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Belgrade council leans toward capped, lot-size-based forestry fee to protect most residents
Summary
Parks director Jordan Green presented three forestry-fee alternatives based on lot size; staff recommended Alternative C, a balanced approach with a cap that would reduce or maintain fees for about 93% of city lots; council members generally supported Alternative C and asked staff to return with a final ordinance at the July meeting.
Jordan Green, director of parks, trails and recreation, briefed the council on the first year of Belgrade's forestry-fee program and presented three alternatives for allocating a $200,000 annual assessment. Green said the program's immediate aims are public safety and maintenance of the city's right-of-way trees and noted the city recently hired its first city forester, "Joe," to lead inventory and maintenance work.
Green described three models: Alternative A (an equalized distribution across lot sizes), Alternative B (large reductions for the smallest lots but steep increases for certain larger parcels), and Alternative C (the staff-recommended balanced approach with a fee cap). "Alternative C decreases or maintains impact on 93% of city lots," Green said, adding that the cap would temper increases on large undeveloped or open-space parcels that would otherwise face high assessments.
The presentation explained the metric choice: the consultant and staff used land-use and lot-size metrics (lot-size breaks were expanded from the prior workshop) and excluded public-institution parcels from the parcel count. Green emphasized the rationale for a cap: larger parcels often will be required to plant and maintain trees as part of future development, and an uncapped formula could both penalize those parcels and charge them for trees the city will later require.
Council members largely supported the recommended Alternative C as equitable. One councilor praised the more granular lot-size breaks and said the approach reduces the fee for the majority of properties while maintaining funding for tree maintenance and pruning programs. Staff said the method and the amount to collect will be brought forward annually with the budget and that a final decision is expected at the first July meeting.
What happens next: staff will prepare final fee schedules and ordinance language reflecting Alternative C and the agreed cap and return to council for formal action at the July meeting.
