Monday, April 25, 2011

Sacramento Bee: City of Elk Grove's New Tree Ordinance

Elk Grove's new tree ordinance takes root

Published: Monday, Apr. 25, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 3B
Elk Grove has branched out from its county roots by adopting a new tree ordinance that will nurture the city's urban forest while giving homeowners and developers plenty of options.

When Elk Grove incorporated in 2000, the city inherited Sacramento County's tree ordinance, which was vague, said Christopher Jordan, the city's planning manager.

After three years of public wrangling, the City Council unanimously voted for the revised tree ordinance in February, and the city started implementing the rules this month.

The ordinance adds more local species to the list of protected trees, provides a landmark tree designation to protect trees of interest, and offers more alternatives to mitigating the loss of trees.

Cindy Blain, operations director for the Sacramento Tree Foundation, said Elk Grove's rules are innovative in some key areas, including giving credits for protection of smaller trees.

"Typically, when someone takes out a tree 6 inches or more in diameter, they have to replace them or pay a fee," Blain said. "But with this ordinance, the city gives credit for preserving smaller trees of certain species. Since the trees already exist on the site, it makes the likelihood of their surviving much better."

Blain also lauded the city for discouraging efforts to relocate trees, especially larger oaks, as a mitigation measure. Often, she said, relocating a tree means "slow death."

Elk Grove's ordinance makes that a last resort, and requires monitoring of relocated trees for up to 10 years.
Moving some trees is impractical, Blain said: "Native oaks are kind of cranky. As they get older, they don't like to be disturbed or upset."

The previous ordinance protected several kinds of native oaks. The city has added California sycamore and California black walnut to the list of protected species, recognizing those varieties to be locally important, Jordan said.

John Costa, senior legislative advocate for the North State Building Industry Association, said the ordinance is more aggressive than most. Expanding the protected list alarmed builders at first.

"We had concerns with adding species, because that adds costs to projects," said Costa, who participated in public hearings on the ordinance. "But we're comfortable with those on the list. Most of them are not in the path of proposed development."

Costa said the new ordinance provides more incentives and ways to mitigate for tree removal during property development.

The city now allows developers to mitigate for tree removal by incorporating those species into their landscape designs, an idea pitched by the building community, Jordan said.

The ordinance also created a "landmark tree program," which allows the City Council to pass resolutions to preserve certain trees because of their size, shape, type, location in the community or historic or cultural value. The designation is modeled on a similar program in Davis.

"There are a number of trees around the community that maybe don't fall into our list of protected species, but are either stately, or in a prominent location, or stand out because of their size or shape," Jordan said.

"It's for these trees we created a new category."

Property owners who wanted to remove a tree for safety reasons previously had to replant trees of similar size, but can now plant smaller trees or have the requirement waived, depending on an arborist's evaluation of the tree.

Jordan said the ordinance reflects the city's commitment to protecting and increasing the tree canopy for energy efficiency, air and water quality, and aesthetics.

"Trees are a part of the city's heritage; it's on our logo and in our branding," Jordan said. "It's a big part of the community."

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