Mature canopy trees, like these live oaks at the Delray Beach Historical Society complex,
are being targeted for preservation with the legacy tree program.
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Rich Pollack
They are trees that catch your eye.
They are towering oaks, royal poincianas or banyans with large canopies that have provided shade and aesthetic beauty for decades.
Yet as South Florida continues to grow and become more urbanized, these “legacy” or “specimen” trees that have been standing for decades are more likely to be in the path of development.
Now Delray Beach is taking steps to help ensure those trees, as well as smaller ones in good condition, are preserved whenever possible.
A draft of a proposed tougher tree ordinance, with more teeth and significantly heftier fees than the current ordinance for destruction of trees, was recently presented to the city’s Planning and Zoning board for review. If approved by the board it could be winding its way to the City Commission within a few months.
“Our goal is to keep as much tree canopy around as possible,” says Bill Wilsher, the city’s senior landscape planner. “We want to preserve what we have and enhance it.”
In addition to providing improved aesthetics throughout the city, Wilsher said the larger trees and their canopy provide much needed shade and can enhance the city’s sustainability by cooling the air, filtering pollutants, reducing storm water runoff and cutting back carbon emissions.
“We’re trying to create an improved environment, and certainly trees play a factor in keeping down the heat,” he said, adding that trees can have a positive impact on property values.
Wilsher said the new ordinance is designed to encourage developers and owners of multiuse or commercial property to keep the trees they have, move viable trees to other locations within the same property, or move those trees off-site to a location agreed upon by the city.
City planners are hoping to encourage developers and property owners to work around existing viable trees when designing new projects.
“To the fullest extent possible, trees are to be preserved on-site and be protected from damage during the construction process,” according to the proposed ordinance.
If the trees cannot be moved, property owners will be charged an “in lieu of” fee — based on the size of the tree — which is placed in the city’s tree trust fund and used for the purchase and planting of trees elsewhere in the city.
Under the proposed ordinance, which is a comprehensive revamping of the existing one, the in-lieu fee for removing a tree — other than a palm tree — that is between 4 and 8 inches in diameter at breast height (DBH) would increase from $350 per diameter inch to $450 per inch.
While the current ordinance calls for an in-lieu fee of $450 per inch for any tree over 8 inches in diameter, the proposed ordinance has a graduated scale based on tree size, with higher fees for larger trees. Under the proposal, the in-lieu fee for trees 8 to 12 inches in diameter would be $650 per inch, $850 per inch for trees between 12 and 18 inches in diameter and $1,000 per inch for trees 18 inches in diameter or larger.
Because the fees are calculated on an escalating scale, the in-lieu fee for a tree with a 21-inch diameter, for example, could reach close to $13,000. That’s because, according to the proposed ordinance, there would be a charge of $450 an inch for the 5 inches of diameter above the first 3 inches, plus $650 an inch for the next 4 inches, plus $850 an inch for the next 6 inches, plus $1,000 an inch for the last 3 inches.
“One of our goals is to keep bigger trees,” Wilsher said.
The in-lieu fee for a palm tree is $500. All trees that are considered to be in poor condition are exempt from the fee but must be replaced on a tree-for-tree basis.
The proposed ordinance is expected to be back before the Planning and Zoning board next month, with the city staff returning with further explanation and justification for the increased fees.
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