any change would ultimately require action from the Lawrence City Commission, which passes city ordinances and policies. For Lawrence, the question is whether its code will keep rewarding the tidy lawn or finally make room for the city’s sustainability goals.