My petty neighbor never liked our garden project to turn my tree lawn into a wildflower meadow garden. Now she reported me to the city and I got this violation notice. Should I hire a lawyer? Or do I need to turn my beautiful garden back to lawn? Thank you
by Single-Highway-5509
26 Comments
What a miserable idiot
That violation sounds pretty rigid.
Someone filed a complaint on my yard, and I called the property inspector and was really nice and asked what my options are to get into compliance, explained I’m providing habitat for native wildlife. He suggested I get certified as a bird and butterfly sanctuary, and that while it didn’t get me any legal protection they would leave me alone. My mayor is also a native plant enthusiast though, so your mileage may vary.
Don’t call it a garden. Call it a native wild life habitat for pollinators and other fauna. See about getting a native wild life habitat certification and a lawyer that will fight this.
Maybe reach out to these guys (assuming it’s the Cuyahoga County in Ohio.
[https://cuyahogaswcd.org/service-programs/native-plants/](https://cuyahogaswcd.org/service-programs/native-plants/)
Look up the bylaw first and the official text.
Then what’s your location. There are lots of states that have laws that override local laws and protect native plant restoration.
Is this like an HOA thing? I don’t understand how you can be told what you can and can’t plant in your own yard?
Time to plant 500 plugs of big bluestem! You want grass? I’LL GIVE YOU GRASS.
What’s a tree lawn?
I’m sorry they turned you in. I’m not sure it would be worth hiring a lawyer, but at least you have more than a month to figure things out. You could start by reading the bylaws and talking with the code enforcement people to figure out if there’s anything you could put there that’s more interesting than grass (like a low-growing ground cover).
Do you want Reddit to “do what Reddit does” with cuyahoga office
From [Codified Ordinances of Parma](https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/parma/latest/Parma_oh/0-0-0-217458)
>1707.12 TREE LAWNS. (a) For purposes of this section, “tree lawn” means that portion of the street, whether paved or unpaved, seeded or barren, between the curb line of the street on one side and the abutting sidewalk or, in the case where there is no sidewalk, the adjacent property line, on the other side, and otherwise commonly referred to as a park strip, parking strip, parkway, grassplat or devil strip.
>(b) No owner or occupant of an abutting lot or lands shall fail to maintain the tree lawn abutting his or her property or fail to keep it free from any nuisance. For purposes of this section, **”nuisance” means any object or condition that obstructs, impairs or destroys the reasonable use a tree lawn by persons traveling** thereon in the ordinary mode, including, but not limited to, rubbish, garbage, dirt, paper, stones, wood, glass or refuse material of any kind. For purposes of this section, **”maintained”** means to keep in good repair and free from nuisance, as defined herein, including, but not limited to, **mowing grass and/or planting sod or grass seeds and repairing cracks or unevenness in concrete or any other tree lawn surface**.
INAL: This area is owned by the city so they make the rules and decided what is there. Even though you are responsible for maintaining it. You could try to show that you are “maintaining” and keeping it free of “nuisance”. I would just contact the inspector and have them explain to you how you are in violation. Then try to sort out your next steps.
This is now illegal in Maryland. A couple (I think in Columbia) sued their HOA for this and won. It is now state law.
I’ve never heard the term “tree lawn” but upon googling (and for the benefit of others), it’s a regionalism and it means the sidewalk strip or hellstrip.
[The statute seems pretty cut and dry](https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/parma/latest/Parma_oh/0-0-0-217458#JD_1707.12). It says you can’t obstruct people from being able to walk on the tree lawn. Not defending your neighbor for being a narc and hindsight is 20/20, but I fear that this may have been a situation where you could’ve done some more research before expending so much energy on your project. Perhaps there are other places on your property to have your garden.
Been there. I rallied friends and neighbors to put in positive comments about my garden on the city’s violation app. They left me alone after that.
According to the rule 1707.12, wouldn’t this only include the area next to the street? Never heard of a “tree lawn” but that’s what the code says. Some people call this the hell strip I believe.
https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/parma/latest/Parma_oh/0-0-0-217411
My first attempt at wildflowers was a 2-1/2 ft strip between the neighbors house and. I was told by management to cut them down
In Wisconsin we call it the Terrace
https://theplantnative.com/plant/buffalo-grass/ looks like a decent compromise
You also can’t assume it was your neighbor unless evidence is solid. Depending on the city. Some cities have code enforcement people that drive around and look for violations all day. My town right now is only based off of citizen complaints. But they are thinking about going the other way and having someone explicitly look for violations. Sometimes, you can look up violation info associated with your address on the same website that handles utility billing if the city is set up that way. That might give you a hint. Every city is different though.
Plant endangered/protected native plants. Perhaps some native protected grasses if it comes to that.
Old neighbor got similar notice. He removed the taller plantings as they would hinder sight lines as they matured. Installed stones for a pathway and for a pad for garbage cans. Stuck with groundcovers and low growing plants and gave neighbors fresh cut flowers and so far, no more notices.
The “land of the free” sure has a lot of dumb rules you need to follow. This is bunk.
Guys, this is the hellstrip they’re talking about, not OP’s own yard. This is city-owned land that the homeowner is expected to maintain.
Yes, it sucks to have to yank up plants, but I always knew that was the deal if you planted stuff in the hellstrip—it wasn’t your property, so shit might happen to your plants.
There’s also a rationale for the ordinance that makes sense—that the “lawn garden” should be passable by pedestrians.
This seems like the same kind of BS that HOAs pull
Cities around the country are changing their ordinances to allow for native plant gardens. Most don’t allow native plants in the Right Of Way (ROW) between the side walk and street because it’s city owned.
Edwardsville IL where I live the city changed the ordinance to allow for native gardens. The native garden has to be MAINTAINED and not allowed to go fallow. Has to be a certain number of feet from the adjacent property and side walk. Only a certain percentage of the yard can be native plants.
Just go to your city and get the ordinance changed.
small world, i’m also from parma and neighbors are constantly complaining about any little thing. hope you sort this out and spread the native love. i think a couple other people pointed it out, but see if you can get any documentation from the national wildlife foundation. that may help out!
Get your yard certified as wildlife habitat. Make sure there’s a nice sign explaining that.
Then get local media involved. They might do a segment showing your lovely flowers and how the “mean” city is trying to make you rip them out.
If the media doesn’t want to do it, contact your local high school and see if you can get a student reporter to do a story. Maybe it’ll go viral and embarrass your neighbor and the city enough that they leave you alone.