On Wednesday, October 2, Portland’s City Council will hold a public hearing to consider a recommendation from the City’s Urban Forestry Commission and Planning Commission to make the Large Tree Amendment a permanent feature of the tree code (Title 11). The amendment requires a per-inch mitigation fee for developers who remove an on-site tree that is 20-inches or greater in diameter. This crucial amendment, set to expire at the end of 2024, was introduced in 2015 and revised in 2020. City analysis shows that the mitigation fee has been effective in preserving some of the city’s largest trees while having a negligible effect on new housing development.
The latter is the case because due to the tree code’s many exemptions, only a small portion of Portland’s building sites are even covered by the amendment. Affordable housing, lots under 5,000 square feet, and “high-density” sites with 85 percent of building coverage are exempt from tree preservation requirements, and these sites make up 80 percent of Portland’s planned housing growth (see map, courtesy of Urban Forestry). For more about the amendment and the City’s analysis of its impacts, see here.
Have your voices count by testifying to make this amendment permanent!
Although the Urban Forestry Commission and the Planning Commission have recommended that City Council kill the sunset and keep the amendment permanently, there is no guarantee that a majority of City commissioners will accept this recommendation. That’s why it’s so crucial that we all show up. To provide testimony in writing or in person, sign up here, where the City will soon post October 2 City Council hearing testimony links and instructions.
