By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Fayetteville City Council will discuss a proposed new tree protection ordinance tonight with plans to consider its adoption Monday night.

The city Planning Commission recently voted to recommend approval of the new law, designed to encourage developers to save existing trees rather than stripping construction sites and replacing large, old trees with young, smaller ones.

Under the proposed ordinance, existing trees would carry twice as much weight as new ones in determining whether a developer has met the requirement that each development have at least 100 “tree density units” per acre. The law would provide rules for digging and grading around the preserved trees to prevent their being damaged in construction.

Developers also are required to identify “stands” of trees that can be preserved together. A stand is defined as a group of trees that have grown up together and therefore depend on each other.

“If you thin it out and just save all the oaks or all the sycamore trees and remove all the others, then you have tall, spindly trees that, left on their own, look out of place,” said Maurice Ungaro, city planner, during recent discussions of the Planning Commission.

Council will discuss the ordinance during its work session at 7 p.m. tonight and is expected to vote on it Monday in its regular business meeting, also at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

Council also will consider a new law restricting the parking of trucks, tractors and semi-trailers in residential zones.

During Planning Commission deliberations on the new ordinance, tractor-trailer owner/operator Kevin Adams warned that such a law would be a blow to working people.

`I don't think this takes into account the needs of the working man,” he said. He parks the cab of his rig at home and performs minor maintenance on it, Adams said, and his neighbors don't object.

The Planning Commission recommended solving Adams' problem by allowing those who are already parking their rigs at home to continue, but prohibiting any future residents from doing so. Existing home-parked rigs would have to be registered with the city to avoid falling under the ordinance.

Also on the agenda Wednesday and Monday will be Jan Trammell's request to change the zoning at 355 N. Jeff Davis Drive from a subdivision category to O&I (office and institutional).

Council also will consider a list of 18 streets to be resurfaced under the state Department of Transportation's Local Assistance Road Program. Included are 3.27 miles of roadway.