Greeley council backs nuisance-focused approach to landscape code enforcement

Greeley City Council generally backed a staff proposal Tuesday to keep the city’s current front-yard landscape standards while focusing enforcement on nuisance properties and repeat offenders rather than maintained yards that are technically out of compliance.

The discussion, listed as Item 5, was part of a work session on a broader landscape code update, and no formal vote was taken. Staff asked for direction on whether code officers should prioritize properties with bare dirt, erosion concerns, tall weeds, dead or unmaintained landscaping, repeated violations and visible neighborhood impacts, while treating maintained but technically nonconforming yards as a lower priority.

Caleb Jackson, the city’s interim planning manager, said the city handled 200 landscape-standards cases in 2025, with 99 scheduled for hearing, and had already opened 66 such cases through June this year. He said administrative hearings are the city’s main enforcement tool when voluntary compliance fails, but that process adds time and cost and does not necessarily get a yard fixed faster.

Jackson said staff is trying to distinguish between yards that create active nuisance conditions and yards that may be mostly rock or mulch, are maintained, but do not fully satisfy the code’s live-plant requirement. “The goal is not to ignore the landscape code,” he said. “The goal is to focus enforcement resources where they have the greatest impact.”

Council Member Johnny Olson said he had visited a resident’s all-rock, xeriscaped front yard after the owner faced a hearing and found it was one of the nicest-looking yards in the neighborhood even though it did not meet the code. Olson said staff time should be aimed instead at properties with weeds and other obvious problems. He also said the city should make sure city-owned property meets the same standards it enforces and should push harder on owners who repeatedly refuse to work toward compliance.

Other council members echoed the idea that some all-rock or xeriscaped yards can look better than yards with dirt and weeds and should not be treated as the top enforcement priority. Near the end of the discussion, Mayor Dale Hall summed up what he said sounded like the council’s direction: focus on bare dirt, erosion, tall weeds, dead landscaping and abandoned yards.

The work session also touched on a separate proposal to allow artificial turf in front yards with a permit, but that issue drew mixed reactions and did not appear to be part of the same consensus. Staff said it was seeking feedback on that issue, along with the broader landscape code update, before later formal council consideration of an ordinance.