Ordinance considered to protect historic trees

The Apalachicola city commission and its Planning & Zoning board held a joint workshop prior to the start of the September 7 regular scheduled meeting to discuss the possible passage of an ordinance to protect the town’s historic trees.

The idea of a Tree Protection ordinance has been floating around for some time amidst a growing concern over the city losing its canopy of old oak trees. The losses are sometimes contributed to new development and natural causes, but often times to poor management practices.

Through the years drafts of other tree ordinances have been offered for consideration, however, city officials chose not to adopt any of those measures. Until a recent Planning & Zoning meeting, where board members started looking at the possibility of revising prior submitted drafts to render them palatable for public consideration.

Should the city commission chose to adopt the revised language, the ordinance will create a category of protected trees that would include such species as the Live Oak, Red Oak, White Oak, and Magnolias.

Only when necessary, a permit would be required for the removal or alteration of any tree listed in the protected category. If permission is granted, the removal must be accompanied by a mitigation plan to offset the removal.

However, the ordinance outright prohibits the removal or modification of patriarch trees with a caliper of 35 inches or more for trees in the protected category. The ordinance also establishes a replacement policy and stiff fines for the illegal removal of trees.

Trees exempted from the ordinance include unprotected and undersized protected trees and routine pruning that does not substantially alter the tree.

The ordinance further exempts the removal of any tree during or following an emergency or acts of nature, when the city commission determines that permitting requirements will hamper work to restore order to the city.

The ordinance also allows the removal of any tree in which the city finds to be in such a condition that it poses an imminent hazard or danger to the health, safety, or welfare of the public.

The draft will now go back to Planning & Zoning for finalization before any public hearings are scheduled.