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¥M /9� ie/c C ouncil hears few in favor of tree rule. By ANN PORTAL The R,egisler - Guard Speakers at a Monday night public hearing lined up 3- to-1 against a proposal to require developers and property owners to preserve healthy trees within the Eugene city limits. TREES Oscar Michael, a Eugene builder, wondered how the Continued from Page 1C city would enforce the new law and urged the City Council . . - to adopt a voluntary program to regulate tree cutting. council took no action other than to will consume most of the city's vacai request more information from staff. land — and would "single out" mult "If a chainsaw is fired up on a Sunday morning, arc The council is scheduled to act on family development for regulation an the neighbors going to be encouraged to call 911 ?" Mi- higher building fees. chael asked. the issue April 29. "Any increase in the cost of hour But Candace Syman - Degler, a resident of Eugene's Nearly two years in the works, the ing development in general increase South Hills, urged the council to buck the public testimony city's proposed urban forest manage- the cost of affordable housing," Vag and choose a mandatory approach, saying she has no faitl ment plan outlines policies for tree se- Landingham said. that developers voluntarily win save as many trees as lection, trees on public and private While preserving tires is an im possible. property, "heritage trees" and educa- portant part of making Eugene livable tional approaches. so is achieving dense development tha' Syman - Degler said she was horrified one day to come home and find that the 16 -acre forest behind her Brook- i ne.only portions of the plan prov- will prevent sprawl and make man side Drive house had been wiped out in preparation for ing controversial are whether preser- transit possible, he said. construction of a "monster house" that now looms along vation of trees on private land and her- Michael, the builder, said tha her back property line. itage trees on private land should be when he built a condominium comple) After hearing from 34 speakers in 90 minutes, the mandatory or.voluntary. Trees would in the Spyglass neighborhood a fea be classed as heritage trees based on yC3rs ago, he designed the project tc Turn to TREES, Page their location, condition, size and his - save two 100 - year -old maple trees ai toric qualities. - the rear of the old Cal Young farm - Under the plan, the mandatory ap- house. proach would "require the maximum "I designed that project. around retention of healthy, well-sited trees in those trees. There was no mandatory connection with initial and subsequent ordinance in the city, ".he said. residential, commercial and industrial . Many speakers said they were con - develonment " • cerned about the possible costs of the At we same time, the plan also tree plan — estimated .at a maximum says that healthy trees are to be re- of $1.3 million for the first:year and tained only when it's consistent "with $600,000 to $700,000 in later years. the ability of property owners to con- City officials have. said the cost struct buildings and accessory struc- could be reduced significantly by phas- tures" as allowed by the city. ing in the changes, by using volunteer John Van Landingham, a member help for tree maintenance and by ask - of the Eugene Planning Commission ing the development community to po- and a longtime proponent of low -in- lice itself on preserving trees. come housing, said he opposes manda- Jacqueline Chama, a member of tory regulation of non - heritage trees. the Eugene Tree Commission, which He said the draft plan would ex- drafted the plan, said people need to empt single- family housing develop- separate the cost from the principles ment — the type of development that involved.