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11/26/2019 Member News

Mayor Wheeler and HBA Advocate for Title 11 Stakeholder Engagement Process


Earlier this month on the The Portland Real Estate Podcast, Ezra Hammer discussed HBA’s advocacy on the proposed changes to Title 11 (Tree Preservation of Private Trees in Development Situations) in the City of Portland. Without any public conversation and despite staff protestation, the Urban Forestry Commission (UFC) called for reduction of the tree size threshold for trees subject to required tree preservation or fee in lieu of preservation and “inch-per-inch” mitigation fee in-lieu of preservation from 36” to 20”. This change would add thousands of dollars to the cost of new housing, without meaningfully enhancing the tree canopy. Additionally, due to Portland’s unique inability to facilitate inter-bureau communications, it is not uncommon for a city bureau to require the removal of trees during construction, which in turn triggers Title 11 fines. Mayor Ted Wheeler agrees with our concerns over lack of proper stakeholder engagement and is not bringing UFC's proposal forward at this time. HBA welcomes a robust discussion around tree preservation and believes that new housing and an urban forest can complement - rather than conflict - with each other. For more information on HBA’s work in the City of Portland, contact Ezra Hammer at ezrah@hbapdx.org.

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