An anonymous neighbor wanted to control the appearance of my yard without speaking directly to me. So whoever they are, they filed a report that I have weeds and I was cited.
I wanted to understand what law was being used against me, so I looked it up. It turns out the law is in a body of statutes covering health and public safety. So my 1st thought is: that’s bizarre… an ugly plant is a health issue?
WTF is a “weed”?
In common language most people are making a value judgment by regarding ugly plants as weeds. But the legal definition is not so subjective. It’s plants that have toxins and allergens. So things like Poison Ivy. The law names 6 or so examples but is not limited to those.
So the law is perhaps reasonably written to control health hazards, not so people can control the appearance of other people’s property. But the enforcers were either clueless about this or they were intellectually dishonest in hopes that those cited would naively create a pretty landscape for the demanding neighbor without first reading the law.
I might have been willing to do a landscape had the process of telling me the yard looks ugly not been as rude as sending cops to bully me.
A citation generally saying “you have weeds” is likely typically a false accusation. They should be writing on the citation exactly which plant specie is toxic or hazardous, just as a speeding ticket says how fast you were measured at.
So are you going to fight the citation? Better have lots of pictures with botanical data on all the plants growing in your lawn. Seems the key element here is the legal definition of a prohibited weed. If you go to trial, give the officer some rope and see if he’ll hang himself. Ask if he’s an expert on identifying weeds. If not, how does he know your yard had weeds? Otherwise pursue his qualifications. What training is he relying on to identify weeds. Make him define a weed. If it’s substantially different from your legal definition, ask whether he’s aware of the legal definition. Introduce the legal definition and have him read it. Then ask if in light of his newly acquired knowledge, does he still maintain that your yard had weeds. If not, citation dismissed.
I gave more detail of what happened in the other post under this thread. It never went to court. IIRC, the city accepted my argument.
But indeed you are right. The court case could have gone as you suggest had it occurred. I think the gov is just bluffing and intimidating people into beautifying their landscapes.