Town Tree Protection Bylaw problems continue

The agenda of the council meeting of Sept.11, 2024 included three separate appeals under the town's Tree Protection Bylaw No. 725 2023. These appeals highlight the difficulty of fair application of a bylaw that was hastily drafted at the current council's request and adopted in March 2023 without the benefit of any public input.

The first appeal (537 Chester Rd) was an older home with very mature trees. The appeal was made on the basis of hardship which was rejected after some discussion around how difficult it is for the town to validate a resident's claim of hardship. The resident was not given an opportunity to be heard and the appeal was denied.

The second appeal (481 Dogleg Close) represents a new build /under construction home. The appeal was requesting a refund of the $14,000 security deposit paid for the 10 trees removed which are to be replaced by the required 20 trees. The resident's appeal was based upon the fact that subsequent removal of the trees discovered that the trees in question had heart rot. Staff advised council that the staff recommendation to approve the refund was not based upon the result of the trees having rot, but rather on the basis that the trees removed were within the new building footprint or within a three meter buffer area of that footprint. There was some discussion between staff and council around how the three meter area was determined and whether in fact it is actually part of the tree bylaw. Staff advised that the three meter area was a staff procedural decision and not part of the formal bylaw. Staff further confirmed that the granting of a refund of the security deposit in this case was solely a council governance decision.

The bylaw stipulates all trees removed by permit must be replaced 2 to 1 with the $700 per tree replacement tree security deposit, to be held by the town for two years. The bylaw makes no distinction between existing homes or new build footprints.

In this case the council unanimously agreed to refund the $14,000 security deposit and forgo the requirement to plant replacement trees in complete contravention of the new bylaw. As I was listening to this proceeding, I was wondering how many other new home builders /owners have had to pay the security deposit for replacement trees since the bylaw was adopted in 2023. How many more appeals will come before council expecting a similar refund and relaxation of the tree bylaw?

The third appeal (363 Hoylake Road West) was again a home under construction. Their request was for reconsideration of the denial to remove trees on town owned land to facilitate an additional driveway. The resident wanted to build a through driveway from the rear of his home on a dead end laneway to the front yard access on their actual road at the front of the home. The builder/resident was not given an opportunity to be heard and their appeal was denied.

It would appear the bylaw is not being applied consistently in the appeal process. Further the process in which the town staff handle both the application and decision and also present a recommendation to council for the appeal hearing, without allowing the resident to be heard directly, is akin to having a trial judge represent you at the appeal of his decision. In the writer's opinion, a better approach to demonstrate at least the appearance of a fair and open review of a staff decision is to allow the resident to make their case directly to council.

The town CAO confirmed that council's strategic plan does not anticipate a further review of this bylaw until 2028. And yes, you would be correct in thinking that this council's term is over in 2026.

Marie Noel

September 12 2024

We welcome your comments and feedback .

Email us at Qualicumbeachinsights@gmail.com

Read More about the Tree Protection Bylaw

Where did the bylaw come from?

The town of Qualicum Beach (TQB) had various tree bylaws dating back to 1995 which applied to only a few very large properties known as the estate lands which are located along the waterfront just west of Eaglecrest. As reported in the TQB Council Corner publication, during the Dec 7/22 regular council meeting,

"[our current] council deferred further consideration of an amendment to the tree protection bylaw that would include all the estate properties within the tree protection area until after the strategic planning process in early 2023. Deferral will allow for broader review of the tree removal regulation, provide opportunities for public consultation, and permit a holistic approach to tree protection incorporating bylaw and policy regulations as identified in the 2022 Urban Forest masterplan. The town will host a public information meeting regarding the draft bylaw and its importance at a future date to be determined."

Despite the promised public information meeting, a review of the next four council meetings show no motions relating to tree protection. The Feb. 8th/23 council meeting has a motion to move $5,000 from the tree replacement reserve account to the TQB municipal golf course for the purpose of planting trees. Further in that same meeting council adopted the 2022-2026 strategic plan content as attached to the agenda. This 4 page high level strategic plan does not speak to a tree protection bylaw of any sort.

The next two council meetings do not make any reference to the tree bylaw.

The first we hear of a new tree bylaw is in the March 22/23 regular council meeting agenda package. This agenda package includes both a backgrounder document that goes back as far as 2016, and a fully completed tree bylaw that now encompasses virtually all privately owned properties in TQB and is complete with a permit and security deposit requirements. This bylaw is so complete that the staff recommendation is to pass all three required readings at this same meeting without any prior public consultation. Council did give all three readings at this meeting . Councilors Harrison and Young did express concerns with the process, and Councilor Harrison left the meeting before the final vote. Then two days later, on March 24/23 at a special council meeting the bylaw was adopted after correcting minor errors. Councilor Harrison was not present at this meeting.

Unless you were planning to build or remove trees, citizens not living on the estate lands could easily miss this significant change to their private property rights. The town has done little to promote awareness of this significant change beyond issuing a media release on May 9th/23, which you would not have received unless you have subscribed to receive all news releases. Not withstanding the news release I could not locate any coverage of the bylaw change in any local printed news publication.

One year later to the day, council gives the public notice of an input opportunity.

The public first became aware that the town was planning to review the tree bylaw with standard Friday afternoon release of the agenda for the Committee of the Whole meeting scheduled for Mar. 27 /24. Despite limited notice, there were a number of well prepared speakers from the public.

A representative for Prism Surveying illustrated for council the effect of the bylaw on one of her clients undertaking a 6 lot subdivision. Her presentation was very well reasoned and concluded that simply clearing 110 now protected trees to facilitate roads, utilities and site drainage would end up adding $84,000 per lot in costs paid to the town as a direct result of the new tree bylaw. Over and above this amount would be the costs to clear a further 100 trees necessary to clear areas for actual building footprints and driveways.

In total 210 trees replaced at the required 2 for 1 ratio means 420 new trees. She pointed out that replacement trees of the size required in the bylaw are not readily available and, even with the best care, some will die. This means further trees at a 2 for 1 ratio into perpetuity. These properties are to be sold and the developer would have no control over the properties to recover their original security deposit. She also made reference to the town's own commissioned report by Gye and Associates which confirmed that between 2009 and 2018 the towns tree canopy actually increased by 11% and the urban area specific tree canopy increased by 29%.

Several other speakers spoke and letters were written covering such issues as;

-The tree bylaw does not consider Fire Smart recommendations and acts as a disincentive for homeowners wishing to take those preventative measures.

- The need for fairness as Town owned land is exempt from the bylaw.

-Why do we need an arborists report confirming a tree is dead or dying? Arborist reports add unnecessary costs for both the town and the homeowner.

-Lack of statistical information and reporting to see if the bylaw is having the intended results.

-Why should the town's climate change goals be placed ahead of private property rights, disallowing property owners to achieve their own goals of perhaps added light, a vegetable garden, or reduced yard and roof / gutter maintenance?

-The bylaw incentivizes homeowners to cut trees before they reach the permit required threshold size which defeats what the town is trying to achieve.

-The bylaw is overly bureaucratic resulting is high cost to taxpayers for the town to administer the policy and poses the potential for undue hardship on some of our many senior residents.

In this writer's opinion, the bylaw will have a significant dampening effect on overall development of new housing negatively affecting affordability. Further it has the potential to pose significant hardship to some residents wishing to remove trees that make it difficult for them to remain in their home due to the additional home maintenance costs. It also causes unnecessary expense and bureaucracy for those homeowners wishing to add an additional dwelling unit or garden suite on their property.

At the end of this public input meeting the Mayor confirmed that the next step was to get a report from staff and then council will decide what they want to do.

There has been no motion to direct staff to actually prepare such a report and as of July 19th /24, some 4 months later still no action is proposed.

Marie Noel

July 19 2024

We welcome your comments and feedback .

Email us at Qualicumbeachinsights@gmail.com