The original ordinance known as Ordinance 8.56 Noxious Weeds can been seen below as it appears on the Janesville City Website.
In the public notice as printed in the Gazette, the "new" ordinance and its sections take up nearly half a page in small font newsprint. The city writes up a short description of the amendment as follows......
Ordinance No. 2008-413The folks in the Janesville administration are overstepping their bounds once again into the peaceful enjoyment of private property ownership. Through the use of wryly written legalese they have been able to present the full amendment as a loosening of restrictions when in fact it is a tightening of control with stiffer penalties and fewer options for the home owner and gardener. And instead of presenting natural landscaping and its techniques as an extension of artistic expression and individual sanctuary, they present it to the gardening taxpayer as a controlled expansion of weeds.
An ordinance repealing and recreating the noxious weed ordinance so as to permit City approved Natural Landscaping with penalties, injunctive relief, and other remedies as set forth….
Although the existing laws appear to have been reasonably successful enforcing voluntary compliance in weed abatement, the entire amendment appears to be authored with the same intent as the city's landlord/nuisance ordinance. That is, for the city to trespass onto private land and remedy the situation with confrontational enforcement if necessary. But the worst part is probably this.
Amendment Notice ExcerptWell, Wisconsin's Park Place would like its taxpayers to obey strict rules regarding the growth of noxious weeds and tall grass but exempts itself from the same.
5. This section shall not apply to properties owned by governmental entities or where federal, state or local regulations provide otherwise.
So while you’re out there on your hands and knees pulling and bagging thousands of garlic mustard sprouts from your yard and spraying dangerous herbicides and other poisons that eventually find their way into the Rock River and groundwater aquifiers, the city’s own parks and right-of-ways of garlic mustard and dandelions are packing their bags full of seed just waiting for the next windy ride into your yard.
The public hearing for this so-called noxious weed amendment is scheduled for July 28th at 7 PM in the council chambers at the Janesville municipal building.
5 comments:
They are just now thinking about allowing native landscaping? Seems to me that the retrograde thinking as well as the do as I say, not as I do wording of this ordinance is staggeringly ignorant. The city can allow any noxious weed, erosion, or other detrimental landscape practice on their own property. I also oppose the thought process that the city government needs to approve a native landscape, but not a chemically soaked, petroleum-dependent turf lawn.
What they actually should be doing is discouraging the use of the mowed turf lawn and no in many situations, in order to conserve/clean the ground water. They would be well advised to do some research on the subject of sustainable landscaping. A good start would be to read this overview and use it to focus on a more progressive view of the landscape.
Thanks for the link, Joshua. The City of Janesville continues to stay on the wrong path by restricting privacy and homeownership rights. Many homeowners chose a stand alone home on private land for a reason. If they wanted a third party designing and managing their property based on someone else's sense of conformity, they would live in a condo or a PUD.
Apparently, this ordinance amendment sprang up because an "official" native landscape in the city was invaded by a few noxious weeds AND somebody complained.
Because the manicured turf lawn requires a huge amount of fossil fuel and chemical upkeep at the expense of our precious natural resources, the city should require permits to have one, not the other way around. That may sound severe, but there is still time get our priorities straight.
But the current noxious weed ordinance does not work. Garlic mustard, rockets and buckthorn are everywhere crowding out our native plants.
It would be interesting to know out how much input people from Rotary Gardens or the new Rock environmental network had in writing the landscaping amendment?
That’s a good question.
Most people probably view this ordinance amendment as no big deal, but it is just unbelievable to see how far we’ve gone screwing with the environment that government is initializing permits and approval procedures to allow or tolerate the existence of an unpolluted, low maintenance naturally occurring environment.
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