The City of Vancouver’s public release last Thursday of a proposal to implement a more stringent and costly tree bylaw has triggered a massive increase in the number of applications from property owners who want to cut down healthy trees.
The current form of the bylaw allows property owners to purchase a $64 permit to remove at least one healthy tree per year, regardless of the reason or need to hire an arborist.
Now the city wants property owners to spend money on a permit and an independent arborist and only be allowed to cut down the tree if it is hazardous, diseased or dying.
Prior to the release of the report, the city processed about five applications for permits per day. That number has jumped to 50 per day since the report was made public, Brian Jackson, the city’s head of planning, told council Tuesday.
“On Friday, we were turning people away because we weren’t able to provide service to them by the end of the day,” Jackson said. “They came back on Monday. We were able to get through 50 but there could have been many, many more that we could have provided service to.”
News of the increase in applications caused Mayor Gregor Robertson to successfully put a temporary halt to approving any more applications until council hears from speakers Wednesday and ultimately makes a decision on the change to the bylaw.
“It’s obviously a bit of an alarming situation,” said Robertson, whose call for a halt on applications came after hearing Vancouver Park Board general manager Malcolm Bromley outline how the city has seen a substantial decline in the canopy of trees in Vancouver.
Between 1996 and 2013, under the existing bylaw, more than 23,000 healthy trees were cut down in Vancouver. Back in 1995, more than 22 per cent of the city was covered in trees and that dropped to 18 per cent in 2013, with almost all of the canopy decline occurring on private property.
Bromley said it was important not to have “a long leeway” between when changes are proposed for a tree bylaw and to implement the amendment quickly. Otherwise, as the city has discovered, it creates a rush of property owners wanting to cut down trees.
The city’s goal is to increase the number of trees in the city, with planting 150,000 trees by 2020 and getting the canopy back to 22 per cent. The city also wants to be the greenest city in the world by 2020.
Wednesday’s meeting begins at 9:30 a.m.
