Denton tree ordinance forthcoming

by Megan Schwarz of North Texas Daily

Despite irrefutable evidence showing that saving trees makes dollars and sense, it remains unclear whether the city of Denton will pursue such a policy.

Despite irrefutable evidence showing that saving trees makes dollars and sense, it remains unclear whether the city of Denton will pursue such a policy.

Most of the handful of citizens who attended the final public tree ordinance revision meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 3 at the Central Fire Station said they did not receive notice of the event until the day before.

This included city council member Joe Mulroy, who said he received a press release of the meeting by e-mail on April 2. However, Mulroy said he does not think the short notice was intentional.

"We are striving to get full public participation in the ordinance revision process," Mulroy said. "If there were any missteps, I trust that they were inadvertent," he said.

Nona Muncie, landscape administrator for the city, was unable to attend the meeting because of personal reasons, Mulroy said.

As evidence of the city's commitment to crafting a tree ordinance that would prevent developers from pursuing a scorched-earth policy, Mulroy cited the city's increasing the number of public input meetings from three to five.

At the April 3 meeting, Charles Burditt, president of Burditt Natural Resource Consulting, emphasized the economic value of trees to the community and that their preservation need not conflict with the goals of developers.

"Trees are a part of this economy," Burditt said. "The U.S. Forest Service has done a lot of research and is starting to convince counties and cities to put green spaces on the books as assets," he said.

Emsud Horozovic, the urban forester of Round Rock, said developers resisted the enactment of his city's 2005 tree ordinance because they were afraid they would lose money.

He cited studies by Kathleen Wolf of the Center for Urban Horticulture at the University of Washington in Seattle, which showed that people prefer to shop and live in areas that have more trees, if given a choice.

"If you plant them, they will come," Horozovic said. "In residential areas, builders are now charging $10,000 to $20,000 more for what they call premium upgrade lots. But they haven't upgraded anything - they just saved the trees."

However, like any asset, trees require maintenance and investment from the entire community, Burditt said.

Although Round Rock's tree ordinance enables developers and citizens to peacefully coexist, its drafting didn't happen overnight, Horozovic said.

"We went through about 18 versions of the ordinance in 18 months before we came up with something that was livable for everyone," he said.

At the April 3 meeting, Charles Burditt also agreed the ordinance revision process was arduous.

"I know you're ready to see a draft, and I'd like to be able to tell you what we plan to do and what recommendations we'll make to city, but tonight is not that night," Burditt said.

He handed out a Tree Ordinance Evaluation sheet for participants to complete and hand in to the city community development department, or to the Burditt group.

The evaluation is also available at the city of Denton home page, cityofdenton.com