Category Archives: TreePAC

Urgent Update – Help Needed Now to Save WA State’s Urban Forestry Program in the 2026 State Budget

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Action Alert

Update – Help needed Now! WA State’s 2026 Operating Budget bill would eliminate DNR’s Urban and Community Forestry program!

The  WA State Department of Natural Resources Urban and Community Forestry Program is on the verge of losing funding in the 2026 state operating budget and being shut down. We need your help to contact key Legislators to not  its funding for Urban and Community Forestry. Details are below on what is happening and how you can help. The Legislature’s deadline to pass the 2026 operating budget bill is midnight Thursday March 12, 2026 when the session ends.

The WA State House and  Senate have both passed supplemental operating budget bills. The Senate passed ESSB 5998 on Feb 27th and sent it to the House. The House relabeled and passed the Senate supplemental bill with their amendments on Feb 28th. The Senate on March 3rd refused to concur on the House amendments and voted to ask the House to agree to a Conference Committee to resolve the differences. The Senate then appointed Senators Robinson, Stanford, and Gildon to a Conference Committee to resolve the differences. On Monday, March 9, the House appointed   Representatives Ormsby, Gregerson, and Couture to the Conference Committee. Time is short to ensure cuts are stopped. The Legislature is set to adjourn on Thursday March 12th at midnight which is coming up quick.

The House amendments included cutting funding for the Department of Natural Resources Urban and Community Forestry Program. Here is the House version – 2025 -27 Omnibus Operating Budget – 2026 Supplemental Passed House (ESSB 5998 w/House AMD)

See pages 182 – 185 which details some 18 House proposed budget cuts in the Dept of Natural Resources. Besides Urban Forest Assistance (Urban and Community Forestry Program), some of the other areas the House proposes being cut include Climate Change Response Strategy, Climate Commitment Act Work, Environmental Justice, Forest Health Assessments, Forest Help Technical Assistance, Forest Practices Division, HEAL 2026 Act, and Recreation Land Maintenance.

The Senate version of ESSB 5998 does not include these cuts to the 2026 Supplemental Operating Budget.

We need you to quickly send the message below to your Legislators and the Conference Committee members and the Senate and House Leadership to adopt the Senate version and reject the amendments proposed by the House that defund the Department of Natural Resources Urban and Community Forest Program and other related programs that cut funding for protecting our environment and forests and climate.

Click here to find your District Legislators. Enter your address, then click on one of your legislators links. Go to their page and click contact to send an e-mail.

Step 1 Verify again your district and then click yes to send to the other 2 Legislators in your District.

Step 2 It asks you if you want to send to other legislators.Click yes and also click to add the following legislators. The names include the 6 conference committee names and members of the House and Senate Leadership.
Conway, Couture, Dhingra, Fitzgibbon, Gildon, Gregerson, Hasegawa, Jinkins, Lovett, Lovick, Nobles, Ormsby, Ortiz-Self, Pedersen, Ramel, Riccelli, Robinson, Simmons, Stanford, Stearns, and Stonier.

Step 3 Cut and paste the draft highlighted e-mail heading below in the e-mail template.
Please do not adopt the 2026 operating budget amendments proposed by the House to cut funding for urban and community forests, forest health and climate resilience!

Step 4 Cut and paste highlighted e-mail text: Please prioritize in ESSB 5998 fully funding the Urban and Community Forestry Program that is critical to helping cities, counties and tribes protect and grow our urban forests to create healthy neighborhoods and communities where people live.  Continued funding of urban and community forestry programs includes assistance in creating model urban forest protection ordinances, conducting canopy studies,  and creating urban forestry management plans.  DNR’s program also help funnel public and private grant money to  city, county, state and tribal programs to grow and protect our forests. In addition, also restore funds to programs to increase climate resilience and protect all of our forest resources across the state.

Thanks for your help in letting our elected Legislators know that we want them to protect our urban and community forests, our climate and our environment.
Thanks for your help.

Washington State House Appropriations Committee Proposes to Cut State Urban Forestry Program

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Help needed Now! WA State House budget bill would eliminate DNR’s Urban and Community Forestry program!

The proposed 2025-2027 fiscal biennium supplemental operating appropriations budget passed last week by the Washington State House Appropriation Committee to House Rules will wipe out the Washington State Department of Natural Resources Urban and Community Forestry Program. We need your help now to save this program by contacting your legislators with e-mails and/or phone calls urging they not shut down this important state program.

The following DNR funding line item as shown is proposed to be deleted in SHB 2289  which is the WA State House version of the state’s Supplemental Operating budget for the next year.

“(1) $3,000,000 of the natural climate solutions account—state appropriation is provided solely for investment in urban forestry to support reduction of negative environmental conditions such as heat, flooding, and pollution and helping communities become greener, cleaner, healthier, and more resilient.)).”

DNR last week in a briefing memo stated that the proposed reduction “eliminates all state funding for DNR’s Urban and Community Forestry Program for Fiscal Year 2027, and ongoing.”

They add that “This reduction not only eliminates state funding for the program directly impacting both staff and delivery of services to communities, but would automatically endanger millions in potential federal grant funding as it makes Washington ineligible for several grant programs currently administered by the program.” All funding would end on July 1 of this year when the new state budget takes effect.

Please let your state legislators know you support continuation of the Urban and Community Forestry Program in the Department of Natural Resources.  Urban trees are important in reducing harmful heat island impacts, reducing stormwater runoff, and air pollution. They help create healthy communities for humans and our environment.

The Urban and Community Forest Program helps cities counties and tribes assess tree canopy and inventory urban forests, assist in developing tree ordinances, urban forestry management plans and assessing  the needs and health impacts for sustaining urban and community forests.

Below is the link to contact your state Legislators and tell them to continue funding DNR’s  urban and community forest program!

https://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/
You can send them an e-mail or call them and leave a message.

Additional information:
“Existential Budget Cut Would Wipe Out State Urban Forestry Program”, Ryan Packer, The Urbanist, Feb. 27, 2026
“Urban Tree Funding axed in WA House budget proposal“, Aspen Ford, Washington State Standard and the Spokesman-Review, Feb 27, 2026.
“Uncertain Future for Washington’s state’s urban forests“, Bellamy Pailthorp, KNKX, Feb. 28, 2026

Thanks for your help.

Steve Zemke

Chair –TreePAC.org

Please help with a donation today so we can pay on-going bills and continue our work. We are an all volunteer organization and need your continued support for us to sustain our efforts to Make and Keep Seattle Green and Livable in all the communities where we live across the city as we build new needed housing.

Seattle Urban Forest Commission open meetings act violations and continued delays in filling vacant Urban Forestry Commission positions

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Dear OSE Acting Director Lylianna Allala,

Congratulations on your appointment to head up the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

I wanted to bring to your attention several ongoing issues that have been raised by myself and other members of the public at meetings of the Seattle Urban Forestry Commission starting in 2025 and continuing in 2026.  I and other members of the public have raised these issues numerous times in public comments before the Commission, but these issues continue to be unaddressed by Commission staff.

The first issue concerns violations of the Washington State Open Meetings Act and not complying with the stated  responsibilities in the Commission’s bylaws to post meeting materials and recordings, not keeping the commission’s website updated, not posting draft meeting notes and other documents the Commission will vote on in advance of the meeting on the agenda, and not timely posting adopted meeting notes.

The second issue concerns continued lengthy delays in filling vacant Urban Forestry Commission seats, which reduces expertise needed to help evaluate issues before the Commission.

Steve Zemke – former Urban Forestry Commissioner for 6.5 years

Chair of Tree PAC and Friends of Seattle’s Urban Forest

The first issue regards violations of the Washington State Open Meetings Act: 

Inadequate Posting of Urban Forestry Commission meeting agendas, digital recordings and adopted minutes  (for Years 2025 and 2026)

  • No digital recording of meetings posted – Feb 2025, March 2025, July 2025, Nov 2025, Jan 2026, Feb 2026
  • No draft meeting notes  posted – March 2025, Oct 2025, Nov 2025, Jan 2026, Feb 2026
  • No  adopted meeting notes posted – Feb 2025, March 2025, Oct 2025, Nov 2025, Jan 2026
  • No agenda posted – Nov. 2025 (link does not work)

The Jan 13, 2021 adopted Coordinator Protocols for the Seattle Urban Forestry Commission state the following responsibilities:

  • 6. Record Commission meetings and produce meeting summaries for review and adoption by the Commission
  • 8. Manage and update Commission’s website, including posting meeting materials and recordings.
  • 10. Coordinate internal and external Commission communications. 

For comparison, postings in 2021 to 2024, are complete and detailed and meet requirements of the Washington State Open Meetings Act. They also meet the adopted Coordinator protocols. In addition, separate posting of presentations by city staff make it much easier to find and share highlights of meetings, presentations, adopted UFC positions and letters and not having to search through an entire 2 hour recording to find a presentation.

The second issue is continued lengthy delays in filling UFC vacancies:

The second issue is the continuation of delayed appointments to fill Urban Forestry Commission vacancies which reduces key urban forestry areas of expertise on the Commission. Current vacant positions include:

  • Position 4 – hydrologist – vacant since Oct 2025 (mayoral appointment)
  • Position 6 – landscape architect – vacant since August 2025 (mayoral appointment)
  • Position 7 – NGO Representative – vacant since April 2025 city council appointment)
  • Position 8 – development or utility representative – vacant since Jan 2026 (mayoral appointment)
  • Position 9 – economist, financial analyst, realtor or similar professional – vacant since Sept 2025 (Urban Forestry Commission appointment)

The Jan 13, 2021 adopted Coordinator Protocols for the Seattle Urban Forestry Commission states the following responsibility:

  • 13. Run recruitment processes for Commission members in Coordination with City Council and Mayor’s Office staff. 

As in 2025, vacancies are still not being timely filled.

There is no notice on the UFC website regarding a timeline or process to fill these vacancies.  These vacancies are taking months to fill. Delays reduce the actual time the Commissioners serve. Once a seat is either known to be vacant due to a resignation or an end of a term with notice someone does not want to be reappointed to a second term, or a second term is known to be ending, the information on how to apply, including where to send a resume and letter of interest should is available on the UFC website so that vacancies can be filled much quicker.

While there are currently 5 vacant positions, the Seattle Boards and Commissions website currently only lists 3 vacancies on their website. They also need to be timely notified.

Please note. The above comments on posting meeting agendas, recordings, minutes,  posting separate presentations and timely efforts to fill vacant UFC positions are meant to be helpful. The goal should be to increase public accessibility and the functioning of the Seattle Urban Forestry Commission. Resolving the stated issues will help UFC commissioners, the Office of Sustainability and Environment, city staff, the City Council and the Mayor’s office as well as the public and news media in being updated on the commission’s meetings, presentations, recommendations and other activities.  This is especially helpful for anyone who is not able to attend a meeting but wants to review what was presented and discussed. A good updated public record also greatly assists new Commissioners in getting up to speed much quicker on urban forestry issues before the Commission that they are expected to help advise the City Council and Mayor on.

This e-mail was sent to Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment, OSE’s acting Director, OSE’s Urban Forestry Coordinator, UFC’s Liasson and the Seattle City Council’s Chair of the Land Use and Environmental Sustainability Committee. on Feb. 19, 2026. It is now March 3, 2026 and no response has been received and no correction have been made on the Seattle Urban Forestry Commission website.

 

Can you help with a donation to TreePAC.org?

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January 2026 – TreePAC is  beginning a new year. 

Last year – 2025 – was a busy year for TreePAC with Seattle both updating the City’s Comprehensive Plan and complying with Washington State HB 1110 to increase housing density in our city to meet future projected growth. TreePAC was heavily involved in this effort to increase support for increased tree protection during development. Our biggest success was helping  to amend Seattle’s Tree Protection Ordinance to remove the developer sponsored ‘basic tree protection area” loophole.

We also spend the first part of the year monitoring legislation in Olympia that affected tree protection and were successful in helping to stop legislation that would have allowed developers to remove all trees on lots being developed by letting them just plant new trees somewhere else. The problem is that replacing an 80 year old Douglas fir tree or a western red cedar takes 80 years.

TreePAC also did candidate questionnaires on mayoral and and city council candidates in Seattle as in past years and this year added city council candidates in Shoreline.

Please help us continue our work by making a donation today to continue our work in 2026.  We are an all volunteer organization and are dependent on financial support from supporters like you. Thank you.

                                           Donate to TreePAC.org

Voting information for Seattle and Shoreline voters Nov 4, 2025 General Election

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Dear TreePAC Supporters,

TreePAC sent  General Election Questionnaires to City Council and Mayoral candidates in Seattle and Shoreline this year. You can see the questionnaires that were returned here. They are also on the TreePAC website at www.TreePAC.org.

click here to see:

         Seattle and Shoreline 2025 General Election candidate questionnaires

The deadline to vote this year is Tuesday Nov 4th at 8:00 PM. Please put your ballot in a drop box before then, not in the mail.  

Seattle Times reported this week that “The Washington Secretary of State’s office encouraged voters to use drop boxes after Oct. 28. To find a drop box near you, check out the Washington Secretary of State office’s drop box locator.”

The reason is that the US Postal Service cannot be counted on to postmark your ballots before the deadline based on postmarks checked during our August Primary.

If you want to hear the 2 Seattle Mayoral candidates discuss climate and trees check out this recording by the Seattle Park Foundation of the recent Climate Forum with Seattle Mayoral and King County Executive Candidates.

You can also check out the Official Voter’s Pamphlet here.

Thanks for voting.

Seattle and Shoreline 2025 Candidates

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Seattle and Shoreline both have mayoral and council candidates on the ballot. The general election is on November 4th. Support candidates who support our trees!

CityPositionCandidateQuestionnaireCampaign Email
SeattleMayorBruce HarrellTreePAC Questionnaireinfo@bruceforseattle.com
SeattleMayorKatie WilsonTreePAC Questionnairekatie@wilsonforseattle.com
SeattleCouncil 9Sara NelsonTreePAC Questionnaireinfo@saraforcitycouncil.com
SeattleCouncil 9Dionne Foster
Not Received
info@dionnefoster.com
SeattleCouncil 2Adonis DuckworthTreePAC Questionnaireinfo@adonisforseattle.com
SeattleCouncil 2Eddie Lin
Not Received
hello@linforseattle.com
SeattleCouncil 8Alexis Rinck
Not Received
alexis@alexisforseattle.com
SeattleCouncil 8Rachael Savage
Not Received
savageforseattle@gmail.com
ShorelineCouncil 3Laura Mork
Not Received
vote4lauramork@gmail.com
ShorelineCouncil 5Eben PobeeTreePAC Questionnaireelectebenpobee@gmail.com
ShorelineCouncil 7Chris Roberts
Not Received
chris@chrisrobertswa.com
ShorelineCouncil 1Valerie SniderTreePAC Questionnaireelectvaleriesnider@gmail.com
ShorelineCouncil 1Jack Malek
Not Received
jmalek1234@gmail.com

Public Hearing on Amendments to Seattle City Council Bills CB 120993 and CB 120985 Sept 12, 2025

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Public Hearing on  Amendments to Seattle City Council CB 120993 and CB 120985 regarding housing and trees and other issues during development

https://seattle.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7423062&GUID=BE94A92B-AE2B-4714-B644-1DEFBE30E86B
Please note
10. Public Hearing Notice for Sept. 12, 2025,
11. Updated Amendment Package for Public Hearing Notice
 CB 120993 – AN ORDINANCE relating to land use and zoning; implementing a major update of Neighborhood Residential zones and modifying development standards in other zones to comply with various state laws
https://seattle.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7423062&GUID=BE94A92B-AE2B-4714-B644-1DEFBE30E86Bc

Amendments needed to Seattle City Council Bill 120993

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The following was sent to Seattle City Council members:

Dear Seattle City Council members,

Neither the proposed Comprehensive Plan update or CB 120993 give adequate oversight or protection for maintaining a thriving healthy urban forest over the long term. The current Tree Protection Ordinance was adopted prior to the current proposed Comprehensive Plan, WA state HB 1110  and new zoning proposed in CB120993. SMC 25.11 – the Tree Protection Ordinance needs to be reviewed and amended to address the increased loss of trees and urban forest ecosystem services under the current changes proposed.

Council Bill 120993 needs amendments to protect and plant more trees where people live if Seattle wants to reach its 30% canopy goal, address urban heat island impacts, reduce air pollution and stormwater runoff and keep our neighborhoods healthy where people live.

Here are amendments we believe need to be made now:

  1. Remove the “basic tree protection area” loophole in SMC 25.11.070 that lets developers solely make the decision to remove Tier 2 trees. SDCI is responsible to help protect Seattle neighborhoods and keep them healthy as well as support the city reaching a 30% tree canopy by 2037. Use the tree protection area criteria in SMC 25.11.060 that allows for reduction of the tree protection area  according to ANSI 200 standards. Let the SDCI Director decide on the final required tree protection area.
  2. Give the SDCI Director authority to also decide on removal of Tier 3 and Tier 4 trees, not the developers as is currently done. Urban forests need to have trees of all ages to be sustainable and healthy. The goal of SDCI should be to maximize the retention of existing healthy trees whenever possible.
  3. Require lots have designated tree retention and planting areas. Portland, Oregon recommends a tree planting area of 50 square feet for small trees, 75 square feet for medium sized trees and 100 – 150  square feet for large trees.
  4. Require a tree inventory and landscape plan be done at the beginning of the development process before approval of any building site plan is submitted. This will help both developers and the city expedite necessary decisions at the beginning of the process on maximizing retention of existing trees and planting new trees.
  5. The point system for planting trees on a lot allows most trees, particularly large ones to be removed and replaced with saplings. Require that plans maximize the retention of existing healthy trees that already are the survivors and providing services.
  6. Require all trees removed over 6” DSH during development pay an in lieu mitigation fee for environmental services lost to the city, as well as replacing when possible, the removed trees either on site or off site to sustain our urban forest benefits to the city. The current system allows developers to replace a tree of any size removed on the property and not have to pay mitigation for the loss of the trees benefits if they replant a tree on site.  Portland ,Oregon has a mitigation in-lieu fee for environmental services lost as a result of trees removal that has raised over $1 million/year to pay for replanting trees.
  7. Set up a Tree Replacement and Preservation Fund independent from SDCI’s budget to collect the mitigation in-lieu fees and for public donations or grants that can be used to plant and protect trees.
  8. Require all new development projects, not just principal housing units, to have street trees. This includes ADU’s and building additions over 250 square feet. Currently only new principal buildings and building additions of 1000 square feet are required to add street trees if none are on the building site street front.
  9. Allow stacked flats to be built on all lots in the neighborhood residential zone, not just those over 6,000 square feet, which represent less than 45% of the current NR lots in the city. Stacked flats would allow more open space to retain and plant trees. Provide incentives for building stacked flats. See Urbanist article here The Deck is Stacked Against Stacked Flats.
  10. Give incentives to build housing units with common shared walls to increase open space on lots for retaining and planting trees for environmental equity, climate resilience, reducing air pollution and stormwater runoff.
  11. Amend canopy definition for replacement to include canopy area and volume to consider environmental services and benefits lost when different size trees and different species are removed.

Steve Zemke

Chair TreePAC and Friends of Seattle’s Urban Forest

 

Letter Sent to Seattle City Council regarding Amendments to CB 120993

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Dear Seattle City Council members, 

Neither the proposed Comprehensive Plan update or CB 120993 give adequate oversight or protection for maintaining a thriving healthy urban forest over the long term. The current Tree Protection Ordinance was adopted prior to the current proposed Comprehensive Plan, WA State HB 1110  and new zoning proposed in CB120993. SMC 25.11 – the Tree Protection Ordinance needs to be reviewed and amended to address the increased loss of trees and urban forest ecosystem services under the current changes proposed. 

Council Bill 120993 needs amendments to protect and plant more trees where people live if Seattle wants to reach its 30% canopy goal, address urban heat island impacts, reduce air pollution and stormwater runoff and keep our neighborhoods healthy where people live.  

Here are amendments we believe need to be made now: 

  1. Remove the “basic tree protection area” loophole in SMC 25.11.070 that lets developers solely make the decision to remove Tier 2 trees. SDCI is responsible to help protect Seattle neighborhoods and keep them healthy as well as supporting the city reaching a 30% tree canopy by 2037. Use the tree protection area criteria in SMC 25.11.060 that allows for allows according to ANSI 200. Let SDCI Director decide on required tree protection area. 
  2. Give SDCI Director authority to also decide on removal of Tier 3 and Tier 4 trees, not the developers as is currently done. Urban forests need to have trees of all ages to be sustainable and healthy. The goal of SDCI should be to maximize the retention of existing healthy trees whenever possible. 
  3. Require lots have designated tree retention and planting areas. Portland, Oregon recommends a tree planting area of 50 square feet for small trees, 75 square feet for medium sized trees and 100 square feet for large trees.  
  4. Require a tree inventory and landscape plan be done at the beginning of the development process before approval of any building site plan is submitted. This will help both developers and the city expedite necessary decisions at the beginning of the process on maximizing retention of existing trees and planting new trees.   
  5. The point system for planting trees on a lot allows most trees, particularly large ones, to be removed and replaced with saplings. Require that plans maximize the retention of existing healthy trees that already are the survivors and providing services.   
  6.  Require all trees removed over 6” DSH during development pay an in lieu mitigation fee for environmental services lost to the city, as well as replanting, when possible, the removed trees either on site or off site to sustain our urban forest benefits to the city. The current system allows developers to replace a tree of any size tree removed on the property and not have to pay mitigation for the loss of the trees benefits if they replant a tree on site.  Portland, Oregon has a mitigation in lieu fee for environmental services lost that has raised over $1 million/year to pay for replanting trees.  
  7.  Set up a Tree Replacement and Preservation Fund independent from SDCI’s budget to collect the mitigation in lieu fees and for public donations or grants that can be used to plant and protect trees.  
  8.  Require all new development projects, not just principal housing units, to have street trees. This includes ADU’s and building additions over 250 square feet. Currently only new principal buildings and building additions of 1000 square feet are required to add street trees if none are on the building site street front. 
  9. Allow stacked flats to be built on all lots in the neighborhood residential zone, not just those over 6,000 square feet, which represent less than 40% of the current NR lots in the city. Stacked flats would allow more open space to retain and plant trees. Provide incentives for building stacked flats. See Urbanist article here The Deck is Stacked Against Stacked Flats. 
  10. Give incentives to build housing units with common shared walls to increase open space on lots for retaining and planting trees for environmental equity, climate resilience, reducing air pollution and stormwater runoff.  
  11. Amend canopy definition for replacement to include canopy area and volume to consider environmental services and benefits lost when different size trees and different species are removed.   

Steve Zemke 

Chair TreePAC and Friends of Seattle’s Urban Forest  

E-mails needed now to increase tree retention and planting during development in Seattle’s Neighborhood Residential Zone

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E-mails needed now to increase tree retention and planting during development in Seattle’s Neighborhood Residential Zone

The Seattle City Council is working to adopt its CB 120985 – Comprehensive Plan and Council Bill 120993 to implement WA State HB 1110 allowing 4 to 6 plexes in Seattle’s Neighborhood Residential zones. Council Bill 120993 needs amendments to protect and plant more trees where people live if Seattle wants to reach its 30% canopy goal, address urban heat island impacts, reduce air pollution and stormwater runoff and keep our neighborhoods healthy where people live.

Please use the suggested comments to send an e-mail to the Seattle City Council and Mayor Harrell. You can cut and paste the comments below, pick and choose from the comments, and add your own thoughts.

The Seattle City Council has set a deadline for Council members to submit proposed amendments this Thursday, June 26, 2025.

Here are the amendments we are asking Councilmembers to submit:

  • Remove the “basic tree protection area” loophole in SMC 25.11.070 that lets developers remove large (Tier 2) trees. Use the tree protection area criteria in SMC 25.11.060 to give SDCI final authority on tree removals, not developers.
  • Give SDCI authority to decide on removal of Tier 3 and Tier 4 trees, not the developers as is currently done. Urban forests need to have trees of all ages to be sustainable and healthy.
  • Require lots have designated tree retention and planting areas.
  • Require a tree inventory and landscape plan be done at the beginning of the development process before approval of any building site plan is submitted.
  • The point system for planting trees on a lot allows all trees to be removed and replaced with saplings. Require that plans maximize the retention of existing healthy trees.
  • Require all trees removed over 6” DSH pay an in lieu mitigation fee for environmental services lost to the city, as well as replanting the removed trees either onsite or pay for off site planting to sustain our urban forest benefits to the city and its inhabitants.
  • Set up a Tree Replacement and Preservation Fund independent from SDCI’s budget to collect in lieu mitigation fees and for public donations and grants.
  • Require all new development projects, not just principal housing units, to have street trees. This includes ADU’s and building additions over 250 square feet.
  • Allow stacked flats to be built on all lots in the neighborhood residential zone, not just those over 6,000 square feet. Stacked flats would allow more open space to retain and plant trees.
  • Give incentives to build housing units with common shared walls to increase open space on lots for retaining and planting trees for environmental equity, climate resilience, reducing air pollution and storm water runoff.
  • Consolidate urban forest oversight and maintenance in a Dept. of Climate and Environment with an Urban Forestry Division independent from SDCI and other city Departments.
  • Amend canopy cover assessment in next Tree Canopy Study to include not just canopy area but also canopy volume.

Neither the proposed Comprehensive Plan nor CB 120993 give adequate oversight or protection for maintaining a thriving healthy urban forest over the long term. The current Tree Protection Ordinance was adopted prior to the current proposed Comprehensive Plan and new zoning proposed in CB120993. SMC 25.11 – the Tree Protection Ordinance needs to be reviewed and amended to address the increased loss of trees and urban forest ecosystem services under the current changes proposed.

Send comments to Council@Seattle.gov and Bruce.Harrell@Seattle.gov