TO: Mayor and Commissioners
FROM: Steve Tobias, Interim Development Services Director
THROUGH: Neal de Jesus, Interim City Manager
DATE: September 5, 2019
Title
TREE CITY USA COMMUNITY STANDARDS AND TREE PRESERVATION TRUST FUND
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Recommended Action:
Recommendation
Presentation Only.
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Background:
The City of Delray Beach has achieved the status as a “Tree City USA Community” for 19 years. The Arbor Day Foundation and the National Association of State Foresters established four standards to qualify as a Tree City USA community:
1. A Tree Board or Department: responsible for the care of all trees on city-owned property.
2. A Tree Care Ordinance: clear guidance for planting, maintaining and removing trees.
3. Program with an Annual Budget of at Least $2 per Capita. For Delray Beach, the last report estimated city population at 63,972, which equates to $127,944; 2018 projections estimate the city population at 69,358, which equates to $138,716.
4. An Annual Arbor Day Observance and Proclamation.
The budget required for this program is allocated throughout a number of projects each year, including maintenance, repair, and replacement of trees.
The Tree Trust Fund is funded from “in lieu fees” when new development removes trees and does not accommodate enough replacement trees on site. The fee is an escalating scale based upon the diameter of the trunk at breast height (DBH) per inch of caliper. The current balance of the fund is $323,858.98. To date only two expenditures have been made from the fund: $12,000 for the 2017 Arbor Day Event, which was a partnership with Community Greening planting trees in multiple locations; and $20,000 for planting Thrinax Palms as part of the implementation of the Beach Master Plan (See attached Tree Perservation Trust Fund Balance).
City Attorney Review:
N/A
Funding Source/Financial Impact:
Approximately $138,716 from the gener...
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