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Titusville advisory committee reviews draft urban forest plan; public urges protection of 2021 tree ordinance and funding for a coordinator
Summary
A consultant presented a draft 20-year urban forest management plan to the Titusville advisory committee. Residents praised the plan but urged that it not revise the city's 09/28/2021 tree ordinance, pressed for clearer trust-fund accounting, and urged a paid coordinator and steady funding to ensure planting and maintenance.
A consultant presented the draft Titusville Urban Forest Management Plan to the advisory committee and members of the public, who largely supported the plan's goals but warned against amending the city's 09/28/2021 tree ordinance and demanded stronger funding and staffing commitments.
Liz, the consultant hired to prepare the plan, told the committee the draft is an input-driven working document built from surveys and a flash vote (nearly 250 responses) that found 92% of respondents rated trees as "extremely" or "very" important. "The first step is designating somebody in charge of city trees," Liz said, describing the plan as a 20-year vision with a five-year, actionable implementation program and annual public progress reports.
At the public comment portion, Mary Barr, a resident, urged the committee not to let the urban-forest plan alter the tree ordinance adopted on 09/28/2021. "I do not feel that it's necessary for the urban forest management plan to modify that 09/28/2021 tree ordinance," Mary Barr said, urging instead that the city adopt a separate urban-forest ordinance that could set higher standards while leaving the existing ordinance intact.
William Klein, another Titusville resident, criticized earlier planting efforts and what he described as poor record-keeping for mitigation and Tree City USA funds. "They have all failed," Klein said of past projects, and he said he had been unable to obtain clear records showing how mitigation funds were collected and spent. Klein urged a stepwise program that matches available staff and funding, rather than launching an overly complex initiative immediately.
Tree-team volunteer Kaye St. Ange praised the draft as "impressive" but said several numerical targets in the draft caused concern, particularly a proposed limit that no single species exceed 10% of plantings. "We don't want to limit live oaks to 10%," Kaye St. Ange said, arguing that a local mix should reflect Titusville's remnant natural forest and that the committee consider raising the native-planting baseline above the draft's 50%.
Committee members and staff responded to public concerns while stressing that the draft is deliberately flexible. Liz said the species-diversity and native-planting figures are industry benchmarks and "are meant as baselines, not hard rules," adding that exceptions for local conditions (such as southern live oaks) are common. She also warned that starting planting without a coordinator and maintenance plan risks wasting resources: "Who's going to water it? Who's going to take care of it?" she asked.
The meeting included an extended debate over initial funding and staffing. Committee members pressed for an urban-forest coordinator and considered a recommendation to the city council to create a general-fund line item; one committee member proposed a $100,000 starter allocation to ensure program longevity, though that monetary proposal was later withdrawn for further work and would be refined before a formal recommendation. Members discussed using a mix of funding sources, including the Landscape Trust Fund, mitigation fees, existing Tree City USA commitments and grants. A committee member reported a Landscape Trust Fund balance figure cited during public remarks of roughly $800,000 and encouraged exploring use of those funds for startup staffing with a clear transition plan.
The committee agreed on several procedural follow-ups: post the draft on the city website and solicit additional public feedback prior to the committee's next meeting; confirm the status of the awarded grant for a tree inventory (staff said the inventory grant is in process); and refine recommended language on Landscape Trust Fund eligible expenditures and staffing transition plans. The committee also moved and passed a separate, unanimous procedural motion to table a wetlands agenda item to the next meeting.
Next steps: the consultant will incorporate the committee's comments and public input and the plan is scheduled to come before the city council for presentation in June. The committee and members of the public signaled support for a staffing commitment and for clearer trust-fund accounting before major planting programs move forward.
