Council asks staff for options after wide-ranging tree ordinance discussion

Community Development Director Ben Song briefed the council on four options staff prepared for amending the city's tree ordinance. Councilmembers debated the ordinance's scope (originally aimed at commercial development) and whether residential property owners should retain more discretion over tree removal, particularly when life-safety concerns exist. The mayor raised the effect of the current recompense formula on homeowners' costs; several council members described instances where the replanting calculation produced very large replacement requirements and said the formula feels punitive.

Some councilmembers said specimen-tree protections should remain strong, especially in protected zones like river corridors; others favored giving homeowners more latitude near dwellings. Councilmember proposals included a 50-foot exemption zone around the primary dwelling and raising the diameter threshold for specimen trees (suggestions in the discussion ranged from keeping the current 24-inch standard to increasing it to 30–32 inches). Members also asked staff to examine approaches used by peer cities — for example, calculating recompense by inches or coverage rather than a fixed-tree count — and to provide options that balance safety, environmental goals and homeowner burden.

Council did not adopt any changes at the meeting. Staff was asked to prepare a memo outlining a range of options, clarify the recompense calculation, and return the item for formal consideration on the council's April 7 meeting agenda.