DEPARTMENT: Development Services
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Michael Shannon, PE, CBO
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
Briefing related to the City of San Antonio Tree Ordinance variance and reporting processes.
SUMMARY:
The City of San Antonio approved the first Tree Ordinance on May 1, 1997. The City's Tree Ordinance has undergone four subsequent major updates, occurring in 2003, 2006, 2009, and 2010. Minor clarifying edits were made in 2015. The City of San Antonio currently enforces the Tree Ordinance both inside city limits and the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ), which extends five miles from the city limit boundary.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The purpose of the Tree Ordinance is to balance the protection of existing trees, promote the planting of new trees, and provide an efficient pathway for development.
Amendments to the tree preservation ordinances are summarized as follows:
* 1997: Creation of the Tree Ordinance that used the tree survey as its method of preservation. Mitigation ratio for significant trees was 1:1 and for heritage trees was 2:1. Floodplains nor environmentally sensitive areas (ESA) were included. Cost of mitigation was $100.00 per inch and at least 10% of the total protected inches had to be preserved.
* 2003: Created protection for flood plains to protect 80% of significant trees and 100% of heritage trees in the floodplains. The Tree Stand Delineation (TSD) method was added as a preservation option. The TSD method required 25% preservation of tree canopy and a heritage tree survey. The tree survey method established the preservation standard percentage of 35% significant tree preservation for residential and 40% significant tree preservation for commercial. Heritage tree preservation is 100% for residential and commercial development. Also added were protection for small species trees. Heritage tree mitigation ration was increased from 2:1 to 3:1. Mitigation cost is $100.00 per inch.
* 2006: Tree preservation was increased to 35% ...
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