(a) The Village encourages the establishment of lawn areas on parcels within the Village. Lawns provide several benefits for all residents besides forming an aesthetically pleasing part of an individual residential or commercial property. Areas of lawn provide a porous surface that promotes infiltration of precipitation and attenuate stormflows. Lawns reduce air, noise, and water pollution and help to moderate temperatures within the Village.
(b) It is not the intent of the Village to dictate to residents any specific aesthetic ideal or management system when it comes to landscaping and lawn care. Rather, this chapter of the Village Code is intended to provide a regulatory framework that balances individual property rights with the needs of the broader community.
(c) This chapter of the Village Code should not be construed to require or prohibit any specific landscaping or lawn care management actions, to include but not limited to the following examples:
(1) Irrigation (watering) or xeriscaping
(2) Fertilization
(3) Herbicide, insecticide, or any pesticide use
(4) Removal or retention of grass clippings
(5) Composting or removal of lawn waste, grass clippings, or fallen leaves
(6) Specific mowing intervals or methods
(7) Prescribed or proscribed lawn or landscaping species (except prohibitions on noxious weeds)
(8) Any requirements or prohibitions that are a matter of aesthetics rather than public safety
(d) Recognizing that there are a variety of land management and environmental ethics and philosophies among the residents of the Village, it is the intent of this section of the Village Code to permit any reasonable lawn and landscape practices within the Village so long as they do not create demonstrable harm or annoyance to neighbors or the greater Village.
(Ord. 2021-20. Passed 2-14-22.)