Tonight (June 25) the Town Council is considering an amendment to the recently-passed tree protection ordinance (the "Ordinance") that it passed just a few weeks ago that would delay implementation of the Ordinance for 6 months, until January 2025. The Council should vote down the proposed amendment and stand by their unanimous vote to pass the Ordinance just a few weeks ago. The new Ordinance does several things that are critical for our town. The Ordinance is intended to preserve and improve tree canopy coverage in town. If we are to preserve quality of life that our tree canopy provides and also remain mindful of the environmental impact of tree preservation we should be implementing the Ordinance now. The amendment, requested by the Mayor, would delay implementation of the new ordinance for 6 months. I have a lot of thoughts about this, but first I want to explain why I think the new ordinance is so important for West Orange.
The Ordinance (1) requires an applicant apply for a permit and allows the Town Forester to deny that permit under certain circumstances, (2) creates an obligation for the applicant landowner to replace trees on a one-to-one basis, (3) where replacement is determined to be not possible, requires the applicant to pay into a new "Tree Replacement Fund" for replanting, which amount would be more than the cost of replanting on-site (at least $400 - the estimated cost to replant a tree), and (4) establishes a penalty schedule whereby a person violating the ordinance would pay $2000 per violation.
In recent years, the number of trees in West Orange has declined precipitously. Loss of tree coverage leads to an increase in local temperatures, creates flood risk because trees absorb water runoff, results in increased air pollution, and a reduced resiliency in the face of extreme weather events that are increasingly occurring due to climate change. Reversing the deforestation trend and reversing the adverse consequences of a reduced tree canopy in West Orange is a critical component of preserving our quality of life. It is critical that we begin to implement the policies and restrictions outlined in the new ordinance now.
In May the Council voted 5-0 in favor of the new ordinance after more than a year of negotiation and discussion with the Mayor and interested residents and local groups like Our Green West Orange, acknowledging unanimously that preserving our trees is important to our town and that we have to start now to reverse the deforestation trend. And I agree - we have to start now. In fact, we should have started a year ago. In the year since discussion of the Ordinance began, our Town has lost out on approximately $500,000 in fees it would have collected if we had passed the Ordinance then. Tonight's proposed amendment would be a terrible step backward from a process that has already taken entirely too long and would result in additional loss! The proposed delay to implement an ordinance that has been up for discussion for a year should absolutely be voted down and the tree protection ordinance should be implemented immediately.
In her letter to the Council dated June 18, Mayor McCartney said that implementation of the Ordinance should be delayed because (1) contractors and community members need to be educated on the new requirements, (2) the Town requires additional personnel to implement the requirements of the Ordinance, and (3) the Town's current inability to post notifications online given pending technology upgrades that are due to go live in Q4 2024.
Each of these concerns is manageable and should not stand in our way of immediate implementation. First, educating the roughly 30 contractors could be easily achieved with the Town public information department coordinating a short video posted to the town website and phone calls to each contractor letting them know of the new Ordinance. I am sure there are other ways to communicate new requirements to people that can be achieved within a week. Second, the need for additional personnel, although real, should not prevent West Orange from seeking to preserve its canopy. As the Mayor stated in her letter, additional personnel are being added - I believe that any backlog for tree removal applications will certainly be resolved relatively quickly. Trees should not be sacrificed because of a lack of personnel, which is what will happen if the amendment is adopted and the Ordinance delayed. Third, an inability to post notifications is no reason to delay implementation of the Ordinance. I see nothing in the Ordinance that requires online positing, but assuming that is a requirement, it seems that if the issue creates an insurmountable obstacle, then, I wonder - is West Orange not processing other permit applications? This seems like a fake obstacle, given that the Town certainly is able to process other types of permit applications. Maybe I'm missing something? Even if it is a concern, certainly the Town can use its website to post items that need to be posted prior to the rollout of the new system in the fourth quarter 2024.
This is an opportunity for our Councilmembers, the Mayor, and our town employees to demonstrate leadership by working together to overcome the obstacles that the Administration has identified. The Council meeting is tonight (June 25) at 7:00 pm at Town Hall. Hope to see you there!
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