91视频

With Portland’s one-year-old tree code not working as intended, city officials will meet this month to look at tweaks.

The Portland City Council voted Wednesday to establish a committee of representatives of the bureaus impacted by tree-related issues, following months of delays. Commissioner Amanda Fritz noted that what was originally supposed to be a one-year update of Title 11 has turned into a chance to fix it.

Fritz said she had hoped to put together a package to amend Title 11 this past March, when the council heard an annual review of the young code. But a problem related to Portland’s system of government emerged, she said.

鈥淚t turns out, the challenge is, each one of us has a bureau or several bureaus that have a stake in this tree issue,鈥� she said.

Commissioner Nick Fish oversees public utilities. Commissioner Dan Saltzman oversees development services and housing. Mayor Charlie Hales oversees planning and sustainability. Commissioner Steve Novick oversees transportation. And Fritz oversees parks and recreation.

On top of that, two citizen commissions 鈥� the Urban Forestry Commission and the Planning and Sustainability Commission 鈥� help oversee Title 11.

Fish called for bureau representatives to meet within two weeks to identify areas of concern regarding Title 11 and then bring goals before the council no later than the end of August.

鈥淭here’s nothing like putting everyone in one room, locking the door and banging heads,鈥� he said.

Portland’s Citywide Tree Project began in 2008 to develop consistent guidelines relating to the 鈥渦rban canopy鈥� across different land use categories. Title 11 was finished in 2011, but didn’t get off the ground until the recession ended.

鈥淭he reality is, we haven’t been able to find consensus,鈥� senior policy adviser Pooja Bhatt said. The exception, she said, was a provision allowing branches up to a 1/4-inch in thickness to be pruned without a permit.

Critics on both sides say the policy has been a misfire. Some developers and project designers say fines under Title 11 are so steep, and restrictions so onerous, that many owners are electing to remove trees and pay thousands of dollars in lieu.

Advocates for trees say Title 11 falls short, though it’s better than nothing.

鈥淥ne of the myths about Title 11 is that trees are being preserved,鈥� said the Audubon Society’s Jim Labbe, an advisory committee member invited by Fritz to testify at Wednesday’s meeting.

Labbe said various citizen groups have proposed a site review process for developers, so they can make cases for which trees need to come down. He said exemptions for commercial and industrial land should be abandoned.

Over several months, critics from the development community have begun to sit out the public process to revise the law. Four members of the Tree Code Oversight Advisory Committee quit after the city added four people favorable to tree preservation to the eight-person committee, effectively minimizing their voices.

鈥淲e kind of felt like, what’s the point of going?鈥� Jeff Fish of Fish Construction told the 91视频.