About a month after the January storm ravaged the local tree canopy and private property, the Lake Oswego City Council began considering how the local government will manage its urban forest in the coming decades during a meeting Tuesday, Feb. 20.
The city is in the process of updating its Urban Community Forest Plan and the council provided feedback on the plan during a wide-ranging discussion.
What is in the plan?
The plan is an update of a similar document completed in 2007 and includes “a review of existing codes plans and policies” and recommended actions the city could take.
Some of the ideas listed in the plan include a new tree risk assessment program so that city departments can better monitor and remove public trees that could be dangerous, expansion of mitigation requirements for tree removal and targeted plantings in areas that don’t meet tree canopy standards, among other recommendations.
The plan also shows that the Lake Oswego tree canopy has expanded in recent decades and recommends maintaining the current canopy rather than trying to grow it further.
“With 53.4% canopy cover, further increasing canopy cover may be a challenge in the urban area. Increasing canopy cover, or replacing lost canopy cover, uses more time and resources when compared to maintaining existing canopy,” the draft plan said. “Enforcing tree protection guidelines, ensuring mitigation trees are planted when trees are removed, and considering mature stature of tree species to be planted all help preserve and maintain existing canopy cover. Maintaining a high percentage of canopy cover puts the City in a proactive situation to adapt to the future needs of the community and urban forest.”
The plan will be revised to reflect council and public feedback.
Councilors differ a bit on emphasis
Councilor Ali Afghan — whose 2020 campaign focused on revising the tree code to better protect the long-term viability of the canopy — worried that the plan would not go far enough to protect local trees from the effects of climate change and other impacts. He said the city should consider requiring tree removal mitigation measures that more significantly make up for what was lost. Currently, applicants often can remove large trees and replace them with small ones.
“The tree code cutting permit should replace that tree with a climate change goal that is equal or better. That should be our objective. Everything else is like noise to me,” he said.
In a recent sustainability advisory board meeting, members brought up the idea of being able to mitigate tree removals through other climate-friendly initiatives like adding solar panels to a home.
Councilor John Wendland suggested community-targeted canopy preservation actions like creating a fund for areas impacted by extensive damage like Westlake after the recent storm.
Greater enforcement?
City staff and councilors noted that the local government simply does not have enough staff and resources to effectively police tree code violations. Councilor Trudy Corrigan suggested upping the penalty for tree violations while Council President Massene Mboup said the council should consider investing money into the planning department so it can better enforce rules. Any monetary investment, City Manager Martha Bennett noted, typically necessitates funding reductions in other areas.
Was a voice missing in the plan?
Wendland and Councilor Aaron Rapf expressed concern that the plan did not reflect voices in the community who worry that the tree code has too many barriers to tree removal t. Particularly after the storm, some community members lamented the challenges with removing trees they deemed to be dangerous. On the other hand, most of the public comment received for the plan came from supporters of tree preservation. Rapf said he wanted protecting private property rights to be emphasized in the plan.
“I am not fully bought in that this plan is reflective of the Lake Oswego community. I think it’s reflective of the people who responded to public feedback questions,” Rapf said.
Mayor Joe Buck said anyone who had an opinion had ample time to submit public comments while Mboup said the city can’t form plans based on public feedback it hasn’t received.
Transparency
Council Rachel Verdick, for her part, felt the city needs to do a better job of publicizing information on tree permits so people know how much they cost and how often they are accepted or denied.
“Transparency around what is happening would be very useful in our community,” she said.
Wendland added that the city should simplify the existing code because it is very difficult for most community members to parse.
While about half of respondents to a recent city survey either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the idea that the city’s tree code is effective at protecting and preserving trees, and there has been the perception that developers are able to easily have tree permit applications approved, the draft plan noted that 73% of tree removal applications are submitted by single-family homeowners and 18% by builders or developers.
“There are several areas where commonly held beliefs and perceptions by the community do not accurately reflect how the City is managing the urban forest,” the plan stated.
Next steps
The city will finalize the management plan and then begin work to more specifically look at how it wants to revamp the tree code. The council will discuss the topic again in May.
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