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Jacksonville tree advocates deliver the goods and wait for the falloutBy Anne Schindler From the mail delivery scene in “Miracle on 34th Street” to the arrival of the Starr Report, piles of paperwork can make for impressive theater. And last Tuesday, the folks who hauled 31,000 signed petitions to the Supervisor of Elections Office clearly reveled in the drama. A line of 10 orange handcarts piled with 30 boxes threaded through cameras and onlookers, moving from the parking lot into the main office of the one-story building. Once inside, the Citizens for Tree Preservation piled the boxes in 15 neat stacks, and left city employees to the unenviable task of verifying the petitions. The group needs at least 20,900 signatures in order to place their tree preservation initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot - and barring any freak occurrence, they’ve locked it up. What happens now is anyone’s guess - but the source of much speculation. Since the group first announced the tree protection charter amendment in February, members have walked a fine line, trying to collect as many signatures as possible without drawing too much attention. Their fear - that the powerful homebuilders lobby will attempt to squash the effort - may have lessened somewhat last week: The 31,000 delivered petitions are themselves a major victory. But the group is still bracing for the possibility of a well-funded and even ugly attack. Bill Brinton, leader of the citizen’s group and veteran of the 1987 citizens’ anti-billboard initiative, says that the group’s bank account, less than $10,000, is no match for the deep pockets of homebuilders lobby: “We certainly would never be able to match the homebuilders dollar for dollar.” The hope, says Brinton, is that by bringing the issue directly to voters, the influence of special interest politics will disappear. “This is a way to express that [citizens] don’t want special interests to [drive tree protection]. This is more [of a] bottom-up [effort] than top-down, that’s for sure.” The ballot initiative was a reaction to a tree protection ordinance passed by the Jacksonville City Council in December. The new law weakened tree protection standards established in 1988, and exempted homebuilders from protecting all but the largest trees. Dismayed by the council’s failure to establish meaningful tree preservation guidelines - as well as by the intense pressure applied by the homebuilders lobby - the group resolved to deliver the issue of tree protection directly to the voters. Provisions of the proposed amendment include granting “protected” status to trees with a three-foot circumference (the current standard is six feet) and giving residents the legal right to protest any violations. Brinton says the group will take a wait-and-see approach over the next few weeks (“55 days and some number of hours,” corrected Brinton last Tuesday) and remains wary of opposition. But group members are confident of “very, very strong support” of the tree protection effort, according to Brinton - something that may persuade the opposition to lay low. “There may be a sense of fait accompli [among the opposition],” says Brinton. “If they sense it’s going to pass, perhaps they will choose not to provoke a whole segment of the population ... I’m not sure there’s much they can do.” |
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