Millbrae will not charge fee to prune private trees

Residents would be charged $248 an hour for tree removal, tree relocation and heritage tree work, public or private, and be required to plant replacement trees on a size-based sliding scale or pay an in-lieu tree replacement fee.

Tree work in the public right-of-way would cost an encroachment fee of $356.98. Additionally, the ordinance would prohibit both pollarding and topping trees.

Mayor Anders Fung was the dissenting vote on the new ordinance, having requested to see comparative replacement fee plans from nearby cities before moving forward.

He sparred with Councilmember Ann Schneider, who was insistent that the City Council had been delinquent for too long in protecting the health of its urban forestry — half of which has been lost, she estimated.

“Trees are being cut all the time and it has huge implications. This has simply gone on long enough,” she said.

Fung disagreed with Schneider both on the implications of the ordinance — she suggested it could lead to fees for improper tree management — and also said he thought it didn’t warrant immediate urgency.

“We’re not here to force people to trim their tree. This is basically saying, if you trim a tree, you need to register,” he said. “This is by no means will force your neighbor to trim a tree that’s hitting your mother’s bedroom.”

The idea for the new permit system is to encourage people to service their trees with licensed contractors and register those trees with the city, Community Development Director Andrew Mogensen said.

“[It’s] simple, no-fee registration that identifies time, date, location of tree work and who the contractor is,” he said. “That would shift implementation from residents onto professionals, just like we do with building permits.”

Schneider did say she believed some tree removal could require separate fees depending on the environmental impact and implications of the removal.

“There’s a reason to have sophisticated permitting, or cost of permitting, depending on the degree of trees that are going to be removed,” she said.

She also asked for an amendment to the ordinance that would illustrate the health importance of trees and emphasized to fellow councilmembers that it was of utmost importance.

“I’m going to make a motion, and anybody can vote it down,” she said. “Anybody running on climate change, this will follow you.”

The ordinance applies to trees with a diameter of 10 inches or larger. Residents would be required to plant two new trees of 24-inch box size for every tree under 18 inches in diameter removed, three new trees of 24-inch box size for every tree from 18 to 24 inches in diameter removed, and either three new trees of 24-inch box size or one tree of 48-inch box size for every tree over 24 inches in diameter removed.