Winston-Salem could finally have an ordinance that requires developers to preserve or plant a certain number of trees if the city council acts after a public hearing that has been proposed for July.
Council Member Dan Besse told members of the council's general-government committee yesterday that he thinks a compromise ordinance is within reach, although he added that he didn't think the various interests would ever agree on everything.
City officials have been talking about a tree ordinance since 2004.
To help push things along, Besse has proposed a new version of the ordinance that incorporates elements from two earlier incarnations -- one developed last October by members of the planning staff and based in part on the recommendations of an appointed tree committee, and a December 2008 version approved by the City-County Planning Board.
The city council is being asked to receive comment on all three versions when it conducts a public hearing.
A key ingredient to the rules that the council will consider is that developers must create "tree-save areas" in which 10 percent to 12 percent of the trees on a site must be preserved, with the percentage depending on the size of the project and other factors. There are various exemptions that would allow some lots to escape the ordinance's control.
Yesterday, Besse dropped a feature of his compromise ordinance that he said threatened to derail the effort to get any kind of ordinance passed.
Besse had proposed language that would stop landowners from clearing land of trees in anticipation of future development, and imposing a five-year development moratorium for deliberate violations of the rule.
Nancy Gould, speaking for the Home Builders Association of Winston-Salem and the Winston-Salem Regional Association of Realtors, said that there hadn't been enough time to debate and work out the implications of that kind of ban.
Other than that, Gould said, discussions with Besse and representatives of environmental and neighborhood groups had been mostly fruitful.
Other tweaks proposed by Besse and accepted by the general-government committee included a provision that would allow a developer to get tree-saving credits by donating forested land for parkland. Another would clarify that the rules can apply to sites under redevelopment.
City officials plan to keep studying the idea of a ban on clearing land before development starts. Besse said that provisions calling for planting more trees in developments that don't have enough of them should allay some concerns over land clearing.
Gus Preschle, the chairman of the Foothills Group of the North Carolina Sierra Club, said after yesterday's meeting that he was disappointed that the clearing ban was omitted, but he called the committee's action a chance to finally get something accomplished.
"I think it was a significant step forward to bring a compromise ordinance before the council after years of hard work," Preschle said.
■ Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.
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