The bark could get a little thicker on Barrie’s ecological offsetting policy, which protects and replaces city woodlots and single trees.
Councillors approved the policy Wednesday evening, which establishes a fee — $57,500 per hectare of woodland removal or $500 per tree replacement value — that may be collected by the city to compensate for the removal of trees or woodland of more than than a half-hectare for development purposes.
These funds would be applied to the planting of an equivalent number of trees or woodland, in an alternate city-owned location within Barrie’s boundaries, to achieve ‘no net loss’ of this natural heritage feature in the long term.
Sitting in general committee last night, councillors toughened the policy by adding that if no tree removal permit is obtained by the landowner, a woodlot tree removal compensation fee of $140,500 per hectare and $1,220 per tree shall be charged.
“It’s kind of the stick and the carrot kind of thing,” said Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson. “We ask that our partners in development do what’s right, though I think this just says — follow our procedure, follow our policy and the reduction is there for you. But if you don’t, then there’s a penalty for not following our policy.”
The Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority’s ecological offsetting fee is approximately $140,000 for the removal of woodlands.
Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall said the city policy is strong, but there is a missing component.
“If the individual’s not going to comply with the permits or the law, then there has to be a penalty that person pays,” he said. “When somebody doesn’t replace the tree, when they don’t pay for that tree to be replaced, it’s actually stealing from the taxpayer, right, because we have a policy in place saying we need to have these trees replaced in the city.
“It (the policy) fits our environmental goals, it certainly fits our beautification goals and when somebody decides not to (pay the fees) they’re actually stealing from the taxpayer, in my opinion,” Nuttall said. “We need to fund the things that we say we are going to do.”
City council could give final approval to its ecological offsetting policy at the Oct. 25 meeting.
And there are measures to protect and restore Barrie’s city trees.
Council has approved a waterfront tree capital project, with the objective of planting 1,000 trees along the lakeshore during the next 10 years starting in 2024. It would be funded from the city’s ecological offsetting reserve and be detailed in next year’s business plan and budget.
To deter indiscriminate tree removals, the ecological offsetting policy requires that private land development proposals demonstrate that avoiding, minimizing and mitigating tree removal have been explored through an approved natural heritage analysis, prior to seeking ecological offsetting.
The proposal must demonstrate to the city’s satisfaction that compensation is the only viable option.
The ecological offsetting fee of $57,500 per hectare of woodland removal breaks down to $50,000 per hectare for planning, design, site preparation, plant material, installation and monitoring costs, and an administration fee of $7,500 per hectare.
This policy applies to the city’s land use planning process for private and public lands, including city infrastructure projects, according to the Province of Ontario’s Planning Act, Condominium Act and the Environmental Assessment Act.
Instruments under the Planning Act or Environmental Assessment Act that may be used to ensure the collection of the ecological offsetting fee include: subdivision, condominium, development and site plan agreements, committee of adjustment severances, rezoning approvals and private tree bylaw municipal infrastructure projects.
The policy does recognize there are limits and certain natural heritage features may be irreplaceable, so offsetting fees will not be considered for features that contain rare vegetation communities and forested wetlands. Generally, offsetting will also not be considered for watercourses or for the minimum vegetation protection zone abutting the Lake Simcoe shoreline.
Barrie’s total area of 24,876 acres has approximately 7,576 acres of tree canopy on private and public land — 71 per cent on private property, 29 per cent on public land. In 2018, the total canopy cover was measured, via satellite photography, at 30.5 per cent of the city’s land base.
Of the total tree canopy area, 2,184 acres are protected on public land by the public tree bylaw and 3,296 acres are regulated by the existing private tree bylaw. The remaining 2,184 acres, or 28 per cent of the tree canopy, are not regulated under a tree bylaw.
