Ryan Bass remembers a time when new development around Boerne resembled more of a “scorched earth” policy, than an environmentally friendly residential or commercial project.
That was before the city began its Unified Development Code, he said, which contains the city’s tree ordinance, which now restricts the swift removal of trees from property development.
Before the ordinance was included in the UDC, “any tree that fell within a platted lot less than a half-acre in size, was exempt from tree mitigation,” Bass said, drawing audible gasps from the three-dozen people gathered at the Cibolo Nature Center.
“Where developments had 0.2, 0.3-acre residential tracts, multiply that by 200 or 300 homesites — that’s 100 plus acres, and none of those trees required protection. None,” he said.
Bass, Boerne’s environmental program manager, addressed the members of the Native Plant Society of Texas-Boerne chapter early this month.
He provided an overview of current environmental programs being conducted by the city, including the updated tree ordinance, dark sky initiatives, water conservation and surface water quality monitoring.
Bass made mention of an incident a dozen or so years ago where a developer cleared a large swath of large trees from a property on Super Bowl Sunday.
“We came in, we showed up on Monday — no more trees there,” he said. “We really beefed up our unauthorized removal of trees section of the ordinance based on that event.”
“You start modifying your densities and uses based on what’s going on just to try to manage the growth that’s happening,” he said.
The inclusion of the tree ordinance in 2019’s UDC changed things dramatically for Boerne, he said.
Bass said including his environmental management post in the city’s planning department is essential to any form of urban and community forestry program.
“All of our Hill Country communities need an urban forester, working on the front-side, working on the development side,” he said. “That’s where you make the biggest impact. That’s where you can really verify data coming in from engineering firms and survey companies. You need someone to go out and make sure it’s right.”
That was one of the biggest impacts he made when he started.
“These guys were finally getting field-checked. A lot of trees ‘magically’ appeared right under that Heritage size classification, a lot of 23.5 inch trees,” he said. “If I found a 23.5-inch tree, I went and measured every one of them. They weren’t super-excited about that.”
He said trees from 8 inches to 11.9 inches in diameter are classified as Standard; 12-23.9 inches as Legacy; and any greater than 24 inches is a Heritage tree, all measured 4.5 feet up on the high side of the tree.
Bass credited Jeff Carroll, the city’s engineering and mobility director, for being able to implement low-impact development, taking charge as its new floodplain administrator of the drainage protection zones, and getting geologic assessment included in the UDC.
“We started community forestry program about 75% into development of the Unified Development Code,” he said. “The biggest thing we did was eliminate ‘serious exemptions’ in our ordinance — exemptions that would allow a residential development or large commercial development to not have to follow any tree protections on the project.”
But there was no way for the city to apply an ordinance on any development. “There was no way to look at site plans with developers to encourage more responsible site plans,” he said.
The city chose to act — swiftly and decisively.
“So, we just removed those exemptions, across the board. Now, every tree in our protected classes of trees is in play, on any project in the city,” he said.
To remove a Heritage tree with a 24-inch circumference is $200 per inch. “A 24-inch tree can easily get to $20,000, and if you’ve got 10 or 15 of those on your tract, that gets very expensive.”
Many residents, he said, are unaware of the tree preservation rules and the costly removal process developers now face when wanting to clear masses of land.
“This goes back to us doing a better job at telling our story. These are the things people just don’t get to see unless you’re developing a project,” he said.
Comment
Comments