Urban Forestry Task Force recommendations

Highlights of Madison Urban Forestry Task Force recommendations:

• Require tree management plans for private development proposals, including an inventory of trees for both privately owned trees and city-owned trees that could be affected

• Include the impact on trees as part of the approval process for development in the public right of way

• Increase the cost for removing trees for moving houses and private development projects

• Establish zoning policies on building setbacks that encourage planting trees along the street

• Consider changes to the zoning code to bring legal, non-conforming site plans, such as for parking lots at shopping centers, up to current landscape standards

• Create incentives for private development that exceed landscape requirements

• Explore a tree-planting requirement for new single-family lots

• Increase minimum widths on terraces to accommodate more trees

• Revisit rules on burying utility lines to account for the impact of the lines on city trees in terraces, and appropriate money to bury more lines

• Create a forestry outreach and education specialist position

• Create a grant program for the planting of trees on private property

• Dedicate more money to tree pruning and maintenance for new and existing trees

• Aim to plant 2,000 more trees above replacement rates in parks annually for five years