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Somerville committee hears plan to add canopy width to tree green-score rules; public hearing left open
Summary
City staff proposed amending Zoning Ordinance Articles 2 and 10 to add a canopy-width test so narrow columnar trees no longer qualify as large-tree green-score credits; planning board offered no public testimony and the council committee left the hearing open until May 21 for additional comment.
A joint meeting of the Somerville City Council Land Use Committee and the Planning Board heard a staff presentation on a proposed amendment to Articles 2 and 10 of the city zoning ordinance that would change how the city’s “green score” counts trees for development projects. Vanessa Buhele, the city’s senior urban forestry and landscape planner, told the committee the change would add a width (canopy) measure so narrow, columnar trees are not counted as large trees when calculating green-score credits.
Buhele said the amendment keeps existing planting-size standards at planting (a tree must be at least 10 feet tall or 2 inches in caliper to count) but would change the definitions used by the green-score table. Under the proposal, a “small tree” would be a woody plant with an expected mature height of less than 30 feet or a mature width of less than 20 feet; a “large tree” would require an expected mature height of 30 feet or more and a mature width of 20 feet or more. The amendment would also add an explicit line for “columnar” (narrow) trees in the green-score table and assign them the same credit as small trees rather than large trees.
City staff said the width is intended to be measured as the canopy at maturity. Planning board member Lynn Richards asked that the code use the term “canopy” in the definition to reduce ambiguity; Buhele and staff agreed the canopy at maturity is the intended measurement. Staff also said they reviewed reliance on plain‑language definitions for “columnar” with the city’s legal team and enforcement staff and are not proposing to add a separate defined term at this time.
The planning board reported no public testimony at the joint hearing. The Land Use Committee opened the public hearing and then closed public testimony for that night; committee members agreed to keep the public hearing open through May 21 and to accept written comments at publiccomments@somervillema.gov. The planning board expects to make a recommendation to the committee when the boards reconvene. No final vote on the ordinance amendments was taken at the meeting.
Next steps: staff will incorporate clarifications discussed at the hearing (including explicit reference to canopy width) and the committee will consider the planning board’s recommendation and any written public comment before taking formal action.
