|
Retaining our rural look and feel through tree preservation
As most of you know, Milton is a relatively young city; we officially incorporated in 2006 from Fulton County. In many cases, we initially adopted Fulton County ordinances--this was the case for our tree ordinance. Over the years, we've made modifications to various ordinances to better suit the needs of Milton residents. Our tree ordinance received minor modifications in 2009. As the city has evolved over the last decade, we're focused on finding ways to ensure that we're operating in the most efficient and effective manner, and that we're working to fulfill the residents' vision for the community.
This edition of Tuesday Tidbits will cover Milton's efforts to draft a new tree ordinance. Currently, Community Development staff, in partnership with the consultant from Technical Forestry Consultants, are working with a community stakeholder group to assess Milton's tree ordinance needs. The group consists of Milton residents focused on sustainability, members of the Milton Planning Commission, area tree companies, and land developers. Working with city staff and the consultant, the group has been carefully reviewing the existing Milton ordinance, exploring best practices, examining case study communities, and drafting a new tree ordinance.
This article is designed to give you some preliminary background on the project, and better prepare you for participation in the upcoming community meeting to discuss the final draft ordinance. Community input will be solicited prior to the draft going before the Planning Commission and then onto the Milton City Council. Your engagement and feedback on the final draft will be critical to our success.
1. Why is the city drafting a new tree ordinance?
- It's part of the city's overall Unified Development Code (UDC) project. You may recall a recent Tuesday Tidbits email covering the UDC project.
- City staff believed it was important to carve out both the tree ordinance and the noise ordinance from the overall UDC in order to make sure we adequately addressed Milton residents' priorities.
2. But why now? Why do we need a new tree ordinance now?
- As with many new cities, sometimes a city takes existing county ordinances and applies them on a municipal level, or we may look to neighboring municipalities when drafting initial ordinances.
- When Milton incorporated in 2006, we initially implemented Fulton County's tree ordinance, making a few minor modifications.
- Interestingly, for many years, Fulton County served as a national standard for local governments developing tree ordinances.
- As Milton matured and our citizens have emphasized their vision for retaining Milton's rural character, and as best practices have evolved, we believe it's important that we re-evaluate our tree ordinance and make sure that it's more reflective of what Milton residents want.
3. So what's changing?
- We're changing how we manage our tree resources by shifting from tree density to tree canopy.
- Tree density units and tree canopy cover are two methods commonly used to ensure that a certain density of trees is conserved or established on site--land which may already be developed or is proposed for development.
4. What's the difference between tree density and tree canopy?
- With the tree density unit system, a minimum amount of tree density is required, such as 15, 20 or 30 units per acre. Tree density units are assigned based on the trunk diameter of a tree at 4.5 feet above the ground. A single existing tree with a large trunk diameter may have the same amount of tree density units as a few to many smaller diameter, newly planted trees. The same number of tree density units can therefore result in a very wide variation in the actual tree canopy cover on a site. The greater the density, the more trees and the greater the benefits.
- The canopy includes the leaves, twigs, and limbs, and the tree trunk and roots. With the tree canopy cover system, a minimum amount of tree canopy cover measured in square feet is required across a site, expressed as a percentage of the total land area of the site. Tree canopy cover is based on the actual coverage, or future coverage in the case of newly planted trees, of the land by tree canopy. The greater the amount of tree canopy cover, the greater the benefits. There is a more direct relationship between tree canopy cover and the level of benefits that the trees provide.
5. What are the benefits of using canopy coverage in the new ordinance?
- The primary benefits are quantity vs. quality; increased efficiency; promotes a healthy community forest; and provides environmental benefits.
- The easiest way to think about tree density vs. tree canopy is quantity vs. quality. By using the canopy system, we can more easily guide the conservation and planting of trees in amounts and locations where canopies provide the greatest benefits.
- By establishing minimum tree canopy cover requirements for each zoning district, we help ensure a better overall fit. We can account for the amount of growing space that will result on a site after satisfying district specific requirements for minimum yards, landscape strips, buffers, building footprints, impervious surfaces such as parking lots, and other improvements proposed for the site. This can help promote the overall, long-term health of the trees.
- The canopy cover systems are generally less complicated to apply in the case of new development and in many cases, new development is where a community can stand to lose mature trees.
- Just like we learned in elementary school, trees are critical to our overall health.
- Lastly, preserving our trees helps us ensure that we are retaining our rural, small town look and feel and this is something our residents have told us time and again that they want.
6. How does the city's new tree ordinance benefit residents?
- It's easier for residents and tree companies to understand.
- Residents may request tree removal and if their site still meets minimum tree canopy cover requirements after removal, no replacement is necessary unless the tree was a specimen tree.
- Residents who must replace tree canopy cover can do so using large maturing trees, which will provide more tree canopy cover per tree, so less trees are required for replacement than if a tree density unit system is used. Newly planted trees will be credited with the projected amount of tree canopy cover for the species, at the time of planting!
- Residents will benefit from the tree canopy provided by not only their trees, but by their neighbors' trees because the ordinance is designed in a way that we're all contributing to overall tree canopy coverage.
7. So now we know what a tree canopy system is, why we're doing it, and some of the benefits, but what is the proposed tree canopy coverage percentage and how does it differ from where we are now?
- The draft ordinance sets the city's goal at 60 percent tree canopy cover across the city by 2033. That's an increase of 6 percent from where we are now.
- We believe this is a realistic and reasonable goal--it helps us preserve what we have now and allows us to grow our overall community forest in a responsible way.
Up next week on Tuesday Tidbits: TSPLOST Projections and Projects
|
