06-27-2022 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, June 13, 2022 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 3 of 6 FINANCE DIRECTOR REPORT Finance Director Olson shared a slide showing monthly building revenue permits, noting May 2022 was a bit behind May 2021 but they are up to 38.2% of the budget. He said if it stays where it is now they will probably be just fine by the end of the year. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT REPORT 20. LA22-000022 – CITY OF ORONO TEXT AMENDMENT RELATED TO DEAD AND DISEASED TREES – ORDINANCE NO. 274, THIRD SERIES Community Development Director Barnhart shared in May the Planning Commission reviewed a text amendment related to dead, diseased, and hazardous trees. There is a requirement to replace live trees in the shoreland area and there is no real requirement to replace dead trees. There is also no consideration to hazardous trees or trees that may fall down onto another property causing damage or injury, or diseased trees that may spread their diseases in the neighborhood. This draft ordinance is intended to provide some guidance to these things. The Planning Commission recommended that trees should be replaced one-to- one (one tree removed, one tree added) to continue to establish foliage and vegetation in the shoreline. Planning Commission recommended approval of the change. Jay Nygard, 1386 Rest Point Road, approached the podium and noted he gave public input at the Planning Commission meeting because he went through a process where the City wanted him to put 8 trees of a certain size in a certain area to replace a tree he took down for a boathouse the tree was wrecking. He negotiated with the City as he did not want a wall of trees and found reasonable places to put trees so it worked out. Mr. Nygard noted it may have gone too far here in saying that any tree of any size; he thinks they still need to have some requirements as there will be someone saying a sapling is a tree, it is a size, and it will work. He thinks the ordinance still needs a little tweaking and believes the Comprehensive Plan says something about maintaining the trees around the lake to make sure the foliage does not go away. Mr. Nygard noted a neighbor chose to cut a tree down and had his arborist “claim” that it was severely diseased. Mr. Nygard took the stump and it was clearly not diseased severely. If someone claims “the arborist said this” it is just like anything else, trees are important to the lake, an inspector needs to be sent out to look at the tree, they need an inspector, a permit in advance, and to follow the process. He thinks there should be a penalty for taking trees down without contacting the City first and they need to find a reasonable middle ground as the previous ordinance was too onerous and this one swings a little too far to the other side. Barnhart noted Mr. Nygard raised an important point and in regards to his boathouse tree, it could be deemed hazardous or diseased, but previously it was “alive” so it fell into items 1-3 in terms of replacement size. Based on this ordinance if a tree is hazardous or dangerous the City can allow that removal to occur and then the homeowner just needs to replace 1 or 2 trees, whatever the Council wants to add. This draft ordinance allows a property owner to remove a diseased or hazardous tree as long as they replace it. Barnhart noted there is not an arborist on Staff so they look for those with expertise to tell the City whether a tree is diseased and this ordinance is intended to help people with situations like Mr. Nygard. Mr. Nygard bets an arborist would be more than happy to work for the City of Orono on a set fee-per- visit.