Committee asks administration to review municipal code to support native plant and pollinator gardens

Council Member Mika Owens introduced a motion asking the administration to review municipal code language that affects native plantings and pollinator gardens and report back with recommended revisions.

Owens said the motion, co-sponsored by Council Members Nolan and Seth Walsh, grew from letters by students including one from “Olivia Schneider of Price Hill School,” and from the Green Cincinnati Plan. She asked the administration to evaluate “section 7 31 of the municipal code” to determine how the city could revise regulations to support “pollinator gardens, native plants, and education, including allowing the use of native, grasses and pollinator plants in residential areas and low mow or no mow practices.”

Committee members framed the request as aligned with the Green Cincinnati Plan’s 2023 goal to increase green space accessibility, noting the plan’s target of a green space within a half-mile walk by 2028 and a stated priority action to support pollinator gardens and no-mow practices. Owens said the measure is intended to avoid being “counterintuitive to the climate goals that we’ve set.”

The motion was moved on for passage without objection. The transcript does not record a formal roll-call or vote tally. The administration’s specific timeline for the code review and whether changes would be presented as an ordinance or other amendment were not specified in committee remarks.