Tree Ordinance Discussion Bears Fruit
Atlanta is known for being a ‘City in a Forest’, however our lush canopy is presently threatened by Atlanta’s rapid pace of development, and city tree protection ordinance whose bark is worse than its bite, encouraging developers to simply price fines into their development costs instead of working to accommodate existing growth.
City Council took up the issue early in 2020 and a consulting firm hired to produce a plan released a draft in March; although little motion has taken place publicly since. Cut to June 25th – during a Council work session a coalition of stakeholders led by Chet Tisdale (a retired environmental attorney who serves on the City’s Tree Conservation Commission) presented their alternative version of an ordinance to a receptive Council.
Among the reasons the homegrown version has received praise; it places the tree protection discussion with developers upfront in the permitting process – A major problem with the status quo has been that discussions about tree protection come after much of the site planning is done. The citizens-led paper also eschews a one-size-fits-all fee for removed trees, and instead utilizes a matrix to value trees of differing environmental contribution at different levels, and to assess significant fees for the removal of irreplaceable ones.
Over two hours of public comment messages were left by concerned citizens pushing for Council to adopt the more stringent, grassroots ordinance – a welcome tide of engagement on an issue that is sure to have impacts on Atlanta’s shape for decades to come. While Atlanta’s treeline is much beloved, 60% of its leafy covering is located on land zoned for single family homes; meaning that the majority of what we stand to lose is in the hands of homeowners and developers.
