Woodsburgh restricts bamboo, cats, dogs

Woodsburgh Village officials passed laws Wednesday night restricting household flora and fauna -- plants and pets.

The village board of trustees approved a law prohibiting residents from planting bamboo and another to limit the number of household pets to six.

"They are very hard to eradicate," Village Attorney A. Thomas Levin said of bamboo plants. "The law would prohibit future planting of bamboo."

Under the law, no species of the invasive plant can be planted in the village.

Resident Pamela Newman Daphna, who has bamboo on her property, said she was very upset the village prohibited bamboo. As an avid gardener, she was very careful with her bamboo and sealed the roots of the plant with cement, she said.

"I didn't know that a village could dictate which plants you could grow," said Newman Daphna, 52.

Property owners who already have bamboo, like Newman Daphna, would be responsible for confining the plant to their property. They would have to take any "reasonable action" to prevent bamboo from invading other properties and would be liable for expenses incurred by the owner of the invaded property.

The Town of Smithtown is also considering a bamboo ban, but officials have said enforcing it would be problematic.

Village officials also passed the law limiting to six the number of animals in a household. No person could keep more than three cats and three dogs.

The law limits the number of cats in a household for the first time, but a previous law limited the number of dogs.

"The village had gotten complains on cats on premises," Mayor Susan Schlaff said.