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Attorney's office determined that the City does not have a clear right to <br /> regulate pruning or removal of street trees by an abutting property owner. <br /> This resulted in the City being unable to recover the costs for replacing <br /> these trees. <br /> The attached proposed revisions to Eugene Code 6.305 and 7.650 requires an <br /> abutting property owner to obtain a permit prior to any removal of a street <br /> tree and requires the City Manager to adopt standards for the pruning of <br /> trees within a public right of way. <br /> IV. SUGGESTED MOTION <br /> Adopt the proposed revisions to Eugene Code 6.305 and 7.650. <br /> V. DISCUSSION <br /> A. Policy Issue <br /> 1. Considering the volume of permit and enforcement activities, is a public <br /> hearing to review the impact of the changes to the Tree Ordinance adopted <br /> by the City Council in July of 1993 needed? <br /> 2. Should Eugene Code be modified to allow the City to regulate the pruning <br /> and /or removal of street trees by private parties? <br /> B. Background and Analysis <br /> 1. Staff feel the most significant result of the July 1993 modification of the <br /> Tree Preservation ordinance was to more clearly establish that this <br /> ordinance was not practical to be used for predevelopment tree removal. <br /> The modification requires either a City approved development plan or the <br /> permittee to provide a detailed environmental evaluation and documentation <br /> supporting the requested removal. Due to this staff feel that land <br /> developers have found it now to be more practical and cost effective to <br /> delay tree removal until the specific development has received city <br /> approval. By waiting until the development plan is approved, a tree <br /> removal permit typically is either not required, such as in the case of <br /> approved building permits for individual homesites, or is evaluated and <br /> included as part of the site review or PUD review process. <br />