Dallas code officers would no longer have to work out where a bush or tree is rooted before citing a property owner for branches that block an alley, street or sidewalk, under an ordinance change going to a City Council committee Monday.
The Quality of Life, Arts and Culture Committee is scheduled to be briefed on the proposed amendment to Section 18-14.1 of the city code when it meets at 9 a.m. Oct. 19. A memo to committee members says the full council will consider the change at its Nov. 10 meeting.
The conflict staff want to fix
According to the memo from Assistant City Manager Alina Ciocan, two parts of the same chapter of the code work against each other. One section defines a property owner's "premises" to include the parkway between the property line and the curb, and the area out to the center line of an adjacent alley.
The vegetation rule, meanwhile, only makes it an offense when plants grow "across the property line" into the right-of-way.
Because the parkway already counts as part of the premises, the memo says, a shrub or tree growing there does not cross the property line even when it completely blocks an alley or sidewalk. The result, staff wrote, is that responsibility "depend[s] on where vegetation originates rather than on whether the right-of-way is obstructed," and owners get inconsistent answers.
Litter and tall weeds in the same strip are already the owner's responsibility.
What would change
The draft ordinance, prepared by the City Attorney's Office, would:
