Winthrop officials are considering a plan that would help provide more trees tied to new development in town.
At last week’s town council meeting, Council President Jim Letterie sent the proposed ordinance amendment back to subcommittee for further discussion and fine-tuning before a potential council vote at a future meeting.
The biggest issue up for discussion during last week’s council meeting was a portion of the ordinance that would allow developers to plant trees offsite if the tree plantings were not viable on the actual sites being developed.
Winthrop Tree Ward Tom Derderian noted that the goal of the ordinance is to provide as many trees as possible onsite, but that it would provide options for plantings elsewhere in town if the trees could not be viably planted on the development sites.
“The general idea of this ordinance is to enhance the tree canopy of Winthrop for the next 100 years; maybe more,” said Derderian. “To do that, new construction is required to produce a certain number of trees, and those could be placed anywhere in town, not just at the construction site.”
The location of the trees would be determined by the tree warden and the public works department to make sure they were a proper species and in an acceptable location.
“It is important that we select the right tree and the right place, and that is part of this provision,” said Derderian. “For example, a lot of people would like to have maple trees, and if you saw today’s Globe, maple trees may be assaulted by the spotted lantern fly, so maybe we shouldn’t plant so many. This should not be the contractor’s selection of what species.
“Sometimes, trees can be obtained at a discount so that they are half dead; so the tree warden should be able to reject any trees that are not likely to survive or any trees that are not likely to survive, or any trees that are not really trees, like bushes.”
The tree plan would also require developers to make a financial contribution so that the new trees could be maintained by the town for the first several years of their existence.
Letterie noted that the planning board recommended that the tree plan for development be included within the town’s existing zoning ordinance.
Council Vice President Suzanne Swope noted that the tree plan for new development only addresses a small portion of the issues with new trees and tree removal in Winthrop and said she would like to see a bigger picture policy to address all tree issues.