Re: Keep your hedge trimmed or else

**l*@juno.com**

 Dear Andrew,

Thank you for injecting a note of hilarity into what might otherwise be a
somber and depressing weekend.

By way of background, during my nearly 10 years as a municipal government
agency volunteer (environmental commission, land use board, and open
space committee), I sat through every ordinance hearing conducted during
my tenure. Sometimes I worked with others to draw up first drafts for the
engineer's and/or attorneys' review, and I reviewed all of them in my
official capacity as either environmental chair or member of the land use
board. 

I did read the ordinance and some parts of Southampton's municipal code. 

In my opinion, the Southampton Hedge Ordinance is not only unenforceable,
but is a fraud perpetrated on the citizens who supported its passing.
What it actually says is that the complaining property owner is
responsible for enforcing the town's ordinance via private legal action.
Since that avenue is already available to any citizen, I fail to see what
the purpose of the ordinance is. (Only the town can enforce an ordinance,
through its enforcement official, usually the zoning officer.) The town's
attorney was either asleep at the wheel or not consulted. I'm guessing
that the first person who challenges the ordinance will prevail.

The proper form for an ordinance requires a statement of the purpose for
passing the ordinance, so this ordinance is incomplete, unless the
purpose is stated somewhere else in Chapter 41. Interestingly, if one
looks up the municipal code, http://www.ecode360.com/?custId=SO0286 ,
there does not appear to be a Chapter 41. There are property maintenance
standards referred to elsewhere; however, they only reference the
trimming of hedges is relation to keeping sight distances clear at
intersections and not impeding fire equipment.

Definitions. There is no definition of  "cut," "trim" or "trimming".
Theoretically a hedge owner could take a pair of nail clippers and remove
one leaf from each side of the hedge and be in compliance with this
ordinance. Similarly, there are no definitions of  "overgrown" or
"unsightly." An argument could be made that the homeowner has let a
forsythia hedge grow into its natural state.

The town fails to provide guidelines or objective, measureable criteria
for its enforcement official. Without these, it's impossible to provide
even-handed enforcement. The penalty seems excessive. It appears to have
been taken from another part of the code dealing with matters of public
safety, such as causing the fire trucks to not be able to reach a fire,
or causing them to crash because of obstructing the right of way.

The determination of whether the ordinance has been violated or not seems
to be left to the judgement of neighbors on adjoining lots, which is akin
to having the neighbors determine what color siding should be on the side
of the house that faces them. Since each neighbor will have a different
idea of what is aesthetically pleasing, overgrown, or unsightly, the
ordinance cannot be uniformly administered.

Unfortunately, ordinances like this usually are instituted when one
resident creates an intolerable situation that the town cannot correct
under its existing ordinances. New ones are frequently passed in haste,
without due consideration for long-term, or unintended consequences. Our
land use board was very proactive during my time of service. We hired a
licensed landscape architect to review applications and proposed
ordinances specifically so that landscaping issues would be handled in an
informed, intelligent, and professional manner. 

Regards,
Lois

Lois J. de Vries
Visit: http://cultivatingtheinnergardener.blogspot.com
Visit: http://loisdevries.blogspot.com
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On Sat, 10 Sep 2011 11:28:02 -0400 (EDT) Hamptongar@aol.com writes:
> I thought I would throw this out for the list to chew on.  The 
> Village  of 
> Southampton has passed a law requiring residents to keep their 
> hedges  
> trimmed.  I pass this along without comment looking to see what you 
> think  about 
> it?
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