by Nicole Bradford
Responding to concerns the city’s tree ordinance could hinder development, Pearland City Council will look at possible stopgap measures in the new year while awaiting a more thorough update of development codes.
“I want to incentivize folks to put bigger trees on their property, not (write the city) a check,” Councilman Tony Carbone said during a Dec. 18 discussion. “I don’t want to incentivize that by just raising how big the check has to be.”
Proposed changes to the longstanding tree ordinance include increasing allowed “credits” for planting larger-than-required trees and incentivizing planting of larger trees by offering credits for trees based on size.
“I think the right answer over the long term is pushing this to the (Universal Development Code) committee,” Carbone said. “I do think we need to have stopgap like this in the meantime.”
The city is planning an update of its Unified Development Code, a document that consolidates all development-related regulations into a single resource rather than separate ordinances.
The UDC, as it is known, is updated periodically, but this is not a quick process.
“It’s going to be 18 months probably before we see a UDC rewrite finished,” Mayor Kevin Cole said.
And since it will include a separate revitalization plan for Old Town Pearland, the finish line could be up to two years away, city staff pointed out.
City staff will in January will provide some numbers and concrete examples of temporary measures that could be applied to the tree ordinance. Whether the council opts to implement any changes to the ordinance will depend, they agree, on how economically viable those changes would be.
