by Nicole Bradford
Pearland’s longstanding tree preservation ordinance continues to be a hot topic as city leaders mull over proposed changes to make it more business-friendly.
“I don’t think anybody here hates trees,” Dr. Kristofer Schoeffler said Monday during a public input session at City Hall.
“But when you ask a business owner to pay $20,000 because they want to remove a piece of their property to help grow their business, where they employ people that live in Pearland that pay taxes — people want to save trees, but we have to cut down trees for progress. Incentivize it, make it a reward structure of some sort instead of saying ‘We’re going to penalize you for that.'”
Adopted in 1997 to prevent developers from clearing trees and to protect historic trees, the tree ordinance requires trees over 12 inches in diameter to be replaced with trees from an approved list at a two-to-one rate or to contribute money into the city’s “tree trust.”
City Councilman Jeffrey Barry cracked open the topic in August, stating the ordinance is prohibitive for businesses.
“I love trees. Don’t get me wrong, but when you get to these larger trees you may have to plant 30 trees for one tree you cut down,” he said, regarding the part of the ordinance that applies to tree diameter. “If you don’t have the room on your property, you can pay a fee — at times that number becomes extremely large. We have no cap on that number.”
Barry has proposed eliminating tree diameter to calculate mitigation requirements and capping fees.
The city’s urban forester, Jerry Bradshaw, told the council that the tree fee is not the first option.
“Our ordinance is geared toward incentivizing planting on site,” he said. “It’s by far more expensive to pay the fee. We don’t want the fee. We went them to plant onsite if it’s feasible.”
City staff noted the city’s tree preservation has expanded the city’s tree canopy by 20 percent and played a big part in Pearland’s Tree City USA and Scenic City awards in recent years.
“We’ve certainly experienced a lot of growth in the commercial industry — 142 percent growth from 2010 to 2020,” says Buck Stevens, a board member of Keep Pearland Beautiful who helped work on the city’s original tree ordinance. “I just don’t think this (ordinance) is prohibiting anyone from coming to town.”
Recent discussion about trees has yielded more ideas to incentivize preservation.
“If we could put in the ordinance, they can remove a parking spot in order to preserve a beautiful tree, I am totally for that without having to go to a variance board,” said Jennifer Hendrichs, member of the Planning and Zoning Commission, which discussed the ordinance Nov. 6.
One large-scale developer paid between $400,000 and $500,000 into the tree fund.
“It does sound like a lot,” said P&Z Commissioner Henry Fuertes. “In the scheme of things that was a choice they made, to utilize 100 percent of their land — or they could have left some open space and planted some trees.”
Ultimately, on Monday, the council directed staff to seek more input and possibly a committee to research the ordinance further.
“I want to make it clear: I didn’t hear anybody say, ‘Throw the tree ordinance out,'” Mayor Kevin Cole said. “There are some tweaks we’d like to see. How that ultimately comes about I’m not sure.”
