BROWNSVILLE — Councilors will consider retooling the city’s weed ordinance at tonight’s meeting of the Brownsville City Council.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in Fisher Hall, upstairs, at City Hall, 255 N. Main Street. The amended ordinance is scheduled for a first reading.

The current ordinance says during the prime growing season — June 1 to Sept. 30 — property owners are responsible for cutting down any “noxious vegetation.”

Some property owners had complained about the definition of the vegetation and the rules for where it could and couldn’t grow, City Administrator Scott McDowell said.

The current ordinance defines the vegetation as weeds more than 24 inches high, grass more than 10 inches high, poison oak, poison ivy, blackberry bushes that extend into public thoroughfare or across a property line, and any vegetation considered a health, fire or traffic hazard.

The ordinance includes several subsections defining various setback rules depending on whether the lots are more or less than half an acre, within special development zones, or near streets or adjacent dwellings.

The proposed amendment changes the definition to include both weeds and grass more than 12 inches high. It also says it is not allowed anywhere within the city limits, or within 30 feet of structures or 20 feet of roadways or property lines on lots of more than one acre.

Realistically, McDowell said, no one is going to want to evaluate vegetation to see whether it’s weeds or grass before determining whether it’s too long. Also, some property owners weren’t happy that someone with a half-acre lot had to mow while a neighbor with a lot just a shade bigger didn’t have to.