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West Windsor council directs draft to ban all bamboo after months of study
Summary
After extensive public comment and a presentation from the Shade Tree Commission, West Windsor council members signaled support for banning all bamboo and directed administration to return a revised ordinance for formal introduction in early August. Officials rejected using a change-of-ownership CO process for enforcement in the initial draft.
WEST WINDSOR — The West Windsor Township Council moved toward a broad ban on bamboo after a long public discussion at its July 13 business session, directing administrators to prepare a final draft for introduction in early August.
The discussion followed months of work by the Shade Tree Commission and nearly identical but competing drafts from township staff and a volunteer adviser. Helen Rankin, chair of the Shade Tree Commission, told the council the commission backed a prohibition on "all bamboo," saying the plants "do real damage to properties, homes, sidewalks, pools, and even gravestones," and urging the council to follow the commission's preferred version of the ordinance. "Bamboo is directly related to structural concerns, thus it has a linear relationship to the township's CO function," Rankin said.
Township adviser Mike Schuette, who drafted an alternate clean version, also urged adoption of a single, enforceable text; he told the council the administration's edits were generally useful but recommended the commission's clean version as the working text.
Mayor (speaker 14) framed two central questions for the council: whether the ordinance should ban all bamboo or only species classed as invasive, and whether enforcement should rely on the township's certificate-of-occupancy (CO) process. After public testimony from several homeowners and Shade Tree members, council members coalesced around banning all bamboo and removing a CO requirement from the initial draft. "I don't have a process to do COs tied to every change of ownership," the mayor said, explaining that the township currently has no mechanism to check every property at sale and that imposing such a requirement would create implementation problems.
Council members asked administrators to include specific drafting details: add "public health" to the ordinance's recitals, name the township engineer among designated officials, adopt a 15-foot prohibited planting/encroachment buffer from property lines, and require design plans and inspections for containment barriers. The council discussed penalties (the draft referenced fines up to $500 per day) and requested authority similar to other nuisance programs that would allow the township to remove bamboo from public property and recover costs, including placing a lien on private property when necessary.
The council asked for written comments from members by the end of the week and directed the administration to circulate a consolidated draft. The mayor said he expects to introduce the ordinance in the council's first August meeting with a second reading later that month. If adopted, the ordinance would become effective 20 days after the mayor's signature.
Why it matters: Residents from several neighborhoods told the council about long-running encroachment, property damage, bird- and rodent-related nuisance, and ongoing costs to manage infestations. The commission and members argued that a clear, enforceable local law is necessary to prevent new plantings and to provide remediation tools for affected neighbors.
What happens next: The administration will prepare a revised ordinance reflecting council guidance, circulate it to council members and the Shade Tree Commission, and post it for public review ahead of the introduction expected in early August.
