The new legislation, approved Monday, also aims to curb how much landscaping — regardless of native status — creeps into public right-of-ways.
Additionally, the new ordinance includes a grandfather clause, allowing existing lawns with more than 50% plantings to remain, amending the three-foot setback rule to accommodate steep grades, and prohibiting planting of invasive species as defined by Ohio law.
“Thank you to (residents and staff) for working together,” Mayor Don Adams said Monday. “We’re never going to find something that’ll please everybody. It’s just we have to do what seems to be best for the city.”
Confusion, Oakwood comparison
Some residents say that the language is still unclear, particularly as it relates to language concerning public right-of-ways. The city of Oakwood recently introduced similar, “more robust” ordinances on the topic, several Beavercreek residents said.
“I had hoped Beavercreek would follow Oakwood’s lead in modernizing its archaic weeds and grass ordinance to become a comprehensive and comprehensible landscape maintenance ordinance,” said Debbie Carr.
Other residents say that for now, the compromise still represents a step forward.
“I think right now, our focus needs to be on education and communication,” said Sarah Bills. “It’s our turn to do the work.”
One resident’s example
Coming out of winter, Beavercreek resident Patricia Lozano’s front yard is mostly brown, but in the summer, her yard is alive with color, flowers, and critters.
Lozano and her husband have lived in Beavercreek for the better part of 15 years, and began the transformation of their lawn from turf grass to native plants around 2019. Today, Lozano has estimated she has more than 100 varieties of native plants and flowers on her property.
However, Lozano said, her yard was cited last July for being out of compliance with Beavercreek’s landscaping ordinances. They were given five days initially, then an extension, to rip up portions of their landscaping that came out to the road, which she and her husband have done.
Though Lozano’s yard is theoretically covered under the grandfather clause of Beavercreek’s new laws, she said she is still nervous about being cited again. Much of her yard is now lined with stumps, as a stopgap measure to save her plants.
“We needed it to be in landscape beds, because they told us they would come in and they would mow down anything that was not in a landscape,” she said.
When Lozano and her husband started this process, the plantings solved several problems for them, she said, including slowing the erosion of their front yard, allowing plants to grow in shady areas where turf grass cannot, and lowering the amount of maintenance necessary on their lawn equipment.
“At that point in time, mowing in our yard was difficult, because we have so many of the big trees, we have big roots,” she said. “I would bend mower blades and my husband would make fun of me.”
For years, Lozano said, she and her neighbors have had zero problems with her native lawn. Prior to the complaint to the city that led to her citation, no one had ever complained to her directly, she said.
In fact, the flowers in her lawn have improved her relationships within her community, Lozano said.
“It takes one complaint, but then what do you do with the people who love it?” she said. “We’ve gotten to know more people because we’ve been doing this than we ever have before. People will stop and tell us how much they love the yard. People definitely know us in the neighborhood because of the yard.”
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