TO: Mayor and Council May 9th, 1975

FROM: Environmental Protection Committee

The Environmental Protection Committee met on Thursday, May 8th, 1975.

Present were: Alderman J.J. Keryluk, Chairman
Alderman P.F. Ranger
L.D. Pollock, City Administrator
The following items were discussed.

i. Tree-cutting By-law

The Committee was asked by Council to review the provisions of the Tree-cutting
By-law as there was come concern that we may be incurring liability through
preventing the cutting of trees that might be dangerous.

The existing By-law provisions exempt parcels of land of less than 7200 square
feet that had buildings constructed thereon as of the date of the passage of
the By-law. This means that all lots that were vacant at the time of the
passage of the By-law or any lots created since the passage of the By-law all
come within the scope of the By~law.

The Committee has reviewed this question and feels that the most important
need is to control the cutting of trees on larger tracts of land prior to
subdivision taking place. They also feel that the greatest liability would
be incurred if the City attempts to continue to control tree-cutting on
individual residential size lots. There has been a number of cases in the
last two years where trees have blown down in new subdivision and there is
the possibility that the City could become a party if we had specifically

retained control of tree-cutting on the site. . -

The Committee recommends the following amendment to the By-law in order to
resolve this question.
"2, The provisions of this By-law shall not apply to any area of
the City that is a parcel of real property of Seven Thousand
Two Hundered (7,200) square feet or less that-has improvements
constructed thereon."

The effect of this amendment would be to require tree-cutting permits on all
lands within the City except a parcel of real property of 7200 square feet or
less. This would effectively exempt most residential lots. It would also
mean that Developers would require tree—cutting permits for clearing of large
parcels of land, however, once the subdivision had taken place and residential
parcels were created and built on, the land would then become exempt.

The Committee recommends that this amendment be considered by Council.