Mayor and Council needs to allocate sufficient funds to implement the 2013 Urban Forest Master Plan.
The lack of implementation of that plan has created conflict between developers and residents concerned about protecting the urban tree canopy. Just in the last year, we have seen this conflict arise repeatedly in our neighbourhood of Gonzales, including in the context of the neighbourhood planning process, and most recently in considering the proposed Rhodo development at 1712 & 1720 Fairfield Road – a development that proposes to remove 52 trees. In the City’s November 8, 2018 rezoning report for the Committee of the Whole regarding the Rhodo application, reference is made to the Urban Forest Master Plan in a subheading, however there is no discussion of how that plan was considered by staff in the evaluation of the rezoning application.
As noted in the Urban Forest Master Plan, about 2/3 of highly or moderately treed areas are located on private lands. Thus, the success of that plan will depend heavily on regulating the actions that can be taken by homeowners and developers. The first recommendation in the plan relates to privately owned lands: “Revise the Tree Protection Bylaw to address the removal of young (non-protected) trees and increase replacement tree ratios and compensation levels.” As many of us in Gonzales are becoming increasingly aware, the list of “significant trees” in the Tree Protection Bylaw identified in Schedule A (see last page of bylaw) is currently an empty list. Thus, despite its name, the Tree Protection Bylaw actually protects very few trees in Victoria.
It is clear that without clear guidelines that would apply to the evaluation of development applications, and without strengthening the Tree Protection Bylaw, there is very limited protection of trees located on private land.
We need to remind mayor and council, that in the March 15, 2018 Council Motion, Council agreed that the new Gonzales Neighbourhood Plan needed to strengthen the language with regard to green space and tree preservation, anticipating forthcoming updates to the Tree Preservation Bylaw and implementation of the Urban Forest Master Plan.
Gonzales residents have been repeatedly told by City staff that there has been no progress on these initiatives, which has in part led to the increased conflict over new development proposing the removal of trees. Continuing to approve new developments removing trees on private land would in effect undermine any attempt to effectively implement the Urban Forest Master Plan in the future.
For these reasons, we urge the City of Victoria mayor and council to prioritize the implementation of the Urban Forest Master Plan and allocate the funding required for that implementation.