By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Fayette County's Planning Commission will have a public hearing with plans to take a vote on its proposed new tree protection ordinance tomorrow at 7 p.m. in room 212 of the County Administrative Complex.

The group normally meets in the County Commission meeting room, but the County Commission will occupy that room tomorrow for its special public informational meeting on plans for a new county jail and courthouse.

Designed to save more mature specimen trees from developers' bulldozers, the law has been the subject of discussions by the Planning Commission since May, and more recently by a special study committee. County commissioners asked for a review of the county's existing law after Chairman Harold Bost brought the matter up for discussion, saying the ten-year-old law might need more teeth.

If Planning Commission members vote to recommend the new ordinance Jan. 6, the Board of Commissioners can take action in its zoning meeting Jan. 27. Public comment will be accepted at both meetings.

Concern over rules for tree preservation in subdivision construction sparked spirited discussion in the planning panel's final work session last month. Developer Jeff Ellis said a requirement that developers submit tree protection plans for their subdivisions would cost too much.

If a surveyor has to identify each tree worth saving, and then the entire tree protection area must be protected using orange plastic fencing, cost could be more than $800 per house just for that, he said. He presented a breakdown of the cost using Horseman's Run subdivision as an example, and said the requirement would add almost $50,000 to the developer's cost.

And the developer disturbs only about 12 percent of a subdivision, he said. After streets and other infrastructure are built by the developer, individual builders buy lots and put homes on them.

But county engineer Kirk Houser said Ellis' fears are misplaced. Black silt screen, already required, would suffice to section off tree save areas, he said, and identifying specimen trees to be saved could be accomplished by simpler methods than having a surveyor show exact locations.

Environmentalist Dennis Chase had a completely different concern. The ordinance states that the county engineering staff has “the authority” to stop work and cite developers who destroy trees in violation of the ordinance, he said, but doesn't state in no uncertain terms that penalties “shall” be meted out.

“Without a real hard and fast statement, we've just got a lot of words on paper,” he said. “It says that he can do this or not do it, based on the circumstances, and I've been `circumstanced' to death on a lot of these issues,” he added.

But engineer David Borkowski said enforcers have to have some leeway. “I just don't want to get to the point where if they knock a tree down by accident we've got to shut their site down,” he said.

Commissioners promised to revisit that issue later if enforcement becomes a problem, but said they don't think it will be. “I kind of like [the engineers] having that leeway,” said commission Chairman Bob Harbison.

Commissioners also will vote tomorrow on a new set of subdivision regulations.

Rules that govern everything from what should be included in a subdivision plat to how to measure the length of a street, the regulations have received a thorough review by the Engineering Department for grammatical problems and general updating.