{"id":4159,"date":"2013-10-09T14:25:11","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T18:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=4159"},"modified":"2013-10-16T16:12:23","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T20:12:23","slug":"while-others-argue-it-is-illogical-and-lot-size-does-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/while-others-argue-it-is-illogical-and-lot-size-does-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2026while others argue it is \u201cillogical\u201d and lot size does matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Should a property owner with a quarter-acre property and a handful of trees have the same restrictions as someone with two or more acres and a large swath of woodland when it comes to tree cutting?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the question asked by some Councillors last week in opposing a draft bylaw imposing tougher restrictions on property owners \u2013 from homeowners to golf courses \u2013 which was branded \u201cirrational.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Council adopts the new tree protection bylaw, property owners across the board would have the number of trees on their properties they would be allowed to remove without a permit reduced from four to two. This, argued Mayor Geoffrey Dawe and Councillors such as Michael Thompson, should be given further consideration. <\/p>\n

Older areas in town, for instance, are less dense and are likely to have greater numbers of trees on their lots, argued Councillor Michael Thompson. This, he said, is illogical in applying a bylaw. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to take into consideration the area and apply some sort of calculation so that the rules are applied fairly across the board,\u201d he said. \u201cTo look at it from the residential versus the commercial sector, the rules need to be applied similarly and to just limit the number is the wrong principle. You need to find the right calculation and move forward.\u201d <\/p>\n

This was a view supported by Mayor Dawe. Throwing out a standard lot size in Aurora of 5,500 feet, Mayor Dawe said his lot is four times that size, yet each lot would be subject to the same standard of two trees without a permit. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am going to suggest that Mr. Stronach probably has at least 200 acres in his estate and he can take down two trees,\u201d he said. \u201cHow does this make any sense? It makes no sense at all. People will plant their own trees. I planted all of my own and now I have to come to Council because I didn\u2019t do a very good job in planting them, they are too close together and they need to come down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asking how staff arrived at that number, Al Downey, Director of Parks and Recreation, said that was a fairly standard number shared by other municipalities. It also achieved their objective of making a more \u201crestrictive\u201d bylaw. Developing a formula to calculate how many trees could be removed from a property based on lot size would be difficult not only to come up with, but also to impose, he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to rationalize the number of trees with the size of the property is not something we felt was going to be appropriate and we felt the number of trees was important rather than relating that to a particular size.\u201d
\nMayor Dawe however was undeterred.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould Council support a flat rate for property taxes across Town\u201d, he asked \u201ctongue in cheek.\u201d \u201cI see no rationalization for this and I can\u2019t support it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Thompson said he agreed and added that this situation, as well as restricting golf courses to 10 trees per year without a permit was methodology that was neither \u201csound nor fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, this restriction on golf courses took up a significant chunk of last week\u2019s debate. From Councillor Evelyn Buck\u2019s perspective, golf courses are businesses and trees are a key part of that business. As an \u201cessential part of that operation\u201d, that should be given further consideration, she said. Councillors were put at the table by residents to exercise their judgement, she added, and this bylaw would restrict voters from exercising their own. <\/p>\n

\u201cWho is it that owns a property that doesn\u2019t understand the value of a mature tree?\u201d she asked. \u201cReal estate is advertised and one of the biggest assets is a mature garden and trees. Who is it that wants to go out with an axe and chop it down for the fun of it? Nobody with any sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I was sent here to create restrictions for my neighbours and the people that live in this Town, to take away their right to exercise their own judgement on their property. I don\u2019t think that is why I am here. I am here to protect their rights to exercise their own judgement and particularly in the management of their own property. If this Town makes it impossible for golf course operators to conduct their business in the best way they know how, Beacon Hall might very well become another development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also opposing the bylaw on this front was Councillor John Abel. Going back to earlier arguments made in the evening by Parks Manager Jim Tree that golf course superintendents opposed any restrictions on their property, he said \u201crestrictions\u201d alone were a reason not to go forward. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is restricting our businesses, it is restricting our homeowners and I know it is a feel-good thing to say, \u2018Let\u2019s save the trees!\u2019 but I want to be practical on this,\u201d he said. \u201cI want a bit more common sense on this whole situation. It is almost like a Mommie Dearest situation where I am doing this for your own good. \u2018I am putting all these restrictions on you, but it is for your own good.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cAll you have to do is look around a golf course and see these are responsible people with trees. The reason why we\u2019re doing this is for one golf course. There is no reason to set upon this kind of bylaw. I don\u2019t think our residents understand the implications of us approving this until they go and cut a tree down.\u201d <\/p>\n

Added Mayor Dawe: \u201cWe were put here to form rational decisions and I don\u2019t think this meets that particular test. I object to the concept that we need a more restrictive bylaw and I don\u2019t see how this is going to help us one little bit. <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should a property owner with a quarter-acre property and a handful of trees have the same restrictions as someone with two or more acres and a large swath of woodland when it comes to tree cutting?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-155","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-22 23:55:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-09-09.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}