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Commissioner Margaret Stinnett has not
chained herself to a threatened Wake
Forest tree yet, but she might,
depending on the tree.
Tuesday night she had the
most questions about the draft landscape
section in the town’s zoning ordinance,
and she scored one victory out of two
concerns.
The full board agreed with
her to change the size of the canopy and
understory trees which will be
considered for saving in new
developments.
Stinnett is still arguing
against the need to remove old trees
which have been topped or severely
pruned for years.
“I think you’ve done a
pretty good job,” Stinnett said of the
reworked, improved landscape section,
“but I want more teeth.”
Specifically she wanted to
reduce measurement for preserving trees
from 24 inches to 20 inches for canopy
trees and from 10 inches to 8 inches for
understory trees. It is hard to find a
mature dogwood that has a 10-inch
diameter, she said, and the 24-inch
standard for canopy trees means
developers overlook the smaller 20- to
23-inch trees.
Stinnett again read the
town’s mandate for the Urban Forestry
Board (also referred to as the tree
board), which she says gives the board
great power. “They’re like the final
authority on trees. I thought they were
supposed to be an advisory board.”
The tree board has said that
there will be no more topping – cutting
the crown out of the tree completely
off. Topping and severe pruning were
done for years to keep limbs away from
power lines.
“The tree board has said no
topping trees and therefore it has to
come down, You’re going to cut the tree
down because it’s been incorrectly
pruned for fifty years?” Stinnett asked.
Lisa Potts, the town planner
who is the staff person for the tree
board, said the alternative is to leave
the town open to liability if the tree
or a limb falls. Trees that have been
improperly pruned are usually decaying
inside.
“I don’t want the tree board
to have that authority,” Stinnett said.
“They’ve been topped and
topped for years and years. You really
have ruined the structure of the tree.
The best thing to do is to remove it and
replace it,” Potts said
“That’s fine if we have a
tree replacement policy,” Stinnett said.
Mayor Vivian Jones said that
the tree board and Potts are basing
their decisions on the best practices in
the industry. “We have very good people
on the tree board and they are very
concerned. If we think they’re not doing
what we want them to do, we can change
that. I don’t think they’re doing it
willy-nilly.”
Commissioner Velma Boyd, who
is the board liaison to the tree board,
said the minutes from the board
meetings, which the commissioners
receive, do not reflect the extensive
dialogue among the members.
Planning Director Chip
Russell said most of the town trees are
aging, “are facing out. Five to ten
years from now, we’re going to have to
take them down. That’s going to be
significant.”
The commissioners did not
decide on another meeting time to
continue the discussion about the draft.
Stinnett said her brain was tired after
an hour and a half of talk about trees
on top of an hour and a half
presentation about the town’s customer
service.
There will be a public
hearing about the ordinance changes
before they are adopted, and the public
will be able to read the draft and
comment on it. |
