Apalachicola to adopt tree protection ordinance at tonight's meeting

The Apalachicola Board of City Commissioners will hold a final public hearing tonight at 6:00PM EST before reaching a decision to adopt the long anticipated Tree Protection Ordinance that’s been in the works for a number of years.

The proposed ordinance was born out of a growing public concern that the city was losing its canopy of old oak trees to overdevelopment. City Commissioners scheduled and then held a joint workshop with its planning and zoning board in September to hammer out details of the ordinance before moving it toward passage.

However, in mid November a Progress Energy subcontractor in town conducting tree-pruning activities prompted a more comprehensive approach to the ordinance that included guidelines for utility companies.

The subcontractor had aesthetically altered some of the city’s most historic trees causing the commission to declare a five-month moratorium on tree pruning activities by utility companies.

The city should lift the moratorium at tonight’s meeting once ordinance number 2011-01 becomes local law.