All Roll Calls
Yes: 189 • No: 23
Sponsored By: Lashrecse D. Aird (Democratic)
Became Law
Removal of clutter; cutting of grass; agricultural use exemption; Planning District 19. Exempts localities located in Planning District 19 from provisions that exclude agricultural land from requirements relating to the removal of clutter and cutting of grass when such land is one acre or less and located in an area that is used for a residential purpose. This bill is identical to HB 1316.
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5 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 4 costs, 0 mixed.
Violations can bring civil fines: up to $50 for the first violation (or those from the same facts) and up to $200 for later, different violations within 12 months. Each business day can count as a separate offense. Total fines in 12 months are capped at $3,000, or $6,000 for industrial or commercial property. Unpaid cleanup or cutting charges become a lien equal to a local real estate tax lien and are enforced the same way. A lien can be waived only to help a sale to an unrelated buyer with no business ties; unpaid charges stay the owner’s personal debt. After three civil penalties for the same or similar violation in 24 months, a locality may treat a later violation as a Class 3 misdemeanor instead of a civil penalty.
County rules under this law do not apply inside any town’s corporate limits. In counties with fewer than 500 people per square mile, county rules apply only in platted subdivisions or in areas zoned residential, business, commercial, or industrial. Farmland is exempt: land zoned for agriculture or in active farm use is not covered. In Planning Districts 6, 19, and 22, agricultural land is exempt unless the lot is one acre or less and used for a home. Planning District 19 also keeps most agricultural parcels over one acre exempt from clutter‑removal rules.
Your locality can adopt an ordinance that makes you remove trash and clutter and cut grass, weeds, and running bamboo. If you do not, after reasonable notice, the locality can do the work and bill you. One written notice per growing season counts as reasonable notice before the locality cuts. You must dispose of trash only in private receptacles or at authorized sites.
Localities in Planning District 23 may require cutting overgrown shrubs, trees, and other vegetation, not just grass and weeds, if they adopt an ordinance under this law.
Owners of land used for burials must cut grass, weeds, and other growth when the governing body sets times. After one written notice per growing season, the locality can cut and charge the owner. This rule does not apply to land owned by an individual, a family, a property owners’ association, or a church.
Lashrecse D. Aird
Democratic • Senate
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
All Roll Calls
Yes: 189 • No: 23
House vote • 2/25/2026
Passed House
Yes: 79 • No: 19
House vote • 2/20/2026
Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns
Yes: 17 • No: 4
Senate vote • 1/29/2026
Read third time and passed Senate Block Vote
Yes: 40 • No: 0
Senate vote • 1/28/2026
Engrossed by Senate Block Vote (Voice Vote)
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • 1/27/2026
Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote)
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • 1/27/2026
Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 1st reading)
Yes: 39 • No: 0
Senate vote • 1/26/2026
Reported from Local Government
Yes: 14 • No: 0
Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0295)
Approved by Governor-Chapter 295 (effective 7/1/2026)
Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 13, 2026
Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 10, 2026
Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB742ER)
Enrolled
Signed by President
Signed by Speaker
Passed House (79-Y 19-N 0-A)
Read third time
Read second time
Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns (17-Y 4-N)
Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns
Read first time
Placed on Calendar
Read third time and passed Senate Block Vote (40-Y 0-N 0-A)
Engrossed by Senate Block Vote (Voice Vote)
Read second time
Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote)
Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 1st reading) (39-Y 0-N 0-A)
Read first time
Passed by for the day
Rules suspended
Reported from Local Government (14-Y 0-N)
Referred to Committee on Local Government
Chaptered
4/6/2026
Enrolled
2/27/2026
Introduced
1/19/2026
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