By Pepper Parr
June 24th, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
It was one of those Public Information nights – no presentations; city staff on hand to answer questions, residents dropping by to get answers to questions or clarifications on issues they were not clear on.
The issue this evening was a private tree bylaw – is Burlington going to have one or will it continue to be one of the few municipalities in this part of the province to live life without one?
Tree on Guelph Line taken down in the afternoon – residents meet to talk about a private tree bylaw that evening.
There were a few people who didn’t want a private tree bylaw. The get together, and that is what it was, was made up of people who wanted trees saved.
Residents filling out comment sheets.
Roseland residents exchanging views on a private tree by law.
The meeting was held, some felt, to keep people in the Roseland community happy. The notice of the meeting was apparently limited to that community.
It wasn’t publicly posted by city hall staff.
Councillor Dennison was on hand, the Mayor did not attend. Some felt that a private tree bylaw was his issue and having him in the room would have helped.
To be fair to the Mayor – he could, and often is, out at an event every evening of the week. He either had somewhere else to be or took a deserved evening off.
Copies of private tree bylaws were set out on tables for people to read.
Quit with the only going plethora of rhetoric and enact the first by-law against developers who clear cut their newly purchased property before submitting a development site plan. OMG, this can’t be that hard to do. Common sense is lacking and it seems you can’t fix stupid on council.
Maggie: May I suggest that you ask council to enact a law that forces everyone who owns a home in the City to plant apple trees for your viewing pleasure. After all it’s not fair that only the landlord of the apartment building be forced to keep apple trees on their property because you said so. If council stops laughing long enough to pass such a law. I suspect that come next election we would have a brand new council. The idea that you want to tell people what to do on their own property against their will is scary. A few facts for all of us to ponder. Burlington has lots of trees, by last count approx: 3 million. City staff provided this info. 1,813 trees were cut down in one year in Burlington. Of those 1,414 were dead or dying (Not much we can do about that) Only approx: 5% of the trees cut down, totaling 90 trees City wide were the results of home improvement or new builds. Even with a tree by-law some of these trees would be allowed to be cut. Can’t have trees in your living room. Also you have to consider all the new trees being planted. The nurseries are doing a booming business. Sorry to expose this fraud on the citizens of Burlington. Check out the picture of Belvenia St. in another article. It is typical of streets in South Burlington it looks like a forest. Take a drive through Roseland it looks fine. There did not appear to be much concern at the open house. Probably because of the poor attendance. Same tired faces. Ironically enough their was no mention of the cost to the homeowners or how long this process would take.(Minor details). They should impose a special tax on the citizens of the Republic of Roseland to pay for all this nonsense. Better still we should have a vote to see if we can cut Roseland out of Burlington. The taxpayers would save lots of money.
Editor’s note:
The attendance wasn’t poor at all.
There was some very good discussion amongst people who happen to have different views on a matter of local concern.
There views were put forward in a civilized manner with respect for each other.
Well it’s all very clear now….who’d a though that.
A resident would not blatantly cut down any tree? What about the perfectly good apple trees that were cut down in front of an apartment building because the landlord couldn’t be bothered with them. Several groups offered to maintain them and donate the apples to food banks but they were cut down anyway.
Editor’s note: Want to guess who attends the church next to the trees that were taken down?
https://www.burlingtongazette.ca/free-fall-apples-can-be-harvested-those-guelph-line-trees-dont-have-to-come-down/
Are the residents of Burlington aware that there are two tree bylaws in Burlington.
1. The one bylaw is the Regional tree bylaw which protects woodlots that meet certain criteria,
2. The second bylaw is a provincial bylaw which protects or restricts a neighbour, a developer, a builder from cutting boundary trees without your neighbour’s permission or that an impartial arborist is engaged.
I am not aware of any resident that would blatantly cut down any tree.
Editor’s note:
Would someone like to comment on that last line. Don’t let it go unchallenged.