Bamboo can stay, magistrate rules

BELLEAIR BLUFFS — The Great Bamboo Battle is over.

Or is it?

On Oct. 2, a special magistrate ruled against the city’s code enforcement case involving former Clearwater mayor Frank Hibbard, finding that the towering bamboo separating his waterfront home from a neighboring condominium complex did not meet the legal definition of a “nuisance.”

The ruling by Special Magistrate Bart Valdes ends — at least for now — a case that threatened Hibbard and his wife, Teresa, with fines of up to $250 a day and cost the couple five figures in legal expenses.

“We're obviously pleased,” Hibbard said after the hearing. “I think [Valdes] made the right decision. That being said, I'm not happy about having to spend $10,000 to defend it.”

Belleair Bluffs cited the Hibbards in March, contending that leaves and other debris falling from bamboo along their property line created a nuisance for residents of the neighboring Harbour Club condominium complex.

The city wanted the couple to either remove the bamboo — estimated by witnesses at 35 to 45 feet tall — or cut it back to 6 feet. Hibbard testified last month that removing it could cost up to $50,000.

He argued that the bamboo, which was already there when the couple bought their $2.95 million home with a pool and dock in October 2024, provides an important privacy screen from the four-story condominium building next door.

During a Sept. 1 hearing that lasted more than four hours, condo residents testified that the bamboo drops debris onto their property, shades landscaping and bends or falls toward parked vehicles. Some said vehicles had been damaged.

Hibbard countered that the city was selectively enforcing its code and that similar tall bamboo can be found elsewhere in Belleair Bluffs.

Not a nuisance

Valdes delayed ruling last month after questioning several aspects of the city’s case, including whether the city had followed the proper procedure in initiating enforcement.

He determined that Belleair Bluffs had satisfied the procedural requirement intended to prevent code enforcement cases from being initiated through anonymous complaints.

The “real” issue, he said, was proving that the bamboo met the definition of a nuisance under the specific section cited in the violation notice.

The city relied on a code provision defining a nuisance as something that “essentially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property.”

Valdes said it didn't.

He pointed to two Florida court decisions cited by the attorneys, including Gallo v. Heller, a 1987 appeals court ruling that owners generally aren't liable to neighbors for problems caused by healthy trees and other natural vegetation growing on their property.

Instead, adjoining property owners may trim branches, roots and other vegetation that encroach onto their property at their own expense.

Valdes said Scott v. McCarty, a 2010 appeals court decision that reaffirmed Gallo, similarly dealt with overhanging branches and roots.

“I just don't think factually and legally it meets the definition of a nuisance,” he said of the city's case.

Could the city try again?

The ruling may not necessarily end the dispute.

Valdes noted that he was deciding only whether the bamboo violated the nuisance provisions cited by the city. Other sections of Belleair Bluffs' code address excessive growth of grasses and dense vegetation.

“One thing the experts, I think, agreed on is that bamboo is a grass,” he said, referring to last month's testimony.

Asked afterward whether he was concerned the city might issue another violation under a different section of its code, Hibbard said he wouldn't be surprised.

“I wouldn't be shocked,” he said. “ I think at some point, it's going to be harassment. You know, we'll have to deal with that as it comes.”

City Attorney Nancy Meyer declined to comment on the ruling as she was leaving the hearing room.

The former mayor of Tampa Bay's third-largest city — who made national news in 2023 by abruptly resigning during the middle of a city council meeting over a new Clearwater City Hall that’s scheduled to open this month -– accused Belleair Bluffs of targeting him and his wife.

“I think the local government was weaponized,” he said. “They're using my tax dollars to go after us.”

Asked whether he would voluntarily do anything to address the condo residents' concerns, Hibbard said he wasn’t sure.

“I don't really think it's our responsibility,” he said. “But, again, we want to be good neighbors. Sure, we’ll probably talk about that. They're mad right now. But yeah, we're gonna live next to each other for a long time.”

Hibbard's attorney, Nathan Hightower, will prepare a proposed order and submit it to Meyer for review before it goes to the magistrate.

As the room was clearing out, someone wished Hibbard an enjoyable weekend.

“It just got better,” he said.