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Planning commission approves tree ordinance

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Philosophers have long debated this question: If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

There is now a new question that still needs an answer: What constitutes a dead tree?

Peachtree City is trying to determine an absolute answer for that question but many other definitions can be found in their new Landscape and Tree Preservation Ordinance, which was approved by the Peachtree City Planning Commission and will now go before the City Council at an upcoming meeting.

City Planner David Rast and others on the Planning Commission and city staff, as well as people in the community, have put in countless hours on rewriting the Landscape and Tree Preservation Ordinance. The ordinance goes into great depths to discuss how trees are measured, how to protect specimen trees, how tree credits are given to developers, how parking lots are landscaped and how landscape plans and developments are maintained and managed. One of the highlights to the new ordinance is that citizens wanting to remove over 30 caliper inches of trees on residential property would need to get a permit from the city and pay a $25 fee.

“We don’t want people to clear cut their yards,” said Rast. “This is a way to discourage taking down trees and to also a way to keep track of how many trees have been taken down and how many permits have been issued.”

The only person to speak in favor of the ordinance at the public hearing Monday was Mayor Steve Brown.

“David did a great job,” said Brown, who added that a more in-depth revision of the ordinance was “long overdue.” Among the things Brown urged the planning commission to consider adding or clarifying before the ordinance is brought before city council were requiring soil testing on development sites, allowing conditional certificates of occupancy which would allow developers to plant trees during a time of year where they have a better chance of survival. Brown also wanted a clearer definition of what constitutes a dead tree.

“There are trees out there where the bottom third may be green, but the rest is dead,” said Brown. “I think we need to look at that.”

No one spoke in opposition to the ordinance.

Commission Member Wes Saunders made a motion to recommend approval to the City Council. It was approved unanimously.