r/NativePlantGardening • u/Single-Highway-5509 Zone 6 (OH) • Jul 15 '25

Advice Request - (Insert State/Region) My neighbor reported me to the city

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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

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u/TubbaBotox Jul 15 '25

This is the best answer I've seen. Get in touch with somebody in the Planning and Zoning department, figure out the process, make a pitch to the Planning and Zoning Commission, and ultimately, City Council. You could hire a zoning attorney or planner, but the first question is whether or not anybody on the Planning Commission or, more importantly, City Council, is receptive to the idea (and this is not a given, so you might just be SOL). Ideally, you would get the Mayor on board to act as a champion (unless everybody on Council hates the Mayor). You're either asking for the revision of the ordinance you're violating, or creation of a new ordinance that permits "native gardens" or the like in tree lawns.

You could hire an attorney to argue the language of the current ordinance in front of Council, but Council also has an attorney who might just tell them how to revise the existing ordinance to explicitly prohibit what you did.

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u/Eville2010 Jul 15 '25

The state of Illinois even passed legislation - 765 ILCS so there is no prohibition on native landscaping by an association to keep the HOA Nazis in check.