Oct. 28--Bloomington city officials plan to rewrite a recent change in city policy that requires property owners to get permission before removing trees. And until the change to the Unified Development Ordinance is made, the city will not enforce the new rules regarding tree removal.
Tom Micuda, director of the city's planning department, said Tuesday the new tree removal requirements, passed by the City Council, restrict how many trees property owners can remove. The city's Plan Commission Monday night voted to ask the council to clarify and revise the policy.
Micuda said that under the new rules, property owners are allowed to remove only a certain number of trees based on the amount of coverage provided by the canopies of all the trees on a property.
"If (a property owner is) reducing the tree canopy below the requirement (the owner) would need to get a certificate of zoning compliance, which is essentially a planning and zoning permission letter," Micuda said. Also, (the owner) would need to submit a site plan to even be eligible for getting a certificate."
After objections from tree removal businesses and property owners, city officials say they plan to a rewrite of that section of city code in the near future.
Isabel Piedmont-Smith, the Bloomington city councilwoman and plan commission member who sponsored the amendment, said Tuesday she and Micuda will work on drafting the changes.
"This is not accomplishing what we want, and this is causing a lot of confusion," Piedmont-Smith said. "So it's back to the drawing board."
Piedmont-Smith said the changes to the Unified Development Ordinance, or UDO, regarding tree removal were originally aimed at large residential and commercial developments.
"We are trying to prevent people from cutting down a large number of trees that would reduce the canopy coverage of their property below the levels required by the UDO," Piedmont-Smith said.
Mayor Mark Kruzan said he agreed that the new requirements need to be rewritten.
"I think the real goal was and should be to stop someone from clear-cutting their own yard because of the impact it has on the community at large," Kruzan said.
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