A potential Good Neighbour Bylaw is taking root in Chase, particularly in regards to public trees and their maintenance.
At a special meeting on June 17, public works manager Mike Baker gave a report on village-owned trees on boulevards, and the increasing requests to have some removed, often for aesthetic reasons. He told council that past practice has been to have the health of the trees assessed by an arborist to help "determine the fate of the tree," when that's not really the goal of the request.
“More often than not though, this doesn’t actually meet the needs of our residents. They’re actually looking to have the tree removed....," he said, adding that a lot of other communities address that under a good neighbour or tree canopy bylaw. But we currently… do not have anything in our bylaw or policy.”
Baker added that if council wants to take on regular maintenance of trees, they’ll need to look at a budget as the removal of trees costs between $1,000 to $2,000, and a couple hundred on the initial health assessment.
“But if that’s not meeting the needs of our residents, why are we spending that money doing those assessments when we could... put that towards actually doing the work if that’s what our residents want,” he said.
Baker added the village has a $20,000 budget this year for tree removal, increased from previous years, but Baker said “that just doesn’t get us very far," and asked for council's direction going forward, either remaining status quo or creating a bylaw, which was the favoured option.
“I would be in huge favour of building a Good Neighbour Bylaw here, I think it’s well past due," said Coun. Dan Stevens, noting the bylaw could encompass "so many different aspects" including wildfire mitigation.
As for the cost of doing the maintenance and upkeep, he would want it to fall to on residents rather than the village absorbing it, adding that “being a taxpayer myself, I feel good saying that.”
Coun. Colin Connett, however, didn't want to see more costs fall on taxpayers, or more rules of "you have to mow this or prune that," adding “we don’t need any more of that.”
“Let’s just get rid of the trees. Somebody says ‘oh could you come get rid of this tree,’ let’s get rid of it,” he said. “If somebody wants to get rid of the tree and it’s unsightly… If they planted it there, yeah, but if they maybe bought the house and they inherited it... that’s not their problem, it’s the village’s problem.”
Council approved a motion directing staff to bring back a report with options and on a Good Neighbour Bylaw in Chase, with Connett opposed and suggesting a broader solution.
“Now what if a limb fell on a guy’s car and it was a village tree, what happens then? Say it lands on a kid. Get rid of them, just get rid of the frickin’ things.”
