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Supervisors move charter amendment and parcel tax to return street‑tree care to the city and fund urban forest
Summary
A charter amendment and accompanying parcel tax were advanced to return maintenance and liability for San Francisco's street trees to the city, fund sidewalk repairs, and allow expansion of canopy by roughly 50,000 trees; the committee discussed funding structure (an $8M baseline plus an $11M parcel tax), a $5,000 cap for large parcels, and scheduled the item for further hearings and rules review.
Supervisor Scott Wiener introduced a charter amendment that would return maintenance responsibility and liability for about 105,000 street trees to the city, establish an Urban Forest Fund, and create a progressive parcel tax based on street frontage to pay for long‑term maintenance and sidewalk repairs. Wiener said the fund would be financed by a city baseline (about $8 million annually based on a 10‑year average) plus a parcel tax component; planning staff estimated an annual program cost of about $19 million to cover current trees and allow the city to responsibly grow the canopy by about 50,000 new street trees.
Carla Short (Public Works) outlined operational problems caused by the prior relinquishment program, including a 10–12 year pruning cycle (industry standard is 3–5 years), limited replacement planting (about 375 trees annually), and a growing backlog of tree‑related sidewalk damage. John Sway (Planning) described the Urban Forest Master Plan process and said the plan had unanimous Board adoption earlier. Amanda Freed (Treasurer's Office) said her office could administer the tax and would return for a budget supplemental if the measure passes.
Dan Flanagan of Friends of the Urban Forest urged support and said FUF had planted more than 50,000 trees and that about half of parcel tax revenue is projected to go to repair a backlog of more than 6,000 broken sidewalks. Dozens of public commenters, including residents and FUF volunteers, supported the measure and urged timely and robust implementation and oversight. Wiener moved several technical amendments (including the $5,000 cap for large parcels) and then moved to continue the item to the committee's next budget meeting (June 16) to begin detailed budget hearings; the committee took the motion without objection.
Next steps: the committee will hold additional budget hearings, then the Rules Committee will consider the charter amendment and parcel tax before potential referral to the ballot. The presenters indicated July 2017 as the earliest date the city would assume maintenance under the proposed timeline.
