Award-Winning Garden Fined For 'Weed' Violation

Area resident Kathleen Cummings prides herself on her native plant garden.

The Humboldt Park resident, who lives on West Thomas Street not far from Western Avenue, spent endless hours cultivating it and has even been recognized by the City of Chicago for her efforts. So when she got her mail on Oct. 31, 2012, she was shocked to find a $600 ticket from the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation for having uncut weeds in her yard.

When Cummings and her friend Toran McCoy showed up to a Nov. 29 court date to contest the citation, Administrative Law Judge Gregory G. Plesha reviewed photos taken at the time the ticket was written and ruled that a milkweed plant in the garden violated city ordinance 7-28-120(a), which prohibits weeds taller than 10 inches.

"This isn't even the parkway," Cummings said. "These are in my yard. That just seems so unfair, so intrusive, to be ticketed for something in your own yard."

Contesting the charge added another $40 in administrative costs to the fine, bringing the total amount owed over the garden to $640. Cummings, 67, filed an appeal at the Daley Center on Dec. 31, although doing so involved another $317 fee upfront. She said milkweed—a plant native to the area and crucial to the lifecycle of Illinois' official state butterfly, the monarch—should not be classified as a weed.

Milkweed is one of the native plants covered by the city's Sustainable Backyards program, which encourages water conservation and environmental sustainability by offering rebates for people who purchase native plants for their property.

"They promote it and give money away for native plants and trees, and yet on the other hand they ticket for having native plants," Cummings said.

In addition to this contradiction, Cummings said she was surprised to see the ticket because her garden had been officially recognized as one of the best in the city, and she had been handed the plaque by former Mayor Richard M. Daley himself. Cummings's garden took first place for Naturalized Landscapes City-wide in Mayor Daley's 2004 Landscape Awards. It earned an honorable mention in 2005.

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Cummings said she doesn't want to pay the fine because that would mean considering herself guilty and saying milkweed is a weed. She's been asking neighbors, friends and fans of her garden to write her letters of support, as well as consulting with native plant experts on the best way to fight the charge.

She has a team of attorneys willing to work with her pro bono, she said, although they are still looking for someone with environmental experience to act as the legal lead on the case.

The experience of contesting the ticket has made it seem like the city is taking advantage of citizens to earn revenue, Cummings said.

"A friend told me that the city's broke and they are collecting just as much money as they can, and if you were in the room with us with the judge, I can't tell you how sad it was," she said. "Just these old people, you know, defenseless people, sick people, crippled people ... We're getting slapped with $600 fines."

Cummings also brought her woes to the attention of 1st Ward Ald. Joe Moreno, who wrote a letter on her behalf urging the city to consider her request to dismiss the ticket. She also suggested that the alderman introduce a motion to the City Council to have the weed ordinance amended.

"I don't think he agreed to that, but he was willing to stay in touch with me about this," Cummings said. "I think if we can get other aldermen interested, too, we could change the law pretty well."

She said pushing to get the ordinance changed would be a priority whether or not she wins her case, because she ultimately wants to encourage native gardens and ensure that other gardeners don't have to repeat her ordeal.

"The next step is to figure out who will be working together on this, because I've talked to a lot of people, and they are interested—not only in getting me off the hook, but to change the law so we don't have this problem and we encourage native plants to live in Chicago," Cummings said.