Title
First Reading of Ordinance No.19-1016, Amending Oregon City Municipal Code Chapter 12.32 - Heritage Trees
Body
RECOMMENDED ACTION (Motion):
Approve the first reading of Ordinance No. 19-1016, amending Oregon City Municipal Code Chapter 12.32 - Heritage Trees.
BACKGROUND:
Oregon City established a Heritage Tree Designation process in order to recognize, foster appreciation and provide for voluntary protection of certain trees, because their age, species, natural resource value, ecological or historical association, are of special importance to the city.
On September 18, 2019 the Commission continued this item and directed staff to make the following changes to the proposed code:
- Separate the definitions for hazardous tree and diseased tree. This now matches the definitions in Chapter 17.04.
- If the heritage tree is removed, provide option to replant replacement trees off site if there is not room to replant on site.
- No inclusion of a fee-in-lieu of planting option for replacement trees.
- Clarify that notice to owner is provided.
- Change tree mitigation requirements if the heritage tree is removed, and allow and give priority a larger caliper size replacement tree instead of a greater number of smaller caliper trees.
- Grammatical edits to remove acronyms and correct capitalization.
Planning Commission endorsed the revisions to the Oregon City Municipal Code (OCMC) 12.32 on September 9, 2019. The heritage tree code is not a land use item, and is not subject to typical legislative process. The Planning Commission did consider and comment on the changes prior to making an informal recommendation for approval. Prior to the Planning Commission's review, planning staff worked with the Natural Resources Committee (NRC) to develop the recommended changes to the Heritage Tree Code, OCMC 12.32. Special thanks go to all NRC members and in particular Nancy Broshot and Dorothy (Didi) Dahlsrud for their excellent input on the code changes.The NRC review...
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