Talks of axing tree rules from ordinance upset environmentalists

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Another proposed change to the city’s post-construction controls ordinance is ruffling the feathers of environmentalists.

City officials are considering removing from the ordinance the city’s tree-save rules, which require higher tree protections for low-density development and lower protections for higher-density projects.

The proposal comes less than a year after the adoption of the city’s tree ordinance, which is a separate ordinance aimed at saving trees.

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Darryl Hammock, Charlotte’s water quality and environmental permitting manager, said removing the tree rules from the PCCO is a means to improve efficiency in city government.

“We had two separate ordinances and two ordinance administrators and two separate council advisory groups that oversee these two things,” he said. “It doubles the complexity of the review and doubles the complexity of someone submitting the plan.”

But Susan Tompkins, who sits on the Charlotte Tree Commission, is upset by the proposal, which the City Council’s environmental committee is
expected to consider at an Aug. 22 meeting.

“PCCO and tree ordinance have different standards,” she said. “The PCCO requires preservation at 25 percent. The tree ordinance requires at
10 percent. It makes no sense to make the single standard the lesser of the two requirements.”

But Hammock said the 25 percent preservation in the PCCO is rarely triggered, because it only applies to low-density development.

Ramsey can be reached at [email protected].