1994 Tree Ordinance - Laserfiche WebLink

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3 - Z9 -95 G ity, et t e s _ cuttin dispute tree g project on the site was denied last month when a • Dispute: In the settlement, hearings official ruled Benchmark failed to provide developer Bart Bardwell will pay It adequate t er m inventory iy of trees, , 15 soils and d wetlands. PUD a $10,000 fine, but admits no application in the city had been denied. wrongdoing. Council members and others had urged the hearings official not to approve the PUD until Benchmark paid for the allegedly illegal tree -cut- By JEFF WRIGHT ting in December. But the hearings official didn't The Register - Guard address that request in denying the PUD applica- A developer has agreed to pay the city of Eu- tion. gene $10,000 for allegedly removing trees in viola- Several neighbors had urged the city to "send a tion of the city's tree preservation ordinance. message" by assessing Benchmark a fine several times greater than the estimated value of the re Bart Bardwell, owner of Benchmark Northwest, could have been fined up to $38,000 for cutting 19 moved trees. Douglas firs in the Hunter's Glen development in But Jan Staszewski, the city's urban forester, the city's southeast hills. The trees had a total value and other city officials defended the $10,000 fine as of around $7,000, according to city estimates. a reasonable amount that exceeds any potential Bardwell said Monday the $10,000 payment is profit derived from the cutting of the trees. not an admission of wrongdoing on his firm's part. "This is far more than anything we've assessed The settlement means he'll drop an earlier threat to in the past," said Staszewski. "It tells the develop - countersue, he said. ment community that we're going to take whatever The alleged violations are the first involving a steps necessary to show that we mean business developer who has applied for a tree - cutting permit about this." under a more stringent tree preservation ordinance Council President Kaye Robinette said the fig - approved by the City Council last summer. ure was reached on the advice of city attorneys Bardwell said he is going forward with plans to who believed a higher penalty would be difficult to resubmit a planned unit development application Justify in court if the matter went to trial. for the 13 -acre hillside tract between Dillard and Assistant City Attorney Jens Schmidt said fac- Old Dillard roads east of East Amazon Boulevard. tors included the court costs involved in going to An earlier PUD application for a 31 -home Turn to TREES, 3C TREES Continued from Page 1C trial, especially in light of the fact that Bardwell submitted to the city an the allegation of overcutting might invoice suggesting that the tree - cutting have been contested. The absence of operation produced a net loss to him of any precedent for such cases before $864. "It was never intended to be a Municipal Court was another concern, profitable venture," he said. "It was he said. not a stand of marketable timber. It was a stand of diseased, rotten, mixed The $10,000 figure was proposed by trees'" the city and agreed to by Benchmark, Bardwell said what saddens him according to Schmidt and Bardwell. A most is that "when all's said and done, final agreement and payment is ex- these costs will be passed on to the pected later this week, Schmidt said. people who buy the lots."