A proposed ordinance that aims to protect the city’s “mature trees,” primarily those on commercial and multi-family properties, will move forward to the Encinitas City Council for review and a decision.
On Thursday, the city’s Planning Commission unanimously recommended sending the document onward, with several recommended modifications. The city’s Urban Forestry Advisory Committee will take a look at it next, and then the council could begin its review at its March 26 meeting, city employees said.
Though only one person showed up at Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting to comment on it, some two dozen people sent the city emails. Many of the email writers were commercial property owners who wrote that the ordinance would unfairly target them because single-family homes are exempt.
“I am concerned that only commercial properties are singled out with respect to this ordinance,” wrote Rick Waite, who owns two small commercial properties on Coast Highway 101. “If this is a significant issue, all property owners in the city should be subject to the ordinance, including owners of single-family homes.”
Fellow Coast Highway 101 property owner Peter Curry wrote, “It sounds good on paper to those who wrote it. But in practicality, passing this ordinance is a disaster waiting to happen.”
Steve Dalton, chair of the Planning Commission, said Thursday night that he too felt that exempting single-family homeowners raised fairness concerns. He said the amount of expert advice and arborists’ reports required as part of the proposed tree preservation process also made him uncomfortable.
“It feels like we want all these trees and we want somebody else to provide them,” he said.
However, he said, he thought the ordinance did a good job of spelling out what was considered a “mature tree” that’s worthy of being protected.
The proposed document declares that a “mature tree” is typically one that has an 11-inch diameter taken at a set measuring height. It sets a smaller, 9-inch diameter requirement for many native trees and a 4-inch one for some slower-growing natives, including the scrub oaks that Encinitas — “little oaks” in Spanish — gets its name from. Palm trees, fruit trees and trees that appear on San Diego County’s list of unwanted, invasive species, would not be considered for preservation status, a city staff report states.
The proposed ordinance, which can be viewed at https://encinitas.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=7&clip_id=3428&meta_id=182340, declares that the city’s goal is to protect mature trees and spells out a process that property owners would need to follow when removing one. In addition to commercial and multifamily properties, the proposed ordinance would apply to city-owned properties and roadway rights-of-way.
Among other things, the proposed ordinance would require planting replacement trees. The number of replacement trees would depend on whether the property owner picks a native or a non-native tree as a replacement, and where the property owner proposes to plant the new trees. There’s a different standard for on-site plantings versus off-site ones.
There are also exemptions from the proposed standards for high fire-risk regions, as well as exemptions related to dead or dying tees. Planning Commission members also sought some modifications to the proposed ordinance, including removing references to a three-year checkup requirement for relocated or replacement trees.
Arborist Mark Wisniewski, the only person from the public who spoke at Thursday’s meeting, said he supported the proposed ordinance, but wished the city would do more enforcement of its current regulations. He showed photos of the city’s Leucadia Streetscape construction work where tree roots were damaged and construction-related equipment, including excavators and portable bathrooms, were set up against tree trunks.
“These photos clearly demonstrate non-conformance” with current policies, he said.
