 | Friday, June 04, 2021
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday. | | Climate emergencies, building permits and trees sizes are more connected than you think | | |  | | | When is a tree not a tree?
For the purposes of local regulations in Vancouver, it’s when the diameter is under 30 centimetres.
Under 30 centimetres, and you get to be an unofficial, undocumented tree.
Anything thicker than that? Well, you’re subject to the city’s Protection Of Trees Bylaw, a 44-page document that details exactly how trees on private property across the city can and can’t be planted, maintained or removed.
Sift through the bylaw, and you will find that three trees are required for a standard Vancouver detached home lot (with it increasing to up to 30 trees for bigger sites), that European mountain ash trees must have a caliper width of at least six centimetres if they’re a replacement tree (for one removed somewhere else on site), and if a tree is between 40 to 44 centimetres in diameter it must be 2.7 metres away from a principal building BUT can be within 2.0 metres of an accessory building.
Which may explain why, when City of Vancouver staff were asked to explore easy changes that could quicken the city’s long criticized speed of permit approvals, amendments to the trees bylaw was at the top of the list.
“In the end it is about shifting resources away from micromanaging properties,” said Mayor Kennedy Stewart at a news conference introducing the proposed changes that will head to council next week.
Specifically, the city will vote “to define a tree as having a diameter of 30 centimetres, rather than the existing 20 centimetres” and allow the majority of renovations of individual properties to go forward without requiring an arborist’s report, which can cost an individual around $2,000 and will save the city around two weeks per application, according to staff estimates. We pause here to note that another one of the recommendations will likely cause more conflict: delaying the zero emission building construction requirement for all new homes by 12 months.
It was a key part of the city’s climate emergency strategy, and while Stewart said the delay will allow construction companies to make the changes in their supply chains to actually follow the new requirements, other councillors have already criticized the proposal.
That part of the debate next week will be the most interesting, because at its core, it’s what local governance is about: tradeoffs on what policies are most important, balancing immediate desires with longer-term commitments, with real effects on a house-by-house basis.
But local government is also about how even the smallest definitions can create lots of spillover effects.
Which is why a 25 centimetre diameter upright green and brown organism in your backyard could soon turn from a tree into not a tree. | | |  | | | 1. Vancouver | For a fuller look at the proposals being made by staff, here are stories by Mike Howell in Business in Vancouver (focusing on the trees), and Frances Bula in the Globe and Mail (focusing on the permits). Mayor Kennedy Stewart also announced he would be putting forward a motion to change the name of Trutch Street in Kitsilano — something long advocated by Indigenous leaders in the name of reconciliation, but previously rejected by the city for the cost and complexity involved.
Read more | | | | |  | | | 2. Reconciliation | Stewart's announcement came during a week where municipalities across B.C. put their flags at half mast and talked about their commitment to reconciliation in light of the tragic discovery of unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school for Indigenous children in Kamloops. But what concrete actions can they take in the weeks and months ahead? Indigenous leaders who have worked with governments in Metro Vancouver for years have some ideas.
Read more | | | |  | | | 3. Surrey | Otherwise, it was a busy week for councils across the region, with the City of Surrey once again having a skirmish over the incoming independent police force, with a vote on a legal challenge for a referendum failing on the regular 5-4 vote split. At the same meeting, council also approved a road through a popular park — also going forward with the same 5-4 split.
Read more | | | | | |  | | | 4. West Vancouver | One of those local issues that got plenty of coverage in The Before Times that gets less attention for obvious reasons these days was different municipalities having different approaches to the legalization of cannabis, However, those debates are still ongoing, as evidenced by West Vancouver only now voting to give the tentative green light to applications in five areas.
Read more | | | |  | | | 5. Victoria | Campers in Beacon HIll Park has been a controversial municipal issue in B.C.'s capital city for some time — but that debate might be quieting soon, as a council committee voted in favour of a two-year ban on sheltering in the park following the evacuation of most residents into permanent housing over the last month. A final decision by council is expected in a few weeks time.
Read more in the Times Colonist | | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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