Abstract
The City of Austin has some of the most progressive urban forest and environmental land development regulations in the country. The City directly protects trees and forested natural areas through tree preservation ordinances and indirectly through development restrictions on impervious cover, endangered species habitat, and limiting development in environmentally sensitive areas. This suite of regulations has contributed to an overall canopy coverage of 37% with much of that canopy preserved in perpetuity despite Austin being one of the fastest growing cities in the country.
Highlights
The City of Austin has some of the most progressive urban forest and environmental land development regulations in the country
The City directly protects trees and forested natural areas through tree preservation ordinances and indirectly through development restrictions on impervious cover, endangered species habitat, and limiting development in environmentally sensitive areas. This suite of regulations has contributed to an overall canopy coverage of 37% with much of that canopy preserved in perpetuity despite Austin being one of the fastest growing cities in the country
Austin has a long history of urban forest and environmental protection regulations
Summary
The City of Austin has some of the most progressive urban forest and environmental land development regulations in the country. The city’s urban forest and environmental protection regulations first started from three pivotal events in the 1980s and early 1990s: the poisoning of an iconic live oak; rapid regional population growth; and threats to water quality at what is known as the soul of the city, Barton Springs These events led to the adoption of stringent tree protection and environmental regulations, including, most recently, the adoption of a new tree ordinance in 2010 that requires a public hearing to request removal of large trees. One of the outcomes of this approach is an overall reduction in the number of requests to remove Heritage Trees as this adds uncertainty to the development project and necessitates exposing the development to public scrutiny This procedural aspect of the ordinance is partially responsible for an improvement in the number of heritage trees when comparing preservation rates of large trees before and after the ordinance. Another outcome of this ordinance is that more natural area is preserved, when numerous heritage trees are clustered together as these trees have an umbrella effect akin to umbrella species and habitat protection
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