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Thank you very much.

Seeing and hearing none.

Present its report on the UDC amendments titled Tree Preservation and Mitigation.

Sir.

Good evening, Chair and Commission, uh John Chapman, long-range planning manager.

Uh I have with uh tonight in the tree preservation and mitigation public hearing.

Uh this uh we had a work session on this item earlier this month as well as a lot of other past meetings.

We wanted to make sure that we really got involved with uh some of uh the DRT, which is the development round table, the landmark preservation commission, as well as Arbor.

Um so I just want to publicly thank all of these stakeholder groups to really participate and be involved in these discussions and uh hopefully have a recommendation that's uh agreeable to everyone.

So on the agenda today, I'm gonna talk about the objective as to why we are here, uh changes to our bonus point structure for tree preservation, um, a new addition to the point system uh with regards to a heritage tree, significant tree stand updates, as well as an enhanced significant uh stand update, um, development incentives for preservation, as well as other miscellaneous revisions related to tree preservation and mitigation.

So, why are we here?

Back in 2019, a UDC amendment was adopted related to tree preservation and mitigation to make a difference in protecting more cross timbers trees.

Um, after a uh analysis was conducted by staff due to some concerns that were brought up.

So this created the review for additional tree points offered through the preservation of cross timbers oaks, our bonus trees, and the significant tree stand.

And then the addition of the heritage tree as well as penalty points for removal, and that was also something a big objective that came out of the beginning discussions.

So changes to the bonus points for preservation.

On the left hand side are the categories, cross timbers oaks, bonus trees, as well as significant tree stands.

In the middle is our current bonus point structure for preservation.

For cross timbers oaks, that received a two times bonus for single family residential and a three times bonus for all other uses, which would include non-residential and multifamily developments as well as mixed use.

For bonus trees, that would be counted as one and a half additional points, and then for significant tree stands that would count as one and a half additional points as well, only for non-residential though.

The proposal, which is the column on the right, identifies the proposed bonus point structure changes.

So reducing the cross timbers oaks bonus points down to one and a half, so still creating an incentive for those trees based on the spirit of the 2019 code.

However, we were dropping that to ensure that we are not overcompensating those points, whereas creating a reduction in Arlington's tree canopy and overall number of protected trees on the site as part of development.

Same goes with our bonus bonus trees there on the second row, dropping from 1.5 to 1.25 for protection.

And then for significant stand counting that caliper inches twice, which is based on a proposed definition enhancement, which I will talk about later on a future slide, and then just clarifying that this would only remain still as part as non-residential.

In previous presentations, this was indicated as something that would be proposed as part of single family residential as well.

But we you know re-looked at everything and said this doesn't really meet the objective of ensuring that we're adjusting our bonus point structures to not remove more tree canopy in Arlington.

So that's been clarified to continue to only be part of non-residential preservation calculations.

So a new addition to the point system, and this is one of the principal objectives of this update, is preserving these large cross-timbers oaks, what we are terming as heritage tree.

The preservation of these trees would grant a developer two times bonus points.

These would include trees that meet the definition of multi-trunk as well, which is defined in Article 12 of the UDC.

And these would include cross-timbers oaks that are greater than 40 inches.

So really big, you know, very mature trees.

They've, you know, specifically with cross-timbers oaks that that size, those have been around for several hundred years, so very historic.

This would, we were proposing to deincentivize the proposed removal of these heritage trees across all development types, and this would be by way of creating a deduction that would be equal to the times two caliper inches for the preservation of that tree.

So if someone were to propose to be removing that tree from a site as part of their preservation calculation, they would actually have a subtraction as part of that.

So it really makes sure that this type of tree is really part of the conversation and consideration as development projects are brought forward.

For significant tree stands, and then something that came out of the planning and zoning work session that we had earlier this month and enhanced significant stand update.

The top portion there for the for significant stands with existing and proposed is a breakdown of the existing definition found in Article 12 of the UDC.

On the left hand side, you have the breakdown of the existing definition, and on the right hand side is the proposed.

Basically, what's occurring is we are proposing higher standards to really meet something by definition that is significant.

Something that has been voiced across a lot of the meetings as we're driving and walking around Arlington, we really want to ensure that we're preserving these more mature trees along our roadways and sidewalks.

And so what we're looking at is increasing the minimum number of trees from three to five, increasing the minimum caliper inches from two and a half to eight inches, which is a somewhat mature tree depending on the species, and then increasing that maximum spacing just due to a characteristic that mature trees are going to be a little bit more spaced apart, and then increasing that modification of the bonus point from 1.5 to 2 based on what we anticipate coming out of the significant trees that are found in Arlington.

We don't see this offsetting the main objective of preserving more tree canopy as part of this review due to there being there will be less significant stands as due to the increased definition.

So something that is new that also came out of the work session with PNC earlier this month is the enhanced significant stand definition.

This would be a minimum of 10 trees, five or more being a cross timbers oak, with a minimum eight caliper inches.

What we are proposing is that that be a three times bonus point, and that it would only be calculated as part of determining a developments, a project's development incentives.

So it wouldn't go toward that preservation because again, when looking at the one of the primary objectives of ensuring that we're preserving Arlington's tree canopy and the number of trees on the lot, we didn't want to create an additional hurdle to that.

But we did want to recognize that in a meaningful manner.

So these are the proposed development incentives.

It's a breakdown by column of the development types.