New London bamboo grower may sue city
New London — The attorney for a man facing a criminal charge over the growth of his bamboo has filed a notice of intent to sue the city, claiming city officials are unfairly exerting pressure and harassing his client in order to force him to cut down the plants.
Attorney Daryl Justin Finizio, the former New London mayor, claims the city not only continues to pursue a criminal case but recently notified him of the possibility of a separate civil action against Carlos Carrion over the bamboo forest growing for decades on his property at 16 Borodell Place.
“The City has taken extraordinary steps to pursue Mr. Carrion in numerous legal forums, even violating
their own ordinances to do so. My client just wants to be left alone,” Finizio said.
Carrion was initially cited by the city’s blight officer last year for not maintaining his property and not trimming the towering bamboo away from his property line. What started as a civil case and a court judgment for $13,500 in fines and penalties mushroomed into the first criminal charge levied under a revised blight ordinance passed in 2015 that allows for fines of up to $250 a day.
During a blight hearing last year, Carrion was ruled to be in violation of the city property maintenance code regarding care of cultivated plants. He was ordered to trim the bamboo back and cut root systems that were beyond the property line. The city claims the criminal charge was the result of Carrion ignoring the city’s requests to cut the bamboo back and remove dead stalks. Finizio said Carrion has since complied with the order.
The original civil case against Carrion, which Finizio said violated a city ordinance, has since been withdrawn, but Finizio said city law director, Jeffrey Londregan, recently notified him of the city’s intent to pursue a different civil case under a state statute pertaining to spreading bamboo.
“A whole new legal rationale only proves Mr. Carrion’s point they have been harassing him,” Finizio said.
A state law passed in 2013 prohibits state residents from planting “running bamboo,” of the genus Phyllostachys, a certain distance from a neighboring property unless it is in a container or there is a barrier system to ensure it does not spread. Certain bamboo plants spread rapidly by sending out rhizomes, or rootlike stems that spread horizontally underground. Carrion claims his bamboo is a Fargesias variety, a clumping form of bamboo.
Finizio said he was “shocked” when he was notified of the city’s attempt at a new enforcement action since not only does Carrion maintain that the bamboo in his yard is a clumping variety but the state statute applies only to bamboo planted after Oct. 1, 2013.
“As long as the bamboo does not cross the boundaries of Mr. Carrion’s property, whether it is ‘running’ or ‘clumping’ bamboo, Mr. Carrion has the right to keep and maintain it by law,” Finizio said.
Finizio said he has proposed to the city that in exchange for $500, Carrion would agree not to pursue claims against the city and sign an agreement that he would continue to maintain his property.
The Jan. 5 notice of intent to sue filed in the city clerk’s office calls the proposed legal action an attempt to “recover for wrongs, injuries and damages,” Carrion sustained under the direction of Mayor Michael Passero and acting through the City’s Chief Administrative Officer Steven Fields and Blight Enforcement Officer Kenyon Haye.
City officials, including Londregan and Haye, did not respond to requests for comment on Monday. Passero said he could not comment because of the pending litigation. The criminal case against Carrion is pending in New London Superior Court, where he has entered a not guilty plea.