City leaves proposed tree bylaw up in air until next year
Property owners currently don’t need a permit to cut or prune
Peterborough residents don’t need a permit to remove a tree from their properties — and they won’t need one at least until spring 2021, when a new tree bylaw will likely be introduced.
Property owners can remove a tree for now, but are asked to notify city hall of their intentions three days in advance of tree removal.
The need for permits to cull trees was expected to come this fall, but Coun. Don Vassiliadis moved on Monday to give city staff until spring 2021 to develop a new tree-cutting bylaw.
“If we give them (city staff) more time, they will come back with a more thoughtful bylaw for the homeowner,” Vassiliadis said.
“If it takes them a little longer to get it right, that’s fine … Let’s get it right,” said Coun. Henry Clarke.
All but Mayor Diane Therrien, Coun. Kemi Akapo and Coun. Lesley Parnell voted in favour.
Parnell saw urgency in putting a bylaw in place to save trees this summer. She said she is concerned many healthy trees could be felled because there’s no bylaw.
In March 2019, council repealed a tree bylaw from 2017 that required people to get city permission before removing or even pruning a tree on private property.
Many citizens found the bylaw too restrictive and complained to their councillors that they were forced to wait a long
time for permission to cut down their own trees.
Though the bylaw was meant to protect the urban forest, council voted to rescind it and come up with a new one after consulting both residents and arborists.
Now that public consultation is done, but field studies on the tree canopy are still underway.
In the meantime, people are allowed to remove trees from their own property, provided they advise staff three days in advance (so staff could document the extent of tree removal).
In the year between March 2019 and March 2020, there had been no restriction on tree removal on private property — and a staff report states that 2,563 trees were removed during that period (of which 1,695 were healthy).
Also on councillors’ agenda on Monday:
Emergency roof work
The once-leaky roof over the curatorial building of the Peterborough Museum and Archives has been replaced at a cost of nearly $215,000, according to a new city staff report to councillors.
The building, which houses the museum’s collections, was built in 2014 — and by 2016, the roof (which was no longer under warranty) began to leak.
Repairs were attempted, but the leaks got worse and by last summer staff was concerned about potential damage to the museum’s collections.
The situation was deemed an emergency, so there was no competitive bid process. Instead, city staff hired Trinity Roofing Ltd., a Toronto firm that has previously bid lowest on contracts and done work for the city.
Homelessness
The city and its partner agencies matched 193 households with housing between January and March, according to a new city staff report.
“That’s just in a matter of three or four months — that’s a large number,” said Mayor Diane Therrien.
There’s still work to be done, she said, “but I do think we need to recognize when we are having those successes.”
The city has a goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2025 and the new report updates councillors on progress.
One new tool city staff is using is a list of names and contact information for homeless people. The list allows city staff to contact people when housing becomes available.