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September 22, 2009

Native Suburbia Is Under Attack

After 5 years of carefully nurturing the native plants in my little patch of suburbia, it has finally come to the attention of the Village of Bartlett. As seen in the letter, it appears that there has been a complaint. The village's reaction to that complaint is to order me to "cut the grasses to eliminate the hazard". This ignores the many compliments that I have received from passers-by as well as the simple truth that my plants pose no hazard at all.

The threat only addresses the landscaping I have done in the parkway (right of way). Oddly, it specifically mentions prairie grasses. Does that mean the forbs are not a hazard? I have no clue what issue they could have with the flag stones that I placed as a path, but apparently those are hazardous as well.

It was in the middle of 2007 that I went to the Village of Bartlett to discuss my plans for putting native plants in the parkway. I spoke with someone in the public works department. That discussion resulted in disbelief that anyone would not want a lawn in front of their house and a warning from the village arborist that native plants were a lot of work. Not being afraid of work and having already seen the beauty of the native plants in the rest of my yard, I proceeded with the extension of my environmentally friendly and beautiful landscaping.

Now, two years later, it is deemed a hazard and I have been given 3 days to mow or pay the penalty for having someone else mow it. It is not surprising to me that my unique landscaping is misunderstood, but it is surprising that Bartlett chooses to interact with its residents in such a manner. Especially when they pay lip service to being more "green". I guess now that we have compact fluorescents in the town hall, everything is OK.

Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this? I know that I took a chance when I planted something on the parkway, but I just couldn't bear to maintain a lawn that I disagreed with so much. How can I make them see that they do not have to fear what they have not taken the time to appreciate?

/native_suburbia | Permalink (2 comments)

Comments


Steve Windsor wrote at 2009-09-23 16:34:

Don; I didn't see where you posted the letter, anyway you're now facing the axiom about not fighting city hall. I would go along only grudgingly. If their laws limit the height of grasses to 8 inches like in Roselle you might cut the grasses down to that height and send them an e-mail saying so and also informing them that you have left the flowers(forbs) uncut and that they are mature and have an estimated commercial value of $X and that they should not cut these or the village would be held liable. Include in your dollar estimate the cost of labor to install these mature (i.e. more expensive)flowers. Send picture attachments too. Also, as a precaution take pictures of other yards in Bartlett that have tall grasses -before winter arrives. You can only hope they will back off. Your prior discussions can simply be voided by a "review". If they claim that flowers are limited in height submit a list of neighbors whose lilacs overreach the threshold. Good luck, Steve

Don wrote at 2009-09-23 20:19:

The letter is in the picture, right under the title of this entry. The quality of the scan is poor, but just click on it to get a bigger version.

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