WEST POINT — Welcome to the city where livestock in your yard is optional; landscaping is not.
In a somewhat contradictory move, the City Council, which has encouraged livestock ownership and even made it illegal to complain about farm odors and sounds, has now banned residents from keeping non-landscaped front yards.
The new law, approved Tuesday, mandates that residents have shrubbery, cropped lawns or Southwestern-style rock landscaping — not grazing land.
Similar laws have been employed for years by large cities, but the urban varieties of such rules often take the form of nuisance ordinances that require residents to keep their yards weed free.
However, the laws aren't as popular in rural areas where land for grazing may be more desired than rows of daisies, civil-rights attorney Brian Barnard said.
"There might be some people in rural areas who are used to pasturing their horse in the front yard that might be offended by it," he said.
The laws aren't unconstitutional, according to Barnard, because they offer folks options between various landscape styles.
"They can tell me to have grass, but they aren't going to be dictating to me that I have to have bluegrass as opposed to Bermuda grass," Barnard said.
Before voting for the measure, West Point leaders debated the law, which restricts personal and livestock freedom and forces additional expense on homeowners.
There were some complaints from homeowners who said the law handcuffed people who couldn't afford or didn't want landscaping.
In somewhat of a compromise, the council edited the ordinance to exclude a provision requiring a tree in every front yard.
"I think it's stepping over the authority that the local government has to tell people that they have to have a tree in their front yard," Mayor Jay Ritchie said. "That's an improper mandate from local government."
What wasn't improper, the council decided, was forcing folks to have landscaped front yards within a year after they move onto a property.
"There are probably some that think we are putting people in a bind, but you need to budget for that when you build your house," Davis said. "The affordability issue becomes a moot point when you're budgeting a $180,000 to $220,000 home."
Indeed, most homes in West Point are relatively pricey and the council decided that if residents could afford expensive digs they could afford some grass and bushes here and there.
"Our view is that if you can afford to buy a house you need to find a way to landscape, even if all you do is put in grass or boulders," Ritchie said.
What the city doesn't want is huge homes with dirt, mud or a horse pasture in the front yard.
And even Barnard — who often campaigns against government control — agrees the ordinance is a good thing.
"I don't want to live next to a weed pile," he said.
E-MAIL: bsnyder@desnews.com