Health & Environment Committee hold a public hearing to discuss the City’s Tree Ordinance and possible ways to improve this ordinance to protect our tree canopy while protecting individual property rights

ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to confer with the City Arborist, the Department of Public Works, and all other appropriate City departments to suggest reasonable and feasible updates to the Tree Protection Ordinance to provide broader protections for trees on private property; such measures could include requiring owners who remove trees to plant Replacement Trees or pay into the Tree Replacement Fund and/or requiring a permit to cut down a tree on private property; and be it further ORDERED: That amount of the required payment into the Tree Replacement Fund be reviewed in light of the increased costs to the City of planting, watering and maintaining new trees; and be it further ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to report back on this matter and on other efforts to plant and protect trees at a public hearing of the Health and Environment Committee to be scheduled in the early fall of 2016.