This afternoon, City staff will brief the Seattle City Council on tree canopy protections and perhaps finally chart a way forward on a policy area that has long been stalled out, even after a proposal emerged in 2018. The presentation will provide an overview of the City’s Urban Forest Management Plan, which was finalized and published on September 14th, concluding three years of work by staff at the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) and Office of Sustainability and the Environment (OSE), the Urban Forestry Commission, and other important external stakeholders.

The publication comes on the heels of a recently released poll by the Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI) and TreePAC showing that over three quarters of the 617 participants favored Seattle enacting stronger tree protections, increasing the amount of trees planted in low income and previously redlined neighborhoods, and creating policies that encourage developers to retain existing trees.

This August I reported for The Urbanist in an interview with Weston Brinkley, chair of Urban Forestry Commission, that the City of Seattle has been operating under an interim tree ordinance since 2009 — despite the fact that some experts both in and outside of the city government have the deemed the ordinance to be insufficient. Over the years, local officials have expressed support for passing an updated tree ordinance, but failed to take action.

“Despite more than a decade of promises, Seattle leaders have failed to improve tree protections,” noted Joshua Morris, urban conservation manager for Seattle Audubon in a press release for the NPI poll. “Seattle can densify, prevent sprawl, protect more trees, and plant more new ones. We just have to plan for it. Washington, D.C., for example, continues to increase both population density and tree canopy cover through strong tree protections, dedicated funding, and coordinated urban forestry management. We can learn from their example.”

NPI’s poll indicates Seattle residents would favor adopting policies in line with those in Washington, D.C. or Portland, OR, whose Title 11 tree ordinance was created as an attempt to strike a balance between the city’s tree canopy goals and development goals. Before we move on to the poll’s results, let’s dive into some context around tree removal in Seattle.

Proposed Talaris development represents a flashpoint

The report to Council states Seattle’s urban canopy is made up of more than four million trees, which are valued at close to $5 billion in replacement value. These trees not are only threatened by a lack of tree ordinance protections, climate change is leading to increased harm from drought, disease, and pests. The arrival this summer of sooty bark disease, a deadly fungus which has been identified in 46 of Seattle’s street trees– although it has likely infected far more– may have been exacerbated by warmer summer temperatures.

New development in the city has also negatively impacted the city’s tree canopy, although often in ways that run counter to popular narratives that defend single family zoning under the banner of preserving urban trees. According to Brinkley, new development in many commercial and mixed zoned areas has actually resulted in the planting of new trees because of Seattle Green Factor requirements. These requirements, however, are not in place for single family zoned areas, which has resulted in tree canopy loss as trees are cleared when smaller single family dwellings are replaced with larger ones.

Perhaps the most troubling example of this trend in single family zoned areas is the case of Talaris, a proposed development of 65 large suburban style houses (i.e. McMansions) on the site of an 18-acre former research institute and conference center. The plan, which dubbed by The Urbanist‘s Ray Dubicki as an unmitigated disaster, has generated criticism from both Laurelhurst residents who wish to preserve the historic site and its trees, and housing advocates, like Affordable Talaris, who have expressed shock the city would approve a “cloistered enclave of McMansions at a time of climate, housing, and public health emergency.”

If the Talaris development comes into being as currently envisioned, it will result in the removal of 60% of the trees on the property — a total of two hundred and seventy-one mature trees, one hundred and seventy-five of which are considered exceptional, either by size or as part of a tree grove. The property is current zoned for single family development, meaning its trees are largely unprotected under the current tree protection code, which stipulates that property owners may remove trees if retaining them prevents the development of allowed lot coverage or floor area of the site’s land use. Property owners must show it’s not possible to retain the trees by using various “departures” from the zone’s land use code development standards, but according to Brinkley, the Urban Forestry Commission would like to see more flexibility written into the land use code around items like street setbacks and parking minimums that allow for the preservation of trees.

One last point to add about Talaris is that single family zoning of the site means any new development will not create affordable housing or raise funds through the City’s Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program.