http://66.225.205.104/SG20110628.mp3
Last month, someone from the City of Charlotte showed up at the Albemarle Road Presbyterian Church and delivered startling news. The church would have to replace eight trees or pay a fine of $4,700. That's $100 for each branch the city says the church improperly pruned. Pastor Ron Tippens couldn't believe it. "I mean we were kind of hit broadside with it," he says. "I certainly had no idea that there was an ordinance about the way you trim a tree and the property and grounds committee didn't know that either." The trees in question were crape myrtles. The church cut back all the branches and all the leaves. All that was left was the trunk and a few nubs. The city told the church that the trees had been cut too much and were now going to die. But Tippens says the church has been maintaining the trees the same way for years. " I've been here 23 years," he says. "I've seen them trimmed back like this four or so times and they always come back." But Tom Johnson, a senior urban forestry specialist with the City of Charlotte, disagrees. "When trees are pruned such as that, they are typically irreparably damaged," Johnson says. An employee in Johnson's department wrote the church up. The story was picked by numerous websites here and overseas. The viral nature of the controversy seems to have frustrated Johnson. He's very careful with his words. The city has received a lot of criticism. But Charlotte's tree laws have been on the books since 1978. That's when City Arborist Don McSween says Charlotte was beginning to really value its trees. "We don't have a big river flowing through the middle of the city like San Antonio," McSween says. "We don't have mountains on the horizon like Denver does. But we do have a really nice tree canopy." The city has refined and expanded its tree ordinance over the years. Today, it applies to more than 100,000 city-owned trees along streets and in parks. It also gives the city the right to tell home and business owners how they maintain some trees on their property - primarily those close to streets and parking lots. Without the ordinance, McSween says Charlotte wouldn't look like it does today. "I think it would be much different," he says. "You can go to other cities and see where they don't have ordinances and see what a difference it makes. We'd have a sea of asphalt and buildings throughout the city." Earlier this year, some other trees sitting along a busy road were cut down by the city so it could install a new sidewalk. David Newton owns a home in the Sedgfield neighborhood along Park Road. He helped lead an effort to save the trees. He lost. "In front of our house, we didn't lose a major tree," Newton says. "We had a large crepe myrtle that was taken out. But if you look at some of the other houses, they had 80-plus year-old trees oak trees or maple trees taken out." This past March, Newton looked on as the trees were cut down. He says it was like watching a murder. He thinks the city's recent spat with the church smells like a double standard when it comes to canopy. "It seems to be a conflict there," he says. "In one case it looks like they're trying to protect it, and the other case they just didn't care." Charlotte's tree ordinance isn't unusual, according to the Arbor Day Foundation. The group's Randy Gordon looked at Charlotte's tree rules at our request. "I didn't see anything that struck me as heavy-handed," Gordon says. "In fact, we're starting to see more and more large communities really work on upgrading their municipal codes to include lots of the things we see in the Charlotte code." Charlotte employs about 20 workers to implement its tree rules. Johnson, the urban forestry official, says about 95 percent of his department's work deals with making sure developers follow rules. The ordinance requires that new single-family developments have at least 5 percent of their land covered in trees. Johnson says his department issues only about a half-dozen violations a year, and all those issued in the past year were remedied before any fines had to be paid. As for Albemarle Road Presbyterian Church, Johnson says the fine is on hold. He's agreed to wait and see what the trees look like in October before making a final decision on what the church will have to do. Possibilities include making the church replant a new tree next to each damaged tree. Tippens, the pastor, says that is a compromise the church can live with. But he says the church will not pay a $4,700 fine.