New London scraps controversial tree standards, plants seeds for new rules

New London ― The City Council ordered a dormant Shade Tree Commission reactivated and directed it to update a set of 14-year-old tree maintenance standards that, as written, leaves the city in a precarious legal position.

In a split 4-2 vote Monday, the council took the majority recommendations of its finance and public works committees and declared the 2010 “arboricultural procedures” null and void.

Those rules, which Councilor Alma D. Nartatez described as outdated and rife with potential liability pitfalls, are expected to be rewritten by tree commission members and other stakeholders. A draft of the modified standards is expected to be given to the city’s insurance carrier, Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency, or CIRMA, for review.

Concerns over the standards erupted earlier this year after city Law Director Jeffrey Londregan and Mayor Michael Passero revealed the city paid out a “large, adverse” settlement to an individual struck and injured by a fallen tree in 2019.

Londregan said the repeated use of the word “shall” in the standards made tree maintenance in New London a required rather than discretionary act, and stripped the city of governmental immunity if sued for negligence.

If the standards had remained intact, CIRMA could have decided not to renew its coverage with the city, Londregan said.

The council dropped an earlier proposal to dismantle the tree commission, which has not met in nearly 10 years, in favor of requesting the group to convene and develop a new set of tree inspection and maintenance rules.

Londregan said he expected the compromise to alleviate CIRMA’s concerns, especially with the controversial standards no longer on the books. He noted the quicker the standards were eliminated, the better off the city is.

“If a tree falls this evening and causes harm to someone, the city is on the hook without governmental immunity,” he said Monday before the council eliminated the standards.

The call to abolish the standards received push-back from some councilors, including Jefferey Hart, who decried repealing the rules without immediately having something to replace it with.

j.penney@theday.com