Hempstead, NY Invasive Plant Rules: Bamboo Restrictions (2026)

Town Code § 128-61A(3), added by Local Law No. 55-2012 effective July 25, 2012, makes it unlawful for any owner, agent or person in possession of improved real property to permit the planting, growing and/or maintaining of bamboo, whether it originated on that property or encroached onto it from a neighboring lot. ' Both subsections define bamboo the same way: 'any tropical or semi-tropical grass of the genera Bambusa, Dendrocalamus or of any other related genera,' so ornamental clumping varieties fall under the ban along with aggressive running bamboo.

Because the prohibition sits inside § 128-61, the same maintenance-of-premises article that governs weeds and rubbish, it uses the same enforcement machinery: the Sanitation Department can serve a notice of violation under § 128-62, the property owner gets five days to remove the bamboo under § 128-63, and if the owner fails to act, the Town can enter, remove it, and bill the cost plus 6% annual interest as a lien on the next tax bill. The Commissioner of the Department of Sanitation, under § 128-64, is responsible for enforcing the bamboo ban just as for the height and rubbish provisions in the same section.