No Lawns

It turns out the law is in a body of statutes covering health and public safety. So my 1st thought is: that’s bizarre.. an ugly plant is a health issue?

It's been so long since many in the western world understood this but: yes. When those laws were written, overgrown lots in populated areas were a health issue. Sometimes they still are: Philadelphia specifically targets overgrown vacant lots because they provide an attractive area for rats to live, breed, and infest a neighborhood. The same thing happens with mice - and where mice go, snakes follow.

"But mice, rats and snakes are all around us!" Well, yes, they are. But we keep their numbers in check, and even the most eco-minded can change their opinions when it directly affects them: I certainly did when the two places on either side of me got foreclosed after 2008, and there was eventually an infestation of snakes, and then the snakes eventually started coming into my yard and my shed and my grill. Turns out what, while I'm okay with domesticated snakes, I'm kinda phobic about encountering them unexpectedly - like when I open the grill cover to start a barbeque and a family of snakes hiss at me.

Anyway, the problem is that, as neighborhoods with active infestations have faded into the past, people have started interpreting those laws as being more about beauty than health.

I'd start by making your overgrown area look more intentional. Keep the walkways well cleared. Put in some garden decorations and a birdbath. Maybe some bird houses, or decorative tree-hanging things. A chair and a small table on the porch or somewhere. Maybe trim bushes or small dense ground plants into nice even sides, that sort of thing - a bunch of small stuff that says "this area is intentionally wild, but it's also being regularly tended to and is under control".