Next Steps for Bend's Tree Code

The Bend City Council held a work session on the Bend tree code for the first time since the 14-member Tree Regulations Update Advisory Committee recommended updates to the code on Dec. 5, 2023.

Committee members and City staff presented the recommendations to councilors on Feb. 7, making plans for community outreach before a hearing. Since the topic is important and controversial for many residents, the City plans to hold two informational sessions before examining and discussing the recommendations.

In March, the Bend City Council set out to provide clear regulations on how and when trees can be removed in new developments, and provide consistency between all different city codes and standards.

The City created the temporary committee, TRUAC, to have people with diverse viewpoints involved in updating the tree code. The committee met nine times, discussing how to balance the need to preserve trees with needed affordable housing.

“We were hearing a lot from Bend residents who were seeing trees cut down on entire lots by developers, and they wanted to understand how that could be remedied in the future,” said Councilor Megan Perkins in December after TRUAC made its final recommendations.

The committee’s final recommendation advises developers to, first, preserve 20% of “priority trees,” which are trees 20 inches or larger. If that’s not possible for developers, they would also have the option to preserve 25% of the total diameter at breast height of regulated trees, trees 6 inches or larger.

The group included alternatives to preserving a percentage of trees, including tree replacement and fee-in-lieu preservation to develop and protect the city’s urban tree canopy. These regulations would apply to new developments or building expansions greater than 5,000 square feet.

“We were really focused on a collaborative, consensus-building approach. We had subject matter experts on the committee that have different perspectives,” said committee facilitator Jeff Harris with Solar Homes at the Feb. 7 meeting. “We did a lot of learning, which is why we took nine meetings to do five meetings worth of initial work that we had planned for.”

In addition to requesting guidance from Council, TRUAC presented additional recommendations to the City, outside of the tree code update. One already in progress includes an update to the street tree species list – a section of the Bend Development Code that sets standards and requirements when planting trees for new developments.

“I’ve been working with arborist landscapers, our utility department and the public works department on creating a much larger tree list, so we have more variety,” said City of Bend Senior Planner Pauline Hardie.

Members of TRUAC also found it important to track the tree preservation options that applicants use. “Once we know what the Council is going to adopt, we want to be able to track what developers are choosing to do,” said Hardie. This would inform staff on whether the code updates, if approved, have any issues or loopholes.

“We’re going to try our best to make sure that the code updates to the Bend Municipal Code and the Bend Development Code are very tight, so there is not a way to skirt it, so that a developer can’t come in and clear-cut before an application.” said Hardie. “If there is some loophole and it is happening then, yes, I would see us coming back and cleaning it up.”

According to Hardie, informational sessions will tentatively take place at the end of February or beginning of March. The planning commission process will likely start in April, followed by a City Council work session and then a hearing.

This article appears in Source Weekly February 15, 2024.