Tree Speech

Express-News reporter John Tedesco, in Builders paying to avoid City Hall, continues his outstanding reporting on the land development industrys efforts to thwart our right to protect environmental health. He warns of an an unprecedented assault coming in 2007 at the Texas Legislature.

Tedesco characterizes the assault as

a broad and expansive effort by the real estate industry to bypass City Hall altogether.

The story quotes P.R. consultant T.J. Connolly as saying

The real estate community, in the 2007 session, is going all in, they are putting all their chips in.

Councilmen Art A. Hall and Kevin Wolff have both warned of the coming attack and argued, in “Catch-22″ fashion, that the City must weaken the tree ordinance or lose it altogether. There are several problems with this line of reasoning:

• there is no agreement with the developers that they will call off the assault even if we were to gut the tree ordinance;
• developers in other cities are also on the attack, and will not be appeased by what San Antonio does;
• it ignores that the City of San Antonio itself is mounting an unprecedented legislative effort in 2007.

Nonetheless, you have been put on notice. It is important to contact and meet with your state senator and representative immediately, before the start of the 2007 session. See Who Represents Me?. Type in your home address, and it returns contact information for your TX Senator, TX Representative, and U.S. Representative.

Aerial view of Bulverde Village development site on Bulverde Road just north of PGA Tour resort

I will wrap up by dispelling some questionable comments the story makes about the “new” tree ordinance:

• It is a myth that “mountain cedar” is not protected under the 1997 ordinance. All species are protected in both the 1997 and 2003 versions. Furthermore, 12 other Texas cities have ordinances where trees are not differentiated according to species.
• Survey requirements are the same in both ordinances. Because the 1997 ordinance exempts much of the land in a development site, fewer trees have to be surveyed.
• Read Developers push for elimination of Ashe juniper for the facts about “water-hogging” Ashe juniper.