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Parks commission reviews draft tree ordinance as step toward Tree City USA standards
Summary
Commission members reviewed a sample tree ordinance based on Tree City USA materials, agreed to circulate the draft to the city arborist and legal staff, and discussed an Arbor Day proclamation and community-forestry budget target.
Commissioner John on Jan. 7 presented a sample tree ordinance drawn from Tree City USA guidance and asked the Dayton City Parks Commission for feedback before legal and arborist review.
John said he used the variant that omits a separate tree advisory board because Dayton does not have one; he recommended the commission review definitions, enforcement language, and preferred-species lists. "I chose the variant, the without tree advisory board version of the tree ordinance because we don't have a specific tree advisory board," John said, adding that the draft used "Dayton, Minnesota" as the insertion point for city-specific language.
Discussion points included: who should be the responsible department or designee for tree approvals; language that would permit city removal of nuisance trees on private property with billing (described in the sample as an extreme but sometimes useful measure); the possibility of leveraging Hennepin County’s preferred-species list instead of authoring a local list; and whether the ordinance should explicitly allow common recreational attachments such as hammocks.
John and other commissioners recommended sending the draft to the city arborist for technical review and to legal counsel for ordinance drafting. Marty, Parks staff, confirmed that staff will share John’s annotated Word document with the arborist and legal team and that the commission should plan to review the arborist’s recommendations before forwarding a final draft to the City Council.
The commission also discussed Tree City USA requirements and related outreach: John noted community-forestry budget guidance found online suggesting a benchmark of about $2 per capita; he also recalled being awarded a $3,000 Hennepin County “Healthy Tree Canopy” grant previously for an Arbor Day celebration that did not proceed. Commissioners agreed a simple Arbor Day proclamation could be scheduled on a council agenda for April; the official Tree City USA application requires a specific tree ordinance, which the commission identified as the primary legal hurdle.
Ending: Next steps are for John to distribute his annotated draft, for Marty to route the draft to the city arborist and legal counsel, and for the commission to reconvene as needed to finalize language prior to council consideration.
