In D.S. Vale’s Troy Hill garden, each plant — ideally — does something for pollinating bees or migrating birds; old soil or new fungi; passing commuters or stuck-in neighbors. Part of an expanding number of gardeners who are interested in sustainability, ecology, and native plants, Vale talks about gardening in terms of living alongside, rather than having control over, other living things.
Despite these good intentions, Vale received a letter from the City of Pittsburgh in 2021 informing him that his gardens violated city property maintenance code 302.4, which states:
“Premises and exterior property shall be maintained free from weeds or plant growth in excess of ten inches. Noxious weeds shall be prohibited.”
The code goes on to exempt cultivated plants and stipulate that, should an owner fail to abide by this code, the city has the right to mow the owner’s lawn and stick them with the bill. Vale’s plants were placed intentionally — were cultivated — but the neighbor who called 311 didn’t know that. Neither did the code enforcement officer who visited several times. Despite seeming like a minor bit of legal structure, codes like these are causing friction in an era of changing ideas about the grass-centric American lawn and the purely ornamental garden.
Code 302.4 is a product of the International Code Council, a private organization that develops and publishes model building, electrical, plumbing, and property maintenance codes. State and local governments adopt ICC codes as readymade standards for keeping residential and commercial environments safe. Pittsburgh adopted the ICC’s International Property Management Code, with revisions, in 2004. ICC codes, which the organization says impact nearly 2 billion people, are developed by committees, then voted on by a general membership that includes local officials, industry representatives, and consumer advocates.
While high-profile code changes get national news coverage, other codes quietly go unrevised for years, if not decades. The ICC hasn’t significantly updated IPMC code 302.4 on weeds in the past 20 years. In 2003, the ICC made a minor change, making the maximum grass height a variable value set by city officials, rather than a default of 10 inches. The present code does not directly exempt tall native plants, especially “volunteers” (e.g. not planted intentionally by the resident), from the height restriction. When asked to provide background on code 302.4 for this article, Beth Tubbs, vice president of codes for ICC, provided a distorted screenshot summarizing the development of the IPMC as a whole. Tubbs’ response fits Vale’s experience of receiving a citation from the city.
Read more on Pittsburgh City Paper.
