Bulverde council hears developer request to ease tree-mitigation rules for downtown village; no vote taken

Bulverde ' At a special City Council public hearing, a developer seeking to build a small commercial "village" in downtown Bulverde asked the council to grant variances to the city's tree-protection ordinance, arguing the project preserves most large trees and that a combined package of retained trees, screening plantings and cash-in-lieu meets roughly half of the mitigation the code would otherwise require.

The applicant, representing Bulverde Village Holdings, told the council the design retains the vast majority of large trees and that a recent arborist re-survey identified roughly 168.5 inches of replacement-class (4'6 inch) trees already on site. "We're saving roughly 88% of the protected trees on the property with this design," the applicant said during his presentation, and asked council to match the…