Timnath approves weed-code changes requiring weed removal, updating poison rules
The Timnath Town Council approved an ordinance requiring property owners to remove or destroy noxious weeds and other weeds and updating poison-use rules.
The Timnath Town Council approved an ordinance requiring property owners to remove or destroy noxious weeds and other weeds and updating poison-use rules.
The ordinance prohibits intentionally introducing, cultivating, selling, offering for sale or knowingly allowing a noxious weed to grow in violation of the article, subject to listed exceptions. The ordinance says it is not a violation to knowingly allow a noxious weed to grow when it is being properly managed under a Town-approved weed management plan. The ordinance says people must use integrated methods to manage noxious weeds when they are likely to materially damage neighboring land.
Staff said property owners, whether they are metro districts, the Town, other municipalities or private owners, have legal responsibility to manage and control noxious weeds. Staff said 95% of the Town’s enforcement activities are complaint-driven and include an educational component, with compliance rather than fines or citations as the goal. Staff said the Town must manage weeds on its own property and does not yet have a plan for how to handle particular weeds, which depends on their categories.
The ordinance designates the Planning Commission as the Town’s Noxious Weed Advisory Board in place of the Town Council, and allows the council to create a separate board later by resolution. The ordinance establishes a Town Noxious Weed Management Plan under state code. A speaker clarified that the ordinance itself meets the state-law requirement for a noxious weed management plan, while the Town does not have a separate strategic plan specifying where and how often to treat weeds.
The ordinance updates the list of prohibited trees to be consistent with state law and removes previously listed trees that are not on the state’s noxious list. The ordinance updates provisions on trees and limbs in public rights of way and clarifies rules for cutting, trimming or pruning trees there. The ordinance updates Chapter 11 to include noxious weeds and clarify weed removal on public property and in rights of way.
The ordinance updates trapping restrictions to be consistent with state statutes and other Town codes. The ordinance updates Chapter 10 restrictions on poisonous substances to match Section 7-9-350 and removes the Town Council’s role in approving applications to use them.
Council Member Dennis Strachota said he believed the Town could have imposed stronger requirements than state law. “For example, I had, you know, suggested banning broadcast spraying of pesticides, which is absolutely not necessary,” Strachota said. He said the Town’s vendor widely used the practice, which he believed subjected children and pets to toxic chemicals. He also said he had proposed prohibiting the poisoning of wildlife listed as federally or state endangered and raised concerns about prairie-dog colony eradication.
Mayor Robert Axmacher said the ordinance largely updates provisions that already exist and that he supported it as a way to comply with state code. Axmacher said not every property is in a metro district and the Town should retain tools to address properties if a district does not act. Axmacher said the Town’s complaint-driven approach left room for a more proactive approach to weed enforcement.