Pasco’s campaign against invasive plants needs trimming, planning board says

Pasco’s planning board members said they support new county regulations to stop the spread of noxious weeds, but last week they sent staff back to the drawing board to reconsider some of their suggestions on how to make that happen.

The Planning Commission voted to push its review of the plan until summer to scale back potential effects and costs to developers and homeowners, proposing instead what they characterized as more commonsense rules.

The new rules grew out of a strong push from Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey, who has frequently raised the alarm that the invasive plant cogon grass has been spreading uncontrolled along county roads. The grass, imported from Southeast Asia decades ago, takes over wherever it lands, pushing out native plants.

The proposal as presented would have required that the measures to prevent the spread of the invasive plants begin at the earliest stages of a new development. Planning Commissioner Jon Moody said that didn’t make sense.

”I’m hesitant to saddle an applicant” at such an early stage, he said. The real work to keep a project from being overrun by the weeds should come as construction phases begin, not during the rezoning process.

Chris Williams, the planning commission member who represents Pasco County schools, used the property for the district’s Cypress Creek schools as an example of another issue. Only a portion of the 150-acre site was set for construction, but the language in the new rules said they applied to the “project area,” which could be saying that all the land there had to be stripped of any invasive plants.

He also said that the project included $3 million in fill, which, under the proposed rules, would have to be tested to be sure it didn’t include invasive plant seeds. “I’m concerned about the cost,” he said.

Moody said there was no way to test dirt to find out what kinds of seeds it might contain. That doesn’t become known until plants start growing, he said.

Once the plants are growing on the property, the landowner would have to have them removed, said Chief Assistant County Attorney David Goldstein.

Moody also argued that many people seeking a fill permit would likely be “mom and pop” applicants and the rules would create “an unreasonable financial burden.” He also said that the list of plants that had to be removed now and possibly in the future was too broad, including common landscape plants such as elephant ear and queen palms.

Moody noted both are sold at Lowes and Home Depot. Why even list those plants, which the county acknowledged haven’t caused any ecological damage yet, he asked.

Assistant County Attorney Elizabeth Blair said that homeowners associations and not individual homeowners were responsible for following the provisions of the ordinance.

Getting rid of the invasive plants has not been easy. Moody said, “One hundred years of science hasn’t figured out how to get rid of it,” but now the county is asking the development community to do it. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t try,” he said. “I think we have to have reasonable expectations when we do it.”

Goldstein said he had some concern that those responsible for following the new rules might find it easier to eradicate the invasive plants by clear-cutting areas that also included protected plants and trees, but county development review manager Brad Tippin said the county would review each plan to be sure it was appropriate.

Planning Commissioner Jamie Girardi said he understood the reason for the proposed ordinance but it “went way over and above the intent” in its early form. Planning commissioners voted to continue the discussion on July 11 after staff has time to consider their comments.