In March of 2001, Houston Mayor Lee P. Brown convened a special committee to review the city’s tree planting and protection ordinances and address more general tree issues, including the relationship among tree canopy, the urban heat island effect, and air quality. This fall, co-chairs of the Blue Ribbon Tree Committee, representing developers, beautification groups, and environmental organizations, submitted their 25-page report. Many participants were satisfied with its suggested changes to the city’s tree regulations, but some are disappointed and frustrated that larger environmental concerns were not addressed.

The committee recommends several significant changes to Houston’s tree ordinances:

• Currently, all new development except single family residences, must plant a number of trees relative to the length of street frontage. The committee recommends requiring at least 50 percent of those trees to be planted on the respective street frontage and the remainder on other street frontages, rather than allowing them anywhere on the lot.
• Currently, developers must plant one tree for each 10 parking spaces in a parking lot. The committee recommends requiring that every parking spot be within 120 feet of the trunk of a tree, which would ensure that all trees are not placed around a lot’s perimeter.
• Currently, single family residential development is excluded from tree planting requirements. The committee recommends tree planting and preservation requirements for this type of construction as well.
• The committee also recommends a variety of education and enforcement measures to ensure that the tree ordinances are effective.

A protected tree on Shepherd

Frustrations don’t stem from the submitted recommendations, rather from what didn’t happen at the meetings.

“Several committee members were disappointed that the committee declined to allow educational presentations about heat islands, air quality, and other issues,” explains David Crossley, President of the Gulf Coast Institute. “Although the Mayor’s charge to the committee was based on air quality issues and the decrease in the urban canopy, neither subject received significant attention, and the vast majority of ideas and issues proposed by committee members were not allowed into discussion.”

John Wilson, who represented the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP) and Mothers for Clean Air (MfCA), withdrew from active participation on the committee before the final recommendations were submitted to the mayor. In his withdrawal letter, Wilson notes that “GHASP and MfCA felt that we were invited to join the committee to help ensure that its attention was drawn to the relationship of the declining urban tree canopy and the health effects of ozone pollution.” He continues, “Unfortunately, the most recent draft of the committee’s report barely addresses these concerns.”

Gary Woods, representative of the Houston Area Urban Forestry Council, is not surprised by the outcome of “that type of committee,” one that “clearly has a mandate before it starts that is not necessarily expressed to all the committee members.”

“It was clear that, although there were lots of issues brought up by lots of different people, there were only some that were going to be looked at,” Woods notes. “They were prioritized by the committee chairs.”

Crooker cites lack of time and expertise as the only reasons for not addressing the larger issues. “In the timeframe that we had, we didn’t think that we could do justice to them, and we needed some people with some more knowledge.”

Still, many in the environmental community can’t help but see this committee as a lost opportunity. “The bulk of the work on trees and reforestation remains to be done,” asserts Crossley. “If Houston’s ever going to be a better, healthier place to live, sooner or later we will have to get over giving developers veto power over every public issue and certainly we have to get over giving development interests control of content and discussion in citizen committees like this one.”