The Root of the Tree Ordinance

Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody said “Governments rise and fall by trees here,” and by the looks of the planned new tree ordinance, trees will have more power than ever in Northwest Arkansas’ largest town.

The proposed ordinance has some developers up in arms, although it is undergoing alterations even before being taken to the planning commission.

The 20-page plan will be quite a bit different from the previous ordinance drafted in 1991, a year before Fred Hanna was first mayor of Fayetteville. Hanna was defeated in November by Coody, who had the support of the citizens against the Kohl’s department store development at CMN Business Park.

Goshen resident Mary Lightheart drew attention to their protest by staging a three-week sit-in at one of the older trees that was eventually cut down to make way for the development.

About 25 people from the community were involved in the drafting of the new ordinance, which Assistant City Attorney David Whitaker said has to have some language changed before it goes before the city’s planning commission Aug. 20.

One local developer said the initial draft looked like “something out of communist China.”

Coody called the new ordinance “extensive.” He added, “I haven’t dived into that issue, yet. I know it’s not set in stone. The public will have it’s say and if we need to fine-tune it, that’s exactly what we’ll do. There’s still a lot of process to go through before it goes to vote. I know there were a lot of loopholes in the previous ordinance.”

Among the numerous items angering some commercial developers include having to attend an educational workshop on basic tree science and the proper techniques of tree pruning, or scoring at least 75 percent on a test concerning such topics. If any type of tree pruning is taking place, that person must be supervised by a certified tree pruner. Owners must carry liability insurance of a minimum of $300,000 if performing commercial tree surgery.