1 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Edmonton AB, T5J 2R7
City of Edmonton
May 21, 2021
Re: Bylaw for Tree Preservation and Protection
Dear Mayor and Council,
Thank you so much for taking the time to hear from IDEA and its members today. IDEA has been engaging with the City of Edmonton on this draft bylaw since 2017. We have attended numerous engagement sessions, worked with the consultant to provide examples of real-world situations, and helped to create and share with our members the current tree protection and preservation plans the City of Edmonton uses. We have also had Forestry present at every iteration of our Builder Education Program, to share in detail why mature trees are important and how to protect trees in our City. This is all to say that we are heavily invested in protecting Edmonton’s trees.
IDEA is in full support of having a tree bylaw to help create consistency in protection practices. A bylaw will also help to create more educational material for both industry and homeowners to become informed.
However, we are asking that Council direct Administration to put resources into bylaw education and move entirely away from creating a new permit.
As stated in Administration’s presentation, there have been 196 work sites in poor condition, and with tree damage, between January 2019 and April 2021. In this time period over 9500 building permits were approved for residential construction alone. That is 2% of sites. This relates to the conversation at Urban Planning Committee we had in January of this year, where we all acknowledged that there is a very small percentage of bad actors. Instead of focusing our resources on that issue, the proposed permit will penalize everyone with a new permit we don’t have the resources to fund or enforce.
The bylaw will be applicable to not just developers but also other users like homeowners and small contractors; there will be an initial learning curve for all users on what the expectations are. We need to dedicate resources to creating educational materials and campaigns to ensure awareness and the bylaw’s ultimate success. Without this, homeowners working on their front lawns won’t know when they are in violation of the bylaw.
IDEA also suggests that we take this opportunity to make more efficient use of the resources we already have. At present, there are on average 12 site inspections for residential projects. We suggest that training be offered to inspectors to look for violations to the bylaw. We would also like to note for Council that anyone who is currently applying for a building permit must provide a tree protection plan and needs to apply for an OSCAM permit when crossing a boulevard within five metres of a city tree.
We thank Administration for their efforts on this bylaw, however, we do believe that starting with a Bylaw and education will lead to the outcomes Edmonontians are looking for without creating new processes and permits that cost homeowners extra fees, as well as builders extra fees on top of the costs of tree protection and all of the other fees that are currently associated with infill, including development permits, building permits, OSCAM permits, infrastructure upgrade requirements, etc.
Let’s work together to build beautiful people-centred communities that people can afford and trees can flourish.
Sincerely,
Hani Barzagar
President of Infill Development in Edmonton Association
Mariah Samji
Executive Director
Infill Development in Edmonton Association
This letter has been shared with the Mayor, City Council and Administration