When Hattiesburg officials recently made the change from the city’s previous land development code to a form-based code, one important item didn’t make its way to the new code: a Tree/Landscape Ordinance that established responsibility and regulations for the planting and removal of community trees on public and private land.
To get that back in place, City Arborist Andy Parker proposed a new ordinance at a recent meeting of the Hattiesburg City Council that would include those measures for trees, green space, buffers and natural elements that contribute to the preservation and enhancement of the environment. The ordinance, which is expected to be re-visited at a future city council work session, encourages planting trees throughout the city to aid in the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, providing summer shade and enhancing property values.
Parker told council members that Hattiesburg has been in Tree City USA – a program by The Arbor Day Foundation that improves care of city trees – for 26 consecutive years, a designation that would be lost without a Tree/Landscape Ordinance.
“This is our city policy for managing the urban forests for public and private trees,” he said. “Everything in the (proposed ordinance) is just about status quo from the original, with a few critiques on it to update it.
“I think the original was from 1998, so 20 years later, it’s time to adjust it to catch up to this millennium’s tree ordinance. We’ve looked around the Southeast, and tried to get stuff that works for Hattiesburg.”
The ordinance also is aimed at regulating clear-cutting and mass grading of land that would result in the loss of mature trees, with trees being replanted if a loss does occur. Other tenets include protecting and maintaining a healthy urban forest that provides food and habitats for wildlife, as well as encouraging proper tree care practices on private property – trimming, removals, excavation and the like.
All trees and tree work performed on city/public lands would be overseen by Parker and officials from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department’s Urban Forestry Division, and tree planting would follow an approved plan before occurring on sites where structures or other improvements will be placed. The ordinance would prohibit the damaging, removal, pruning or transplanting of any public trees, as well as attaching rope, wire, nails or advertising posters to trees.
Property owners would be able to remove a tree that has been identified by city officials as hazardous or a public risk, with the owner being required to remove the tree at their expense within 30 days after the original notice.
Individuals would not be able to plant trees that block vision between a height of 2.5 and 7 feet above the center line grades of any intersecting streets or driveways, and a tree removal permit would be required for the removal of one or more trees over 10 inches in diameter at breast height. Permits would not be required for tree removal on existing single-family and two-family residential properties.
Parker said he will need the council’s help on finding contractors for the ordinance.
“That is kind of still up in the air – we do not have contractors,” he said. “We should have a contractor board, but we don’t have guideline right now.
“This keeps out the fly-by-night people – showing up in a pickup truck, knocking on doors and telling people that a tree is dead. We try to stay in front of that, but we need something to back us up.”
The city also would need to obtain permits to enforce the ordinance.
“We have no permitting right now,” Parker said. “The only oversight we have is the historic commission; we abide by their guidelines in those five historic districts.
“Anything else we do for new development could go to the Wild West scenario, and as Mayor (Toby Barker) has been saying, we’re trying to move toward being the premier city in the Gulf South. We need the regulations to protect our (tree) canopy and to protect our citizens.”
