Former Clearwater mayor battles Belleair Bluffs over bamboo

BELLEAIR BLUFFS — He became known more for quitting in the middle of a city council meeting than for the 10 years he served as Clearwater’s mayor.

More than three years after his sudden resignation made national news, Frank Hibbard was back inside a municipal chamber Sept. 1, arguing that a code enforcement case against him and his wife should be tossed.

The issue: bamboo.

Lots of it.

The towering stand forms a privacy screen between the Hibbards’ waterfront home, at 160 Bluff View Dr., and the Harbour Club condominiums next door.

In March, Belleair Bluffs cited Hibbard and his wife, Teresa, contending that leaves and other debris falling from the dense vegetation create a nuisance for residents of the neighboring condo complex.

The city wants the Hibbards to either remove the bamboo — estimated by various hearing witnesses at 35 to 45 feet tall — or cut it back to 6 feet.

After failing to comply within 30 days, the Hibbards were brought before a special magistrate and now face fines of up to $250 a day if found in violation.

After a more than four-hour hearing, though, Special Magistrate Bart Valdes wasn’t ready to issue a ruling.

In fact, Valdes questioned several aspects of the city’s case — including whether it had cited the Hibbards under the correct section of code and whether the enforcement case was properly initiated.

“What I want to do is follow the law, and I want to get it right,” he said, directing attorneys on both sides to submit case law supporting their positions before he rules.

A $50,000 privacy screen

The Hibbards paid $2.95 million for their 3,554-square-foot pool home in October 2024 with the bamboo already there. Hibbard testified that it was an important part of the nearly 1-acre property because it shields the home and backyard from a four-story condo building to the south.

“Having 13 years of municipal government experience, I felt pretty confident that the buffer was completely legal,” the former Clearwater mayor and council member said.

Hibbard also contends he is being singled out, saying bamboo 20 to 30 feet tall can be found “all over” Belleair Bluffs.

“I personally feel like this is selective enforcement,” said the financial advisor and wealth manager, wearing a blue blazer and unbuttoned white shirt.

Getting rid of it wouldn’t be cheap.

Hibbard said one company estimated it would cost about $50,000 to remove the bamboo. The work would involve cutting it down in stages, digging out its underground base and bringing in topsoil.

The city’s case rests on two provisions of its nuisance ordinance. One defines a nuisance as a condition that “injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, or safety of others.” Another covers something that “essentially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property.”

This wasn’t the city’s first attempt to address the bamboo.

In 2024, Belleair Bluffs issued a violation notice to the property’s previous owners, citing a code provision covering excessive growth of weeds or grasses. That case was later closed because the provision did not apply.

What the witnesses said

Veteran Pinellas County sheriff’s deputy Anthony D’Angelo, who has handled code enforcement in Belleair Bluffs for 10 years, testified that the “super tall” bamboo drops leaves and other debris onto the condo property and can bend over toward parked vehicles. Some condo residents testified that bamboo had bent or fallen onto vehicles, causing damage.

But under questioning from Hibbard’s Clearwater attorney, Nathan Hightower — who brought a baggie of bamboo leaves to the hearing as an exhibit — D’Angelo acknowledged that the nuisance provisions contain no 6-foot height restriction.

Steve Robinson, a horticulturalist with Pinellas County, testified that bamboo — which he called a type of grass rather than a tree — can drop leaves and sheath-like material throughout the year and that the debris can be slow to decompose. Shown Hightower’s bag of leaves, Robinson said they appeared to have come from bamboo plants.

But Robinson said he had inspected the property only once, in 2023, and had not returned during the current enforcement case.

Asked by Valdes whether the bamboo he saw then posed the kind of danger described in the nuisance ordinance, Robinson recalled standing downwind of it on a gusty day and said, “I did not feel threatened by the bamboo to my north.”

Brigid Donohue, a condo resident since 2021, said the bamboo — which she estimated extends east-west for about 200 feet — casts so much shade that landscaping won’t grow along that side of the complex.

“We live in a multimillion-dollar property. We should be able to plant things that make us happy,” she said. “And all we have is debris and a vegetative wall that far exceeds what screening is meant to do. And it's invading our community.”

Katherine Barbush, who said she has lived at the condominium since 2004 and served as its board president for five years, said she has picked bamboo debris off walkways and seen it make its way into a stormwater drain.

“For the last five years, I think it's just been an aggravation to a lot of residents,” she said. “It's not only that it's a mess out there, especially after storms, but the people have lost their views and are concerned about their properties losing value.”

The Hibbards called Alan Mayberry, a longtime municipal landscaping and tree-code specialist who worked for Clearwater while Hibbard was mayor. He identified the plants as a clumping variety of the Bambusa genus that does not spread aggressively like running bamboo.

Under cross-examination by City Attorney Nancy Meyer, Mayberry acknowledged that while the bamboo wasn't spreading onto the condo property at ground level, its canopy extended over the property line.

Mayberry said the bamboo sheds leaves but does not pose the constant maintenance or safety problem described by the city. He said ordinary leaf shedding generally isn’t grounds for removing vegetation and also backed the Hibbards’ contention that the bamboo provides legitimate privacy and screening from the multistory building next door.

R. Carlton Ward, a longtime Clearwater attorney who said he has lived on Bluff View Drive since 1984, also sided with the Hibbards. Ward said vegetation routinely sheds onto neighboring properties and argued that the bamboo did not rise to the level of a nuisance under the city code.

He urged Valdes to weigh the condo residents’ complaints against the Hibbards’ right to privacy from a four-story building overlooking their backyard and home.

Which code applies?

After both sides rested, Valdes focused on the city code itself. He noted that another section specifically addresses “an intermixed or dense, uncared-for growth of trees, plants, vines, or brush.”

Looking at photographs of the Hibbards’ bamboo, he said it appeared overgrown. But that wasn’t the violation before him.

He said he could rule only on the two nuisance sections cited in the violation notice, although the parties could wind up before him again under other sections of the code.

As for whether falling bamboo leaves “injure or endanger” anyone, Valdes appeared uncertain.

He also wanted the attorneys to address what the word “essentially” means in the provision prohibiting interference with the comfortable enjoyment of property — including how the bamboo actually affects neighboring residents’ use of their condominium units.

Valdes also questioned whether Belleair Bluffs followed the proper procedure in initiating the case.

Hightower argued that the enforcement effort originated with City Hall rather than with a complaint from a member of the public. D’Angelo acknowledged that the city attorney had directed his attention to the property, much as City Administrator Debra Sullivan had done during the 2024 case involving the same bamboo.

That prompted Valdes to question whether the city had met a procedural requirement before bringing the case.

He said he didn't want to rule only to have a circuit judge send it back because the city had failed to comply with a required step.

Valdes told the attorneys he had read through the ordinances — even a chapter that regulates fortune telling — and found "there's more definitions in the garage sales section than there is in the nuisance section.”

A final ruling may not come until October.

So for now, at least, the bamboo can stay.

And Hibbard, whose last memorable departure from a municipal chamber — over a new City Hall that's set to open next month — was decidedly abrupt, left this one with no such drama.