3 on council sign petition on tree law
Referendum sought to strengthen safeguards
By Karen Rivedal
Florida Times-Union
February 18, 2000
Reflecting the City Council's own divide on the issue, three council members
yesterday became among the first people to sign a petition aimed at circumventing
a tree protection law the council itself recently approved.
Council members Suzanne Jenkins, Mary Ann Southwell and Matt Carlucci said
Jacksonville deserved better tree protection.
Carlucci, who voted for the new tree law in the 16-3 decision Dec. 14, said tree
protection could become a "signature issue" for Jacksonville if enough residents
become involved with the petition.
"There comes a time when certain issues demand to be put before the people,"
Carlucci said at the petition drive kickoff yesterday at Hemming Plaza. "This
is an opportunity to let the process work."
The community group sponsoring the petition drive -- known as Citizens for Tree
Preservation Inc. -- needs to collect about 21,000 signatures to get a referendum on
the Nov. 7 ballot that would change the city's charter to add minimum standards for
tree protection, mitigation and conservation during development.
Previous petition drives have led to fundamental changes in Jacksonville's
government. In 1991, voters overwhelmingly approved two-term limits for City
Council members. A 1987 voter-approved charter amendment banned off-site
advertising.
The tree protection law, which went into effect Feb. 1, requires home builders to
preserve or pay for hardwood trees from about 6 feet in trunk circumference and
up. The group would protect trees starting at half that size.
The group's rules, like the city ordinance, would exempt pines and any trees on
existing homesteads, as well as trees on agricultural or tree-farming land.
Susan Wiles, Mayor John Delaney's chief of staff, said yesterday the mayor supports
citizen involvement, generally. In this case, however, Delaney spent many months
studying the issue and trying to reach a consensus between competing interest
groups -- such as the home builders, environmental advocates and tree farmers.
In the end, he emerged with the best bill he thought he could get through the
council, Wiles said.
"The nature of our legislative and government system is to forge compromises,"
Wiles said. "He worked long and hard to forge a compromise in this case."
Councilman Lake Ray, one of the council leaders during the tree-law debate, said
yesterday that he wasn't finished with the issue yet. Still on the table is a
resolution Ray drafted, asking state officials to review their water quality/drainage
rules so that more trees can be saved, he said, and another measure to spend about
$50,000 on a study of tree canopies.
During the tree-law debate, Ray had offered an alternative that provided more breaks
to home builders than Delaney was proposing, and the mayor largely beat back that
version.
To many, however, the law Delaney proposed and had approved was still too weak.
Jacksonville native Martina Linnehan, who showed up at Hemming Plaza to sign the
petition, said a tree with a 6-foot circumference is "huge." If builders can
cut down all the trees smaller than that without requiring payment or replacement,
she added, far too many trees will disappear forever.
"It is, to me, of tremendous importance to the quality of life in Jacksonville,"
Linnehan said. "What is happening is we are losing both the historic and natural
heritage of the community with the destruction of trees."
