Lake City Council tables first-reading tree ordinance after questions about maintenance, planting sources

Lake City — At a special Lake City Council meeting on Feb. 26, 2025, council members voted unanimously to table Ordinance 2025.001, a first-reading measure to re-establish the city's tree ordinance and create an advisory tree board to make recommendations on public tree management.

The ordinance matters because it sets who will advise the city on planting, maintenance and removal of trees, and because much of the initial planting under the related Trees for SC program will be on private property and school grounds rather than on the city's public tree inventory.

City staff member Lisa Jones told the council that the local Trees for SC effort is sourcing trees through a South Carolina Forestry Commission grant and that the Green Infrastructure Center is coordinating procurement. "The trees that we are getting from Trees for SC are purchased through South Carolina Forestry Commission, Grant. The Green Infrastructure Center is acquiring them," Jones said. She said the program uses several nurseries and the Clemson Extension Service depending on tree variety and timing, and that the next planting is scheduled in the Martha Law neighborhood.

Jones said the project will include plantings on private property and on school grounds; the city will help install trees on school property but is not planning broad public-tree installation as part of this phase. "At this point, the planting that we are doing is all on private property right now or the school," she said, and added that private landowners who request trees are expected to install and maintain them. Jones also said three arborists are advising the project, including one from the Green Infrastructure Center, one from the South Carolina Forestry Commission and one from Moore Farms, and that tree sizes will vary from small shrubs to shade trees that can reach about 30 feet.

Council members raised several concerns during discussion, including who will maintain trees over time, potential impacts to underground utilities, sidewalks and sewer piping, and how utility-line clearance and topping restrictions are handled in the ordinance text. One council member pressed staff on whether city crews or private contractors would perform maintenance; Jones replied that the ordinance primarily establishes an advisory board and that any city involvement in public-tree planting or maintenance would require further Council direction and potential funding decisions.

Council members also discussed the proposed composition of the tree board. The ordinance text calls for a five-member board; Jones said the city had received roughly 10 to 12 applications and that staff had considered a larger board to ensure quorum but did not change the ordinance text in this draft. Jones offered to circulate the submitted ordinance text to councilmembers and asked them to provide edits; councilmembers asked to receive that text so they could submit non-contradictory edits for staff to integrate before returning the ordinance for first reading.

Separately, Jones updated council on related funding and blight-remediation matters. She said the city recently secured a separate grant from the South Carolina Forestry Commission to support a food-forest project, and that a separate application to fund a tree-maintenance team (sourced to Inflation Reduction Act funds) remains pending. On property blight, Jones said a prior CDBG-funded demolition program originally identified 38 properties and that the city completed work on 18 of them; she said additional CDBG funds are the most realistic route for future demolition funding but that options are limited.

Votes at a glance: - Ordinance 2025.001 (first reading; establishment, maintenance, protection and removal of public trees): motion to approve was moved and seconded on the floor, then superseded by a motion to table. Motion to table was made from the floor and seconded; council voted to table the ordinance. Outcome: tabled (vote announced as "all in favor; none opposed"). - Motion to enter executive session pursuant to the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, sections 30-4-70(a)(1) and (2) (personnel and receipt of legal advice): moved, seconded and approved by voice vote.

What happens next: Staff will circulate the ordinance text to councilmembers with instructions to submit edits; council asked staff to integrate edits where possible and to return the ordinance for formal first reading at a future meeting. Jones said she will continue to pursue grant funding for planting and maintenance and will inform council about any awards.

Quotes from the meeting are verbatim and attributed to meeting speakers as recorded in the transcript.