Chapel Hill residents spar over bamboo forest

Bamboo: a panda’s favorite food source and at least one homeowner’s worst nightmare.

Chapel Hill resident Gregg Marcellus said bamboo is invading his yard. The bamboo forest in his neighbor’s yard has roots that grow underground and spread onto his property.

Marcellus has lived in his house for nine years, and he has been dealing with the neighbor’s invasive bamboo since he moved in.

He sent an email to the Chapel Hill Town Council asking about any ordinances that would deal with the bamboo invasion and require his neighbor to put in a barrier to prevent spread.

“I usually just knock it down, but eventually you have to dig the roots out,” Marcellus said in a telephone interview. “I probably dug about 15 feet to dig underneath the roots, but then there are extensions you have to dig around. It was a day of back-breaking work.”

Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants, with some species growing 24 to 36 inches in a day. Marcellus said his neighbor’s yard is filled with bamboo stalks that are 50 to 60 feet tall.

“It is just a wall of bamboo when I look out my window — towering in the air,” he said.

In Long Island, N.Y., invasive bamboo is such an issue among homeowners that one municipality charges a fine of $350 and up to 15 days in jail for planting the bamboo. Another town in the area will charge up to $2,000 for a first offense and $3,000 for subsequent violations.

Mike Klein, a zoning enforcement officer for Chapel Hill, said bamboo is not specifically listed on the schedule of invasive species, so there is not an ordinance in place to address Marcellus’ complaint.

“It is a private party dispute between property owners,” Klein said.

Landscape architect Emily Cameron said this kind of dispute between homeowners is a civil matter since it occurs on a single-family residential lot.

“If a developer were to propose planting it as part of a non-residential, multifamily, commercial or mixed-use project, the town would only allow it in a planter or container with proper root control,” Cameron said in an email. “I don’t recall bamboo being proposed on a development project in the last 15 years.”

Marcellus has gotten in touch with his neighbor before but has just been told to be patient. He said two other houses in his neighborhood are also impacted by the spreading bamboo.

“All I want him to do is create a barrier so the bamboo can’t go from his yard to my yard,” Marcellus said.

Homeowners can buy a plastic sheet to build a barrier to protect and control bamboo. Two hundred feet of the plastic can cost around $400.

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