Rowlett planners recommend approval of tree-removal permit after developer removed trees before permit was issued

The City of Rowlett Planning and Zoning Commission on April 8 recommended that the City Council approve a tree-removal permit and related mitigation for a property in Rowlett Business Park after staff said contractors removed protected trees before obtaining a permit.

City staff member Liliana Morinon told commissioners the permit request concerns property in the Rowlett Business Park (lots described in the agenda) and that a compliance review showed 48 trees originally on the site. Of those, staff said, 30 trees were protected under the development code and 24 of those protected trees were proposed to be removed. Staff calculated mitigation at roughly 247 caliper inches of protected trees, which staff said equated to about $30,000 owed to the city’s reforestation/mitigation fund if the applicant does not replant equivalent caliper inches on-site.

The applicant’s representative told the commission the contractor had been informed at a pre-construction meeting that a tree-removal permit was required and that the permit application was submitted the same day the trees were removed. Commissioners pressed the applicant about whether the developer could plant additional trees beyond the landscaping plan to reduce payment to the reforestation fund; staff said the landscape and tree-mitigation requirements are separate and that additional voluntary plantings do not always offset the mitigation calculation unless they meet specific code criteria.

Commissioners raised concern that this was not the first recent instance in which trees were removed without an approved permit. One commissioner said the ordinance’s intent is to preserve larger, mature trees and expressed frustration that demolition often precedes permit approval, leaving the reforestation fund as the remedy.

Commissioner Menendez moved to recommend approval of the tree-removal permit with the mitigation chart as presented; the motion received a second and the commission proceeded to a vote. The motion passed; the written vote tally was not specified in the transcript.

The matter will go to the City Council for final action; staff advised the commission that applicants may still discuss which specific trees should receive credit but noted that some opportunities for credit were lost when the protected trees were removed prior to permit approval.