Interlaken Park (Image: City of Seattle)
The Seattle City Council’s Land Use Committee has a marathon session in store Thursday as it tackles updating the city’s tree protections.
Council staff says the tree legislation is being tackled in two meetings Thursday including a morning session and an afternoon round to vote on over 50 amendments being proposed for the updated legislation.
The draft bill would create incentives and code flexibility “to better protect trees, include more trees in the regulations, plant / replace more trees, and establish a payment in-lieu program to provide flexibility for tree replacement and address racial inequities and environmental justice disparities, amongst other changes.”
A full roster of the proposed amendments can be reviewed here on the committee’s agenda (PDF). A report on the updates from the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections is below:
The newly formed Seattle Arborist Association representing 200 professional arborists says the proposals will hurt the city’s canopy, not help it, saying the proposals will “not only disincentivizes tree ownership” but also “burdens qualified tree professionals” who care for and manage Seattle’s urban forest.
Urbanists, meanwhile, say the new regulations could slow much needed housing development. CHS reported here on the proposals that backers say would create incentives and code flexibility to better protect trees, include more trees in the regulations, plant or replace more trees, and establish a payment in-lieu program to provide flexibility for tree replacement and address racial inequities and environmental justice disparities, amongst other changes. The new protections would also create regulations protecting designated “heritage trees” that can’t be removed unless deemed hazardous or in an emergency.
If it can make its way through the public testimony and amendments, the committee could vote on the final package Thursday with a vote from the full council next week.
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The option of increasing the city’s canopy by having new construction fund the placing of power lines underground wasn’t put on the table.
Fully agree.
Instead we have this money grab: “establish a payment in-lieu program”. Atrocious.
Cannot wait for next City Council election.
Good idea! We could have taller trees in our backyard were it not for power lines.
I completely agree on the underground lines.
I also would like to see developers or building owners be required to plant more mature trees and to water these trees for at least the first three years after installation.
If the trees they install die, they should be required to replace and maintain them too. So often I see tiny scrawny trees plopped in the ground in front of new construction and by late August, they are dead.
It would probably have failed, as did important amendments that would have made the legislation actually effective in preserving existing canopy.