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On Wednesday, July 12, the Greenburgh Town Board approved legislation that bans new bamboo plantings and tightly regulates existing ones, Town Supervisor Paul Feiner said.
The legislation now makes it unlawful for Greenburgh residents to plant running bamboo into the ground. Additionally, any existing running bamboo must not migrate onto any adjacent property or town right-of-way.
If any existing running bamboo does manage to find its way onto another property, it will be considered a public nuisance, and the owner will no longer have a right to keep it, the legislation stipulates.
In this event, the owner will have 30 days to remove the existing bamboo on both properties. If the owner fails to meet this deadline, they will be slapped with a fine between $100 and $500, or even $1,000 for a second offense.
Any new bamboo plantings will be treated as a public nuisance as well.
The legislation followed complaints from Greenburgh residents, who in many cases complained that bamboo plantings from their neighbors had invaded their yards and even damaged their driveways.
The legislation was also approved by the town's Conservation Advisory Council, which wrote that bamboo "renders any space it occupies unusable" in correspondence to the Town Board.
"Its root system is so strong that it can damage foundations," the council wrote, also adding, "The removal of bamboo is very expensive. Without this law, the cost falls on the homeowner whose property the bamboo has invaded."
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