Dallas property owners would be on the hook for trees, shrubs and vines that hang into an alley, street or sidewalk next to their land no matter where the plant is rooted, under a code change going to a City Council committee on Monday.
Code Compliance Services is briefing the Quality of Life, Arts and Culture Committee on a rewrite of Section 18-14.1 of the city code, which covers vegetation in the public right-of-way. The committee meets at 9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 19, at City Hall and by video. A staff memo says the full council is scheduled to consider the change on Nov. 10.
Two sections that disagree
The memo describes a conflict inside Chapter 18. One section defines an owner's "premises" to include the parkway out to the curb and the strip behind the lot to the center line of the alley. The vegetation section, though, only makes it an offense when growth projects "across the property line."
Because the parkway and the alley strip already count as part of the premises, a tree rooted there never technically crosses the line, staff wrote, even if it fills the whole alley. The result, according to the memo, is that enforcement turns on where a plant started rather than whether it is in the way, and owners get inconsistent answers.
Litter and tall grass in the same area are already the adjacent owner's responsibility.
What would change
The draft ordinance from the City Attorney's Office would:
- drop the "across the property line" wording, so the test is whether growth reaches into the right-of-way
- make plain that whoever owns, occupies or controls the lot must keep growth trimmed out to the front curb and to the middle of the alley
- list as separate offenses vegetation that blocks the view of a traffic sign or signal and vegetation that gets in the way of trash collection next to the sidewalk or alley
