Comment On Proposed Tree Ordinance

 

The Laurelhurst Community Club (LCC) shared this information:

Proposed Tree Ordinance Lacks Protections Please email your comments no later than April 4. The March issue of the Laurelhurst Letter detailed LCC's concerns regarding the City's attempt to protect the tree canopy through revised legislation. Open the link here. “This new tree ordinance, if passed, will impact our quality of life for decades to come. By allowing large trees to be cut down in favor of increasing the heat islands of Seattle, we are dooming ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren to a life devoid of much of our tree canopy. This will mean worse heat waves, worse air, more polluted runoff, likely more landslides, fewer wild birds, and a serious loss of all the mental health benefits that tree canopies provide.” — LCC trustee Connie Sidles  What You Can Do • Write, email, or call your City Council representatives. • Write, email, or call Mayor Harrell. • Write, email, or call Gordon Clowers, SDCI Urban Planner, Cell: 206-679-8030 • Ask everyone on your own contact list who lives in Seattle to write/email/call. • Ask your kids and grandkids to send a letter, maybe with a picture. After all, it is our kids who will suffer most from this proposal. Click here to review the SDCI Tree Protection Project Documents. The proposed tree ordinance is open for public comment until 4 p.m. April 4. Specific support and objections to the proposal should be sent to: Gordon.Clowers@Seattle.gov.   SDCI’s Determination of Non-significance (DNS) states that the proposed tree code does not have a significant impact on the City’s tree canopy. An excerpt from The Seattle Audubon Society comment letter regarding disagrees writing: “… a major part of our tree code is how and when tree removal may occur. This is true for current code and the proposed update. Yet, there is little discussion in the DNS of anticipated effects on tree removal rates, tree replacement rates, or how the update attempts to minimize harm to communities from tree removal and maximize mitigation through replacement. This makes the degree to which the proposed update will serve as an effective tool to help meet the City’s stated canopy and environmental justice goals difficult to ascertain. To read the entire letter, click here.