Healthy trees in Bellingham with diameters of 36 inches or greater are now protected under the City of Bellingham’s new emergency tree ordinance, effective immediately.
The ordinance directs city staff to create and maintain a Landmark Tree Inventory to protect mature trees — a move that was anticipated after the draft Urban Forest Plan was brought forward for council and community feedback last month.
Trees of any size that aren’t automatically included in the inventory can be nominated for inclusion based on distinctive traits. Groves of trees can also be nominated for inclusion in the inventory.
City staff learned that in anticipation of the ordinance’s adoption, there has been a “substantial increase in calls to tree service companies” to remove or damage trees that would be considered landmark trees.
“We were concerned that people would preemptively cut down the trees in an effort to avoid new rules,” Planning and Community Development Director Blake Lyon said in a news release Tuesday morning, May 21. “It became clear very quickly that if we didn’t act soon, there was a high risk of losing some of our city’s significant trees.”
Trees in the inventory may not be damaged, removed or harmed without approval from the new Bellingham Landmark Tree Committee, which will create and maintain the inventory. The ordinance outlines situations in which a landmark tree may be removed, including when the tree is hazardous, removal is necessary to “enable construction on or reasonable use of the property” or if it’s necessary to maintain utilities.
Pruning or maintenance of landmark trees is allowed under the ordinance.
The ordinance also provides incentives to property owners to protect landmark trees impacted by proposed development, including a reduction of on-site parking requirements or on-site open space requirements — “things that are of our own making that would help incentivize the protection of the preservation of that tree and allow an appropriate amount of development to occur in and around that facility,” Lyon said at the council’s Monday, May 20 meeting.
Violations of the ordinance can result in fines of up to $5,000 per violation.
The emergency ordinance is now in place for six months, and the city will need to hold a public hearing on the issue within the next 60 days.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
