"How can you be against a baby grand tree?" asked Henry Rodriguez during the Sarasota County Commission meeting on Nov. 10. "But I question the unbridled, uncontrollable natural resources authorities to determine what can be done."
"Everybody loves trees," said Bob Waechter. "But the proposed amendment [to the tree protection ordinance] is broad and inherently flawed."
"Passage will adversely affect every citizen’s property rights," said Gulf Coast Builders’ Exchange Executive Director Mary Dougherty-Slapp. "It is neither necessary or required."
The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce’s director said between 30 to 40 percent of all land in the county is already in government ownership. Steve Queior relayed the wishes of his board: "We ask this not be moved forward." His comment was echoed by the Englewood-Cape Haze chamber’s director: "It’s not always the best to legislate."
Pat Neal, former chairman of the Florida Senate Natural Resources Committee, said, "I never thought I’d be up here arguing against a baby grand tree ordinance. But trees are property and should be controlled by the people who own the land."
This combination of Republican Party and chamber of commerce heavyweights turned out at a public hearing to oppose the providing county protection to younger trees that would eventually grow into grand ones.
The county ordinance already protects grand trees from arbitrary destruction. The Sarasota Tree Advisory Council for the past two years has worked with county staff to add protection to 30- to 50-year-old trees (aka "baby grands") that eventually will grow into grand trees.
The commissioners over the past days were flooded with e-mails opposed to the proposal. In the end, they sent the proposed ordinance to the sawmill for recycling. Although the meeting was civil, it was a replay of an old Florida scene – developers versus tree-huggers.
‘THIS IS DEAD’
Only Commission Chairman Jon Thaxton favored sending the proposed ordinance back for reconsideration by the Tree Advisory Council. But after discussion, he realized his colleagues wanted to kill it.
"This is dead," said Thaxton.
The commissioners then wrangled over what to do with the corpus. In the end they instructed staff to meet with the advisory council and interested residents to simplify existing county codes concerning trees (which show up in five different places in county law), simplify the code and determine if incentives could prevent people from cutting down baby grand trees.
Commissioner Nora Patterson also asked that a particular aspect of the grand tree ordinance be revisited. It concerns construction within "the drip line" – the "line" where rainwater drips off trees.
THE GREAT KILLERS
The proposed ordinance would not have stopped the greatest tree killer in the county – Sarasota County government itself.
"We take them down by the thousands," said County Commissioner Joe Barbetta. "We do it in 30 seconds when we build a road. We’re still taking down hundreds or thousands at a time."
Barbetta also noted that utilities are tree killers, either for the extension of new lines or by trimming. He said they don’t need permits or permission either, nor do they have a requirement to plant trees to replace those they destroy.
The proposed ordinance defined a few species as potential great trees – those that have a diameter greater than 18 inches (or 56 inches in circumference). It would have allowed such trees to be removed, but it would have required three other trees to be planted. Total fees would have been be about $1,000 for the removal and replanting.
The other great tree killer is the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Neal, the largest developer in Manatee County, noted the elevation requirements of the district require at least 4 feet of fill in developments, and that kills the native trees, too.