Granite Shoals ponders proclamation for ‘heritage tree’ protection
A massive live oak near The Tropical Hideaway condominiums in Granite Shoals. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
The Granite Shoals City Council tasked Interim City Manager Sarah Novo with developing a proclamation to strongly encourage residents and developers to preserve large trees on their properties. The council opted for a proclamation rather than an ordinance out of respect for the property rights of the city’s homeowners.
The request was made during the council’s regular meeting on March 26 following a lengthy discussion.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing to protect the trees, but this is Texas and property rights are number one,” said Councilor Phil Ort, who researched tree protection policies in other cities on behalf of Granite Shoals. “If somebody buys a piece of land with a 400-year-old tree, they can do whatever they want. That is their tree. It might be absolutely stupid to cut it down, but that is their choice because that is their property.”
The rest of the council ultimately agreed with Ort, and Novo volunteered to draft a proclamation that suggests landowners voluntarily preserve their large trees.
“I hate to get caught up in the weeds on this, but at the same time, I think we need to do something just to say that we encourage people to preserve them, if at all possible,” Mayor Ron Munos said.
Munos originally brought the idea of protecting the city’s heritage trees before the council in January when two large oak trees were felled outside of his home at Tropical Hideaway Condominiums. The trees were cut down to make room for a new wastewater treatment plant.
Many cities in Texas have some kind of policy for protecting large trees. Ort included ordinances and guidelines from Cedar Park, Georgetown, and Austin in a research packet he presented to the council.
Cedar Park has a 16-page ordinance detailing everything from required tree surveys before building to the $1,000 fines for cutting down or damaging a tree.
Georgetown has an 18-page guide on the dos and don’ts of tree protection.
Austin has staunch protections for its heritage trees, which it defines as any tree from among 10 distinct species that measure at least 24 inches in diameter at 4.5 feet from the ground.
“As much as I would love to protect these trees, I cannot support any ordinance that takes away somebody’s property rights,” Ort said.
2 thoughts on “Granite Shoals ponders proclamation for ‘heritage tree’ protection”
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This proposed proclamation projects the message of maintaining legacy tree growth and should come from community leadership when at all possible.
Larger towns tend to lead the way for smaller communities and this topic is no different.
This is good. Mandates are for communist/socialist countries and cities (like Austin). Encouragement is for Americans.