If a tree falls on your property, should anyone get involved?

Posted by Justin Havre on Friday, July 15th, 2016 at 10:13am.

Who decides whether your trees can stay or go?

The City of Edmonton wants to enact new laws about tree-cutting on private property and has voted to approach the Province of Alberta to request the authority to do so.  Why is this?

Because the majority of members on council think that in some instances a bylaw is necessary to prevent urban forest destruction on some properties. For example, if someone has applied for a permit to redevelop a city lot, perhaps in an Edmonton inner-city neighbourhood which is likely populated with large mature trees, someone should have the authority to prevent this lot from being cleared.  In other words, these trees should be saved and the City of Edmonton wants the power to prevent them from being chopped down.

Not all Councilors are in agreement.  Councilor Bryan Anderson doesn’t think the City of Edmonton should really be involved.  He publicly stated that he doesn’t think the municipality should dictate what he or any other Edmonton resident should do with trees or plants within the boundaries of their property.

What’s happening in other cities?

A precedent has been set in other cities across Canada where bylaws are in place stating that homeowners have to apply for a permit before they can remove a tree on their own property.  Some of the reasons are to prevent the spread of disease or to remove trees that are half dead already.  Homeowners who want to cut down and remove a tree just because they don’t want it don’t have a leg to stand on in some Canadian municipalities.

Anderson says homeowners should have the right to remove trees that perhaps were planted in a good spot once upon a time but have become too large or provide security issues or are plain nuisances such as ornamental crab apples.  These types of fruit trees, not suitable for eating or even for jelly-making, are messy creating all sorts of debris and work for homeowners and are a pain, especially for those who have purchased a property and like the house but not the trees in the yard.

Incentives for infill developers

When a developer purchases a lot and wants to knock down a house in Edmonton’s inner-city perhaps there should be the continuation of incentives to keep some of the lovely old trees rather than regulating what they can or cannot do.

Other Edmonton council members like Coun. Ben Henderson wants to stop the blatant clear-cutting that some developers are doing on city lots because it makes the job easier without any vegetation in the way.  The community and the streetscape are negatively changed when developers or homeowners do this.  Incentives to keep trees aren’t enough.

Before the City of Edmonton can take this further, the province has to grant local authority and then Council has to go through a very thorough debate process.

Council could agree to introduce a bylaw for developers while giving homeowners authority over their own properties.

Dealing with trees on properties slated for redevelopment is just more issue surrounding Edmonton’s inner-city infill policies which are already riddled with controversy.

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