A tree code gone rogue

Can Portland's tree code be more onerous than Lake Oswego's?  Who was looking out for the common person when the codes in Lake Oswego were created?  Why are Lake Oswego tree codes disliked by over half of the city's residents?  Isn't it time for a change?  Since the process for creating the codes didn't work,  who should be involved in changing them, and how should it be done?

Photo Credit: TRIBUNE PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE - Portland arborist John Ryan prunes branches off a maple tree at a Southeast Portland home. Ryan is bracing to be the 'bearer of bad news' when explaining the city's new tree-cutting restrictions to his clients.

Has city gone too far out on a limb?
Portland Tribune, January 8, 2015  By Steve Law
Enforcement of new tree code could be costly to homeowners

John Ryan stands to land more customers from Portland’s new tree code that took effect this month, but the certified arborist, like many other tree lovers, fears the new tree-cutting restrictions go too far. 

“I’m sure some homeowners are feeling like the city is infringing on their rights; their kind of basic right to control their own property,” says Ryan, owner of Limb by Limb, one of the companies on the city’s referral list.

The new tree code requires every resident to seek permits before removing medium-size or larger trees in their own yards. In many cases, they must replant trees elsewhere to compensate, which could cost several hundred or even several thousand dollars.

“I consider that a taking,” [Eric] Sorensen says, referring to the constitutional guarantee of  compensation when governments strip peoples’ private property rights.

The citizens involved in helping draft the new tree code were mostly of one mind —   other than the homebuilders, who made sure their industry’s needs were represented, Sorensen says.  “There was nobody there that stood up for the common person.”

He [Robinson] fears the tree code could provoke a backlash, or get widely ignored. “Sometimes if you overreach too far, some people will walk away versus comply.”

Take the requirement that people must get a permit before pruning twigs on street trees in front of their house as small as one-quarter-inch diameter. That’s about the size of a pencil.

“That seems like a joke to me,” Ryan says. “You just say that and you make people mad.”

Ryan prunes his own street trees probably 10 times a year. “I’m not getting 10 pruning permits per year,” he says. “It seems excessive.”

But navigating the new city tree code isn’t so simple for the layperson.  It’s 95 pages long.