Resident urges New Bern to stop ‘operating in the dark’ on tree-permit, HPC guidance

During the public-comment period at the Nov. 12 New Bern Board of Aldermen meeting, resident Soraya Bliss criticized the city's handling of tree-permit rules and historic-preservation guidance.

Bliss said the city added an apparent requirement for an arborist report to the tree-permit form in 2022, though she said no ordinance or Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) guideline requires one for every removal. She said the city’s explanation — that the “arborist note is intended to be a courtesy” — conflicts with the way the requirement is presented to applicants and asked how staff could unilaterally add a blanket requirement to a form that can cost applicants two to four hundred dollars.

Bliss also challenged city officials’ interpretation of HPC Guideline 6.1.6 regarding the meaning of “hand tools,” saying city staff and the HPC chair have at times treated mechanically powered handheld devices as permissible despite her reading that the guidance limits removal to non-mechanical, hand-operated implements. She said the city has relied on unwritten interpretations for decades and asked who has access to those interpretations and how the public can ensure fair application and due process. Bliss said her past interaction with staff led to significant extra cost and delays and renewed her request that the city formalize and publish its interpretations.

Meeting staff acknowledged the public comment and provided a brief reply in the public record that the arborist note was intended as a courtesy. No formal staff action was recorded at the meeting to change the permit form or HPC guidelines; the transcript records the comment and the staff answer but no immediate policy change.