ARTICLE
In 2019, at the request of activists and the Urban Forestry Commission, Portland staff brought forward a proposal to dramatically increase the cost of tree management in development situations. Mayor Wheeler responded to HBA’s concerns with the proposed changes to Title 11 (Tree Preservation of Private Trees in Development Situations), and, last December, withdrew the proposal and directed staff conduct community and stakeholder engagement. The proposal, which would reduce the size threshold for trees subject to the required preservation or fee-in-lieu of preservation and “inch-per-inch” mitigation from 36 to 20 inches, could add thousands of dollars to the construction of a new home, without providing any further benefit to the urban tree canopy. As part of the necessary engagement, Portland released a survey to gauge Portlanders’ interest in tree preservation. Unfortunately, the survey’s questions are so skewed that only someone actively engaged in home building could possibly provide feedback that did not indicate a willingness to support higher fees. Despite its unfortunate bias, decision makers will use the survey results when deciding whether to increase fees on new housing. As such, please take several minutes to complete the survey and share your concerns with the proposals. To learn more about our work with the City of Portland, contact Ezra Hammer at ezrah@hbapdx.org.