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Council approves tree-assessment variance for Caroline Court, staff to require landscape plan at approval
Summary
Council granted variance requests for Caroline Court (Villages of Montgomery) after debating a $120,000 tree-assessment requirement; developers urged reverting to prior mitigation rules and council required a landscape plan at plan approval to show preserved or mitigated trees.
Montgomery’s City Council on Feb. 24 approved requests related to the required tree assessment for the Caroline Court portion of the Villages of Montgomery development after hearing developers’ concerns that the current ordinance imposes costly documentation without mandatory mitigation.
Staff explained the ordinance requires a tree assessment with photos, species and condition information and cited a developer estimate of roughly $120,000 to complete that assessment. Staff noted the ordinance does not currently mandate mitigation or replanting thresholds tied to trees removed, which led the developer and the project engineer to recommend reverting to the prior ordinance language that required mitigation—examples cited included two trees per residential lot and a minimum canopy/landscaping percentage of total gross area.
The developer’s representative said the intent was not to clear specimen trees but to avoid an assessment that provides little actionable mitigation. Councilmembers asked whether specimen trees could be preserved and whether landscape plans would be reviewed at plan-approval; staff confirmed landscape and civil plans will be submitted and reviewed later in the approval process and that the variance under consideration related only to plat requirements.
Following discussion about topography, sewer alignment and which trees could realistically be preserved, a councilmember moved to accept the developer’s various requests related to the tree-assessment process for Caroline Court; the motion was seconded and carried.
Next steps: developer must submit a landscape plan with civil documents at plan-approval so council and staff may verify tree preservation and mitigation measures.
