Thank you, everyone, for being here.

Could you please say your names into the little microphony things?

Sure.

I'm Karen Firehock with the Green Infrastructure Center, and I'm your tree ordinance consultant.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you.

Steve Harris, City Arborist, Syracuse Parks Department.

Steve.

Say Shopper Commissioner Parks.

I'm Hannah Aaron Wright, Chair of the Parks Committee.

Donamore, Councilor District.

All right, we'll get started.

I hear you have some stuff to tell us.

I do.

Counselors, thank you for coming, attending this meeting today.

And the reason we're here today is we went through an urban forest master plan process in 2019 and 20.

And the result of that process was a recognition that the community feels trees are infrastructure that the science backs that up, but our language laws and practice don't always treat trees as infrastructure.

And it starts with modernizing our tree laws.

So today we're bringing to you chapter 22, which is solely focused on the trees that the city owns and are mostly along our streets, our right-of-ways.

Um working closely with Deputy Commissioner Jake Disha on Codes and our zoning administrator Zhi Tongwu, we will bring changes to you that will be impacting development, uh both tree protection and design measures that we feel uh we need do new developments to have in order for us to uh uh like our peers be a modern city that treats trees as infrastructure.

That is more complicated and has more consideration, so it's gonna take us more time to do that.

Okay, so as it relates to trees being infrastructure, this is just a a breezy tour of the benefits of trees.

Uh trees provide civ significant stormwater control, which is why as part of uh the county's Save the Rain program, they invested 3.5 million dollars in tree planting, which the city oversaw working closely with the county and why uh they estimated they invested about five percent of their total program cross costs in tree-related activity.

Probably the most important things that trees do is create shade, which not only which mitigates the negative impacts of heat islands, the idea being if the ambient temperature, if it's 79 degrees, uh but in a parking lot, uh because of the sun, it's eighty-eight degrees, and in a forest it's seventy-one degrees, that's the impact of the heat island, and that is hardscapes absorbing sunlight, making it hotter than it actually is.

And when that happens, um that heat bakes pollution and makes it worse.

And we know there's a correlation between poor canopy and uh outdoor airway problems like asthma.

So we see public health as one of the most important benefits of trees, and um larger trees are better at that.

So we had a heat map done in uh 2016, and at 11 a.m.

on a 79 degree day, there was a 12 degree uh temperature swing between uh the forest by Webster Pond and uh the parking lot at Destiny from 71 to 87 degrees.

So here are the many ecosystem services that the urban forest provides.

They're all quantifiable.

Uh you could probably spend half a day uh reviewing the science for each one of these things, and these are all these things are important to our citizens.

That's what we were told during our master plan and uh why the community uh overall cares about trees.

That's why we're proposing the changes we are, and to explain what those changes are, which we'll you'll be able to review in your slide deck.

I will turn it over to Karen.

Thank you very much, Stephen.

So, just one thing we want to emphasize before we get into the fun of codes, is just that large trees provide greater benefits than smaller trees, and I'm sure that's pretty intuitive.

But if you just think about the amount of stormwater, they can take up the amount of leaf area to clean and filter the air.

And so the U.S.

Forest Service has actually quantified, they've actually estimated the value of large trees.

So if we just um I didn't update this for 26, but if you just think about a large tree is worth about $7,411, and a smaller tree is worth about 450 dollars in terms of ecosystem benefits.

So that's why we want to try to preserve large trees in our city.

Preserving plants.

Yeah.

And I bailed a slide earlier.

Thank you for covering that.

Okay, so let's go over what's proposed to change.

And I'm in this uh slide deck is going to present these changes at high level, but at any time you can refer to the actual code changes in the ordinance handout.

All those changes are in blue highlights to make it easy to find them.

But essentially, uh, that's under your slide.

Oh, is there somehow missed?

Oh, I guess we'll hear it.

Okay.

What do you look for?

We're a washing paper.

We're supporting the paper industry today.

Um, what we've done and see a lot of blue, like on the first page, for example, that is a lot of definitions that have just been added.

So whenever you add a new term into a city code, you also need to provide a definition of what you're talking about.

So it's that's pretty straightforward.

Um, a more important addition is this ordinance adds a new tree advisory board.

That would be an appointed board appointed by you all to represent the public.

And their duties are primarily around the areas of public awareness and education, so they act as an additional arm for parks and rec to get people excited about planting trees in their yard, knowing how to take good care of trees, um, you know, sort of a cheerleading group for for city trees.

Um, and if there were a large uh, you know, like say a big project and plant a lot of trees in a park, you might have them review that plan.

But they're not, they have no, they're not a legal body, they're in the sense that they're not reviewing site plans or any of that.

Do we educate on getting that right tree if you're gonna put it next to your house?

Yeah, that's the kind of thing they might like say create a new brochure about or uh do more uh one-to-one outreach to the community.

Um, and it would be comprised of eight and uh eight members, and they would meet at least quarterly.

So it's not a huge administrative burden, it would be mostly managed by this department here.

Um but in that little asterisk in green that says meets tree city USA, the National Arbor Day Foundation has standards for what a tree should city should have, and you've been a tree city for several decades, and so they best practice is to have a citizen citizen board.

So that's what that is.

All right, that's pretty straightforward.

Um so again, we're only talking today about uh public trees, and a lot of the updates to 22, which deals with public trees, have to do with best practices, good housekeeping.

Um so, for example, we are just adding things to say you cannot plant trees that are invasive in on public uh parks or right-of-ways.

You have to follow the tree design standards manual.

Now you may not have heard of this.

There's a little picture of it in the upper corner there.

Uh in 2020, the city had a consultant uh draft a design manual to talk about best practices for how the city wants trees planted, but it was never fully completed.

So we have updated that to add technical illustrations and all of the things that uh somebody planting a tree would want to know.

So it just puts your standards in a manual that you can easily hand out to someone.

Do we have a timeline for when this will be updated or can is it a continual updating process?

We're awaiting uh review and commentary, and then we'll be able to finalize that.

It will be a companion piece, so it's not being codified.

And the reason is it's gonna have a tree list in it, for example, what trees are appropriate to plant.

And it let's say a new cult of ours invented that's uh resistant to a pest.

Yay, we can use that.

We want to be able to add that to your allowed planting list without having to come to you for a vote to legally adopt a tree onto a tree list.

So it's really a technical manual.

We'll we'll present that with our proposed changes to rezone.

Yes, you'll have that manual that you can look at, but it's not gonna be anything surprising.

Um it's really just best practices and this term ANSI professional standards, those are the best uh practices in the aboriculture industry.

So it just talks about things such as if you were to let a contract for someone to plant in a park, you would say you must follow these standards.

Hopefully they would anyway, but it just reminds them that yes, we're following the best professional standards in our city.

And then to prohibitions against damaging public trees, you're currently not allowed to damage public trees.

But we have added to the list of things you cannot do.

Um it's a litigious world, so we've added things like you may not put for brine on the tree.

You may not um put heavy materials up against the roots and store them there.

So it's just adding more list of harms of things you can't do to a public tree.

I I do notice that we have a section specifically about utility work, and I do have serious concerns about the topping of trees and the pruning of trees that both Spectrum and National Grid have been doing throughout the city, seemingly without any concern for the health or dignity of the tree or the neighborhood.

I don't know if dignity of the tree is a real thing, but I'm gonna put it out there.

They look undignified, they are basically V-shaped trees.

I don't know if that's like our new tree standard or not, but I would like that ended if we could.

Um the work that National Grid does is regulated by the public service commission and their mandate is reliability, and so they're following state mandates that we cannot control unless we are willing to relieve them of their liability and we take it on ourselves.

We are not in the position to start repairing the utility poles that the trees take out.

I understand, but we have not buried any infrastructure, and we have planted trees in the same right-of-way, and those are trees that we are obligated to maintain, and infrastructure that they are obligated to maintain, which seems like we are in conflict in terms of who needs to do the thing where.

And if we need to give them guidance as to how they are allowed to top trees in our area so that we don't have random V shapes throughout the north side, east side, and south side, we maybe should do that.

That's certainly a conversation for later.

I will say if we bury, there's a lot of competition underground in our right-of-way in general, and if we're bearing electric underground, we may lose the ability to plant trees at all.

So that's something to consider.

Um here as it goes to prohibitions against damaging public trees.

I just want to remind you about the street cut ordinance that was passed earlier in late 2025, and that uh is doing important.

That's where a lot of our fines and fees are connected to.

So those were codified already in the street cut ordinance and then are referred to here.

So you'll notice that in the in the ordinance.

Okay.

Well, we made notes about the your comments about power and lines and all of that.

And and also part of adopting a tree list and having it required is right tree, right place.

So don't plant that small tall stature, giant tree under that power line in the first place.

I know we've got a lot of legacy trees in an old city.

All right, continue on with that.

Um this is just also noting that if you're doing a construction activity and that it's gonna affect a public tree, you have to get a permit.

So we know that you've properly fenced that tree and protected it.

And just to be clear, that picture on the right is not what you should be doing.

Um you should not be storing things on top of the tree roots.

Um, it establishes standards for replacement.

So let's say that we have to remove a public tree because it's just we can't the driveway cut for the new building is right where the public tree is.

We need to replace that tree on a one-inch per one-inch basis.

So if it's a big 20-inch walnut tree, then we need to get 20 inches of equivalent trees planted.

So in that way, we recover our canopy faster.

And just to be clear, not in the exact same location, but somewhere in the neighborhood.

So overall, the neighborhood recovers its canopy faster.

Are our permits bundled with construction permits right now?

They are.

Okay.

Through the street cut ordinance.

Thank you.

And then also if the city is itself doing a project, like when you're replacing sidewalks, in whenever we can, we try to curve the sidewalk around the tree or you know, do something to avoid taking out a tree.

But sometimes that tree just happens to be growing right in where the sidewalk needs to go, and it's just we can't fix that.

But it says we commit to planting the equivalency of that tree somewhere else in the neighborhood or down the street, so that we cannot lose canopy as we gain sidewalks overall.

So it's trying to keep us from losing trees as we improve other public infrastructure.

Do we provide them?

Yes, this is a if it's a public project, it's your sidewalk.

So you would also be doing that.

Okay.

All right.

And then also if a tree, and this is currently in the code, what we've just clarified it.

If a tree say is on private property, but it's impeding public transport.

Let's uh it's hanging over the sidewalk to the point where no one can get the baby stroller down the sidewalk, or it's it's hang it's it's hanging precariously and going to fall into an intersection that you can um designate that tree as a public hazard and then require that person to prune that tree back, or if it's dead and it's just leaning on a fence about to fall into the roadway, you can take it out.

Um we also cannot block roadway safety signs and traffic lights and all that.

Uh and then also explains that your actions required by permit must be followed.

Again, this is a along it's getting all emotional, along the lines of good housekeeping, right?

So making sure that you have a permit, you must follow your permit.

And then if there's an emergency, let's say there's a big storm and cough drops if you need.

Um if there's a big storm and I inhaled water, it's okay.

If there's a big, if there's a big storm and something is an emergency and you can't wait to get a permit to deal with the tree, there is a provision for you to deal with it, and then you have to contact um the department within so many hours.

I think it's 48 hours.

All right, and then penalties.

It adopts the new, this is what uh Mr.

Harris was just referring to.

It adopts the new fee slash uh fine structure by reference that you already adopted in the spring in chapter 24, streets and sidewalks, section 24-37.

So you already established a fee or fine structure if you damaged a tree and it's got two sections to it, whether you damage it such that the tree can't be repaired, or you the tree could be pruned to repair the damage.

So we haven't added anything new here.

We're just referencing that you do have a new structure, but um, under your uh recommendation of counsel Joe Barry, he said I should paste that same section in here so that people didn't have to go looking for another ordinance to reference.

Okay.

And then replacement trees.

Um, it does allow the city arborist to accept a replacement tree in lieu of a fine or fee.

So if there's an opportunity, let's say it's a small business and it was an inadvertent damage, it does allow that they could purchase a tree with acceptance by the city, and that tree could be replanted in the same spot to replace it.

So that would be on a case-by-case basis.

And then the goal is also to replace on site or close to the site.

It could be a situation where you can't replace it on site because maybe it was in a bad spot to begin with to your earlier point.

So maybe when we replant the tree that we're trying to get back that equivalent canopy, it makes sense to plant it down the street or somewhere nearby where there isn't that conflict.

But the goal here is to make sure that canopy covers maintained in the neighborhood as we continue to grow and develop or uh do street work or sidewalk work.

Okay, we're getting to the end.

This is a short and sweet presentation.

Um we have established a new tree fund.

Now, this is not a fund where this ordinance is asking the city to put new money into a coffer.

It's just simply saying that when there is a fine or a fee paid for trees, that that money goes into the tree fund.

So it's money for a say a let's say it's a penalty or a replacement tree that someone's paying a fee in lieu of replacement.

That means it goes into the fund and it gets used for trees.

So instead of in the general fund.

So it establishes a designated fund.

It also can be used for things such as uh someone wants to make a donation.

Let's say, I'll just make up a name.

Mrs.

Smith loves trees in city and her legacy, she would like to leave you $5,000 for tree planting.

There would be a easier way for you to accept that money into the tree fund and know that it came in for trees and it went out for trees.

It establishes um, it's also can be used for establishing trees.

So you have to buy mulch, fertilizer, you have to prune it, you have to stake it, you have to water it.

Maybe the soils are terrible and you need to amend them.

I have a question about this language just in terms of the establish healthy trees on trees on city-owned or maintained lands.

Yes.

I understand that that would be our primary goal.

But for instance, if there are lands that are owned by or maintained by CNY Land Trust or by a cemetery fund, there are lots of different entities that own land that fall within the jurisdiction of the city of Syracuse where we might want to partner and use funds from the tree fund to reforest or replant there.

Is there any way to add some flexibility into this language?

Um I will I will check how we've worded in the ordinance, but it really mostly is focused on trying to replace it in the general neighborhood where the tree was lost.

It doesn't necessarily say it must be on city-owned land, I don't believe.

I would say that that would be agreeable.

I mean, the idea is that it's land that is publicly accessible and can be used by all.

And so those lands typically fit that fit that.

So we'll look at that.

Okay.

Yeah.

Because it could be there's it's a really tight neighborhood, and there isn't any good spot because your city has been doing a good job of planting street trees.

So you have been taking up a lot of the more obvious spaces.

I mean, even I could see that there might be some need for design flexibility, for instance, along Lancaster.

All of the street trees are planted in a right-of-way that also shares space again with utility poles and are being cut into V shapes.

If we wanted to create forestry in that area, but we needed to move it just slightly off onto private property, although it would still be a street tree.

Again, I'm not suggesting that we do that.

I'm just saying that if we had the ability to do something along those lines, we might want to build that flexibility in now as we are looking to make sure that we have canopy where we need it.

I'll check the code to make sure nothing precludes you from doing that.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Absolutely.

Okay.

All right.

And then this is more sort of like the the cherry on top of the Sunday.

Um surplus trees.

If you had, let's say you had a storm and uh I know those are some nice looking trees, right?

Um that's an example of a municipal tree that came down, not in this city.

Uh but uh let's say you had a really nice walnut tree that was really straight and would be really great for lumber or making uh live edge tables or a beautiful rocking chair.

Um you would be able to sell that tree to say a local carpenter, uh, but it establishes that you're allowed to do that instead of just chipping it up for mulch, right?

So you would you would buy it because there was a very, very old tree in backyard, which was a nuisance.

No, this is this is no, this is just public trees.

Or let's say you had to take out a really high value public tree for a road project.

Oh you don't want to just chip it into mulch when it's fine furniture wood.

The intent is to facilitate reuse of of solid wood that can be made kept in carbon made into furniture, et cetera.

So how often does that happen?

Uh we vastly underutilize our urban wood if if um it's something that's on our radar.

There are there are uh plenty of municipalities that have formal wood utilization programs.

Yes, I the picture in the top right is with one of the cities we work with, but we established their program in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and that happy young woman is standing next to uh ash cut.

That's a they had to take out their ash trees from Emerald Ash Bore, and they had to remove 400 ash trees.

So they had party had cheese board making parties, they had table making parties.

It turned into this whole community engagement thing, and they also bought a dry kiln that they could pour it around because they had so much damage from this one insect.

I just remember the Labor Day storm of 1998.

That was the way where all of those heritage trees came down across the city.

I don't know if I remember.

My whole street was decimated.

I mean, the key to a successful utilization program is consistent volume.

Right.

So it's all about making sure that whoever is processing that wood has a reliable supply, the more reliable it is.

Uh, the more different uses it can it could be then be included in home building, but until it's a large enough volume, it's it's hard to scale it up.

Just sets a structure for you to be able to do this.

It could be as simple as a walnut tree had to come down in a park, it's in good shape.

You have a list of carpenters you contact and they can bid on that walnut tree, and then you can sell it, and then the money, let's say you get several thousand dollars for that tree, then goes into your tree fund to replant more walnut trees.

Just out of curiosity, so I understand this, and that makes total sense, and I like it a lot.

Um, if for instance, on private land or in the back of a drumlin where the land ownership is not quite clear, uh hardwood came down.

Could somebody call the city and ask that that be donated for this program?

I assume if you had a program, yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Do we have the infrastructure to go pick it up and take it in and they wouldn't whoever would you would sell it to, they would have to put it.

Michael's got a truck.

Yes, you would not be responsible for creating a new warehouse, store wood.

It I mean, it depends on how advanced you want to get, but it could be like I said, as simple as the tree is here, we can hold it here for a week, you need to come and get it.

So, what happens after a week?

I just made that up.

I didn't you have to establish these details.

But for right now to be new or we're just giving you the authority.

You can establish all that on a programmatic level, it doesn't need to go in the code.

Um, and then this is also just again what I was talking about a little earlier, just that you follow your city tree manual and that you follow best practices for if you have to cut a root, let's say if you're doing a utility installation, you follow best practices.

So I just want to highlight one thing though that you sh go.

Um last one is on form.

One of the things, oops, wrong way.

Um just so you know, uh, if you look at the bottom with new permanent exceptions, um we have been working with Syracuse Uber Uber Urban Food Forest Project for many years now.

We're planting a lot of edible trees and shrubs in our forests, and we include some language that allows foraging in public parks.

Currently, if you look at our at our language across three different codes.

Um in the in the attempt to protect flowers that we plant, it's illegal to pick from parks.

So we're trying to work that language so that when people go on to properties they can forage and that they don't get in trouble for doing so.

But that mainly will speak to different ordinances, but we're just acknowledging in this one that that you can do that in our parks.

I very much appreciate that clarification and also the clarifications on, you know, for instance, boundary trees.

A lot of people call about questions, the tree is here, it's not on their property, it's not on my property.

Who has designated responsibility?

And I think that that all makes a great deal of sense.

Um, along the lines with the foraging, I just wanted to know we do invite people in our parks and in our public spaces to partner with the city to be volunteer gardeners and master gardeners.

And I think that we do want that level of volunteer engagement.

Do we have a mechanism by which people can reach out and become essentially designated pruners or helpers, particularly for properties?

We have a number of houses that actually reside in our parks or border our parks where there are communal boundary trees and things of that nature.

I just want I want I want there to be a mechanism for community engagement.

I mean, do you mean beyond people contacting us when they have a question about a tree that they think is a problem tree?

Yes.

Or um we can certainly talk about that more.

I so we can explain to you what we do do now and um and things we can potentially do.

And and I would I would just add that we've been working with Claire and John Claire and the forestry department and Josh.

Um we have an email if folks are interested in volunteering or being a part of a parks, other aside from park associations, they're able to fill out a form, submit that form, and we contact them, but it could be you know, at a planting event um that that's being held.

It could be, hey, I'm really interested in planning these planters for for you and take the relief off the gardeners.

Can we do that?

So there is a form.

I'll I can send you the email address to the forum, the link to the form.

Okay.

And then this last slide is just to tee up down the road.

We're not uh really talking about this specifically today, but the other side of the coin that we are looking at for the future is under your zoning ordinance, Article 4.5, which covers development standards.

Uh, we're looking to require preservation of larger trees on development sites, or if you can't protect that larger tree to plant some equivalent trees somewhere else, or to donate to the tree fund.

So that again, as we grow and develop that tree, maybe it's right in the middle of where the building's supposed to go, so you don't have an option, but can we donate to a fund to then plant those trees or plant you know, replant them somewhere else on the site?

It sets a process for off-site mitigation.

I was just saying, adopt standards from the tree design manual.

So again, we'll have a manual with standards and specifications.

Right now you have some, but they're in disparate places.

This brings them all in one place for one-stop shopping where you can find everything, and then establishes bonding to ensure planted trees last at least two years.

Similar to what you do currently for a stormwater facility or a best management practice, you take a fee and you hold that to make sure that two years later it's still working as intended.

Same thing with a tree.

A lot of times if they're planted improperly, you can't tell that they were planted wrong, they die a year later, and now you don't have the landscaping that was on their site plant.

So this this just establishes that same best practice.

And then it also actually has more flexible standards for parking lots.

So you know, if it planning and zoning, though this trying to arrange a new parking lot and figure out how to get all the cars in there and the trees and the landscaped islands can be complicated.

So it actually gives them more flexibility in how they arrange the parking bays and the trees.

Like maybe where the tree would go is under a power line, want to move it over.

So that's coming later, and that will be part of a more broad updates to your zoning code that staff have been collecting all the different tweaks since rezoning happened, so they want to bring you one whole package.

Um, but that is private land.

I wanted to uh close and then we can talk more about the ordinance, but we did extensive community engagement around this.

So we held created a multi-stakeholder committee comprised of citizen groups, advocacy groups, a development community.

They met three times in multi-hour workshops to talk about what was needed to update the city tree code, what would uh be best practices, and then we reached consensus from everyone, and this is reflected in the ordinance that you have.

We also created an online public survey, and that held also on the web was all the different meeting times for coming to community meetings, so people had a chance to go online and comment.

I can say that the comments were all around the nature of protect trees, yay for tree.

I mean, there wasn't anyone saying I don't want to protect trees through a better ordinance.

As that's a broad statement, I realize.

Uh Stephen Harris presented to all the T 10 TNT neighborhood sectors.

So each one got their own meeting, and then in addition, we held two open houses where anyone could come in two different places.

And maybe you weren't around that night, we had the neighborhood meeting, and so this was your chance or anyone could come.

Uh and then we had a forum specifically for the development community in spring twenty twenty five for them to ask questions or voice concerns.

How how well was that attended?

I would say about maybe I'll let you reflect on that, but maybe about half the people that we invited.

Um I think about 30 people came.

And there were developers there like that you're used that we know are doing projects here that they weren't there.

Um we did have a developer and a landlord on our committee, and uh the the develop the project manager for CHA, uh Brian Um Bouchard was uh was on our ordinance committee.

Um a lot of the housing orgs were at that as well.

So we presented both ordinances, both 22 and 4.5 as part of that.

So we got a lot of feedback.

So we're still working through 4.5.

It's in, I'd say it's about 80% done.

Um we're still tweaking some of the language.

Um, but chapter 22 is more straightforward because it's really only affecting public trees, and so we felt like this one was ready uh to bring forward for your consideration.

Obviously, this is a work session, so we've noted some of your comments so far, but like to hear um other questions, concerns.

And of course, this isn't your only opportunity if you you know, if you're like me the next day you realize you forgot to ask such and such, you can contact Steven and let us know.

But are there any just general concerns, questions, comments?

The only thing I I ask, and this is um possibly not within the bounds of this ordinance.

People feel frustrated when trees are changed when they feel like they didn't understand why the tree was taken down or remediated, or if they had a problem with a tree that was a public right-of-way tree that was trimmed on their property.

Um, and it's not um feasible, I think, for the city parks department to do more on outreach or engagement ahead of the tree trimming and um arborist work that they are currently doing.

Is there any provision for us to make a contribution ourselves into the tree fund for trees that we mess up on or where there is a damage or there is a perceived um harm to a community or a neighbor?

Do you is just I think on public or private trees?

These would be public trees.

These would be public trees in the right of way, they might be heritage trees, maybe they are diseased, maybe they're not, maybe they have to come down because of construction projects.

Um maybe they were unwisely trimmed in some way, shape, or form.

We you know, we do make mistakes from time to time.

Is there a process that we have for some sort of mitigation?

This just to real quickly.

This ordinance already says we're making that commitment.

Okay.

So that's what it's it's you have been doing that as best you can.

Now we're just putting it in writing.

Okay.

So we're really just in putting in the code.

This is our intent as a city.

I mean, we when we make that kind of mistake.

Uh we always endeavor to find a solution that satisfies the property owner.

That is uh when we can.

That is legal, that is above board and uh passes a smell test.

Yep.

So let me ask you a quick question.

So we need some print on private property.

Um can somebody call you and for you to assess if that tree needs to come down or uh or to replant, or I mean, do you do those kinds of assets?

We do that.

That's in the ordinance.

Uh the city has authority to to condemn a tree.

Uh-huh.

Uh that is the legacy of Dutch Elm disease.

Um in the 30s, 40s, and 1950s when our tree canopy, like the nearwest side currently has a 28% tree canopy.

Um but in 1950 it had uh had uh over 50 percent tree canopy.

Okay.

So um as disinvestment happened and how in structures are taken down, trees were taken down.

But another thing that was happening at that time.

Also at that time, 43 out of a hundred street trees were elms.

So we pl overplanted elms, and then our backyards were also full of elm trees, and those were well, we're closing the canopy.

I mean, when you go uphill at the hospital uh leading up to Galisano, those were lined with houses prior to the highway, closed canopy elms.

So we put too many eggs in one basket, these disease swept through the trees.

We had all these dead trees on public and private property.

So the the ordinance and Dutch Elm disease hit us later.

So that was added to the ordinance as a way for us to you can't have a hazardous structure on your property is the idea.

So we do I I go on to private property and and I condemn the worst of the worst.

We issue code violations for those and and require that the property owners remove those, whether it's a rental property or it's a proper uh tree that's endangering a neighbor.

Are those assessments free to the public or they are because they're they're those inspections are intended to ensure compliance with code.

And any let's say you would have to pull the tree or bring it down whatever the case, uh do we provide that service?

Uh we currently on the rarest of circumstances have we done that.

We we do not uh go.

We don't have a mechanism to do that to charge it to their taxes, you know, remove and charges.

Oh, I see.

Partly because that we're already just from a practical perspective, the time the amount of work we have to do in our right-of-way for trees we're actually responsible for.

Um and uh so and if nothing is done with those trees, like we have wanted to go through uh BAA with those, but um that backlog of cases they have to hear is really high.

So I got a question.

I've signed up.

I just want to say that we are eight minutes over, so I'm gonna call time in two minutes if that's okay with people.

So uh I've emailed you uh a tree that's damaged on Holly Av and it's uprooted.

A sidewalk, so the sidewalks uprooted.

Yeah, I'm sure I've send you the address.

If you could look at it and then maybe you could contact colds because all the sidewalk has been uprooted.

Uh what by the way.

There wouldn't be so let me explain that.

If a tree heaves a sidewalk, um, we would only remove the tree if that sidewalk's gonna be fixed.

We don't because removing the tree is not gonna fix the sidewalk, the sidewalk will stay there heaved, and we don't control how and where sidewalks are fixed.

Can you look at the tree and see if it's damaged or does it?

I mean, we will always inspect a tree upon request, no matter what.

It'd be um can you remind me?

Do you know the address off the top of your head?

I emailed it to you.

Was that today?

Just in the last few minutes.

Okay, great.

Sorry, I'm not sure.

I apologize for not responding sooner to that counselor.

Well, need neither did the department.

Thank you.

All right, I want to thank you all for your participation today.

I just have one last question that's slightly off topic from the ordinance, but I appreciate the clear language in this and how it is written and how it is proposed.

I think it lays out a lot of good processes and will be understandable for most people who are consulting the tree ordinance itself.

Um do you know of any reason that private arborists would not be servicing the city of Syracuse at the moment, particularly the areas of the South Side, South Valley, or North Side.

Oh, you mean refuse to come and quote jobs?

Exactly.

I do not know.

You know of any?

I don't believe I know the industry well enough to tell you clearly what I was told about that, but my understanding was that there might be an issue with people getting either insurance or bonding to work in the city of Syracuse.

And so contractors who are coming in, generally speaking, based in Baldwin'sville, North Syracuse, or out you know, East Skineatlas Casanovia are not interested in working in the city because of some sort of perception of more insurance or liabilities.

Right.

It does sound like a misperception if it's just a private job, but we can talk more about that.

Okay.

And again, that that's literally the information that I have.

I just wanted to make sure that if we are overwhelmed with the work that we are doing on our municipal end, that we want to make sure that there is not the tree version of redlining happening in our communities in terms of work for maintaining a healthy tree canopy.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Uh I need a I make a I need a motion to close.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you very much.

All in favor.

We're going to be able to do that.