New Hanover officials reject changes to tree rules

Published: Monday, July 21, 2014 at 8:05 p.m. Last Modified: Monday, July 21, 2014 at 8:05 p.m.

A proposal to prune New Hanover County's tree-protection rules was rejected by the county commissioners Monday night.

The county's current rules penalize illegal timbering by putting a hold of up to five years if the action is deemed willful on development permits for any post-clearing construction.

That language, which was adopted in 2008, had been challenged by L.P. Britton Jr., who was cited for illegally clearing five acres on Chesterfield Drive in the northern part of the county without a permit.

Attorney Matt Nichols said his client was not aware of the county's tree ordinance when he moved forward with the tree clearing in January.

To seek relief, Britton submitted a proposed change that would reduce any penalty to six months if the illegal tree clearing was done by a professional tree-removal company which this work was. The changes also would have made any penalty an administrative decision, in other words at the discretion of staff.

The county Planning Board last month rejected the idea of reducing the penalty to six months, but kept the proposal to make an enforcement action a staff decision.

But county planning and zoning supervisor Ken Vafier on Monday said including that language could put officials in an awkward position in trying to weigh the offense and determine the appropriate penalty.

So the staff proposed removing that language. The changes also would have included a provision allowing for the permit-delay penalty to be only six months in return for a payment $10,000 an acre to the county's tree-improvement fund. The enforcement provision also would stay with the land, meaning it would transfer if the property goes under new ownership.

But a divided board couldn't agree on making any changes to the ordinance.

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New Hanover officials reject changes to tree rules