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Planners will look at tree proposal Ashland plan requiring permits to remove some trees comes up tonight By TONY BOOM Mail Tribune ASHLAND - An ordinance to preserve local trees may be headed to the City Council after nearly a year of debate. Planning commissioners will decide whether to send a draft ordinance to the council at their meeting tonight at 7 in the City Council chambers. Public outcry led to the elimination of single-family dwellings from the ordinance's purview in February. But a revised draft still has detractors, including owners of undeveloped property and contractors. Permits for removal of trees more than 6 inches in diameter would be required on vacant land. The regulation requires tree plans for building sites, lists exceptions, establishes mitigation and sets penalties. Critics of the proposed ordinance say that it violates property rights and that Ashlanders have done a marvelous job on their own of creating and preserving the town's tree canopy. "What it is doing is taking away my property rights," said Elkton resident Bob Robertson, who owns property he'd like to develop in Ashland. "There is adequate prevention now through the existing ordinances. I feel there is adequate tree canopy." Protecting trees at construction sites with 6-foot-high chain-link fences will add to the time and cost of construction, said contractor Jerry Nutter. "We have this great urban forest not because of some law, but because someone loves trees," Nutter said. Two recent Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) decisions need to be considered in the implementation of the ordinance, say representatives of the Rogue Valley Association of Realtors. One ruling would make the ordinance a land-use matter because city officials would have jurisdiction over placement of buildings in multi-family zoning due to the permits, the Realtors contend. "We want to make sure it's a land-use decision to allow appeals to LUBA," said Rick Harris, president of the association. city Planning Director John McLaughlin agrees with Harris that decisions would be subject to appeal. The other LUBA ruling calls for city review of its comprehensive plan to determine the ordinance's impact on available land for building, said Harris, adding that the ordinance will reduce development opportunities on land zoned for multi-family residences. McLaughlin said the ordinance may bring changes to developments, but that land-use densities will remain intact. He said enough building sites exist. He said the number of housing units can't be reduced but they could be made smaller to preserve trees. Harris said the proposal needs more study before it's adopted, adding he would like to see a study of impacts and data on whether the town's tree canopy is disappearing. Reach Ashland bureau reporter Tony Boom at 482-4651, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.