On March 15 the Bend City Council recommended adjustments to the Bend tree preservation code to clear up inconsistencies and add clarity to its standards. Now, Bend city code — which applies after construction — requires developers to retain all trees with a diameter larger than 12 inches and half of all trees smaller than 12 inches on developments larger than 1 acre. The Bend Development Code, however, guides the process of development and has different standards. It requires all deciduous trees with a diameter greater than 6 inches and coniferous trees greater than 10 inches must be retained, unless it prevents the development.
On April 14 the City took its next steps in the City Council’s Stewardship Subcommittee, where it outlined timelines and public engagement for reforming Bend’s tree preservation codes. The subcommittee is seeking another 11–15-member subcommittee that can represent the interests of developers, environmentalists, affordable housing advocates, arborists, neighborhood associations and the Bend Park and Recreation District. That group would come up with the concepts and objectives of a tree preservation code.
Members are expected to be appointed by the end of May, after which they’ll conduct public meetings, conduct public outreach, work with the planning commission and conduct a public hearing and finally report to the City Council by the end of the year. Reforming the tree preservation code has been a council goal since 2021, but at least that long, Bendite Karon Johnson has been crusading to change Bend’s tree codes.
“There’s nothing like Bend. I’ve been all over the planet. You drive into town and you’ll see the ponderosas, thinking ‘I’ve never seen anything like this.’ They’re iconic and absolutely unique. Redmond doesn’t have them. Prineville doesn’t have them. People want to save the ponderosas,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s critique of the codes align with what city staff brought to the Council. She argues that the standards aren’t clear and objective. She points to vague language, such as whether it’d be “impractical” to build housing without cutting down a tree, but doesn’t specify who judges what’s practical.
“Impractical means that you cannot build the design that you want while saving these trees. Well, what design? Your design? My design? The city’s design?” Johnson said. “I talked to folks where their code is such that it mandates agencies to adopt a design that saves trees. In other words, it puts some power for the design into the city’s heads. Bend doesn’t do that.”
Johnson, a retired attorney, drafted her own code amendments, setting a mandatory minimum of trees that developers would have to preserve, ensuring tree preservation doesn’t impact a developer’s proposed density, laying out mitigation processes when cutting down a tree can’t be avoided and giving the City the authority to require alternative designs if a developer can’t meet the criteria.
The easiest and quickest way to do this, Johnson said, is to lower the mandatory minimum length of rights of way from 60 feet to 50 feet in residential neighborhoods. A 60-foot right of way includes 5 to 6 feet of sidewalk and a 7 to 8 foot planting strip outside of the 30-foot street.
“It occurred to me that, if the right away is only 50 feet or even less, that will give a developer 10 extra feet of every street to save some trees, to just be able to plan, so you’d have a grove of trees,” Johnson said. I asked both [developers] Pahlisch and Hayden Homes, if you had a smaller rights of way, would you be able to plan to save some trees? And the answer is yes.”
Johnson’s been fighting for tree preservation for years as a private citizen, and even ran for City Council last year with protecting trees as one of her core issues. Though she didn’t win the election, she’s still busy advocating for her causes — more recently, opposing a controversial gas station in southeast Bend. She said she’s into taking up causes, and her work on tree preservation stems from her environmentalism.
“There was an analysis of the top 159 cities for the intensity of the urban heat island. Bend is rated 14th for the intensity of our urban heat islands because we’re cutting down our trees,” Johnson said. “It also is a matter of equity, too. Any town you drive through you know when you’re in the poor part of town because there aren’t the trees. You know you’re in the wealthy part of town because the streets are lined with shade trees.”
Concerned neighbors looking to preserve trees are often forced to go through complicated legal processes. In 2019 when Pahlisch Homes sought to build 50 units on 8 acres on McClain Avenue, they proposed removing all 101 trees on site. The Three Pines Homeowners Association had to sue, ending in a settlement that will retain 27 trees and required the developers to plant 133 more.
“You shouldn’t have to hire an attorney to save some of the trees,” Johnson said.
This article appears in Source Weekly April 20, 2023.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Levels of the Absurd. The Bend code, which applies “after construction”, requires developers to retain large trees? The first thing developers seem to do is bulldoze all the trees. “After construction” is too late to save any trees because they are already gone. Additionally, if you “give a developer 10 extra feet of every street”, they will be inclined to develop more and profit more, not save trees.
When deciding plans to build my house, the gorgeous ponderosas on my lot were a concern. Hayden Homes educated me on them and gave me options so we would not have to remove any. I’m so thankful none were disturbed and we only had to remove some junipers and smaller pines. There is absolutely nothing like the canopy of a massive Pondo and that sound of the wind through them. We are so blessed to have as many on our property as we do!