The Town of Newmarket is moving to close a loophole in its current tree policy that permits a developer or individual to clear-cut land prior to submitting an application for development.
It is a crack in the protection of the town’s dwindling tree canopy that has residents calling for a new tree protection bylaw for private property.
Forty-year Park Avenue resident Chris Howie turned up to plead his case before council June 17 for the second time in two years and ask that it move quickly to toughen penalties for the removal of Newmarket’s mature trees and close the loophole.
“Our neighbourhood is under attack by builders that are buying properties, clear-cutting the trees to make it easier to build and writing cheques for small amounts,” Howie said, of downtown’s Park Avenue and Beechwood Crescent area that he said has lost a significant amount of heritage trees to new development.
“The neighbourhood is passionate, we all live ... in that part of town because of the trees, but we hear the chainsaws every day,” said Howie, who is the 2019 Town of Newmarket’s Herb Cain Memorial Award recipient for his contribution to local sports.
Howie spearheads and runs the Newmarket Lions Park outdoor community hockey rink.
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“We’ve seen a constant decline in our neighbourhood and yet the loophole today still stands,” he said. “You can buy a lot and before putting in a demolition permit or any application, you can clear-cut it, then put your application in for building and only then are you asked for your tree-protection plan.”
“That loophole should have been cleared a couple of years ago,” Howie continued. “Builders are well aware of it. They’re buying lots, clear-cutting, and only then are they asked for their plan to preserve the trees, which is wrong,” Howie said.
The resident estimates about 50 heritage trees that cannot be replaced have been taken down in his downtown neighbourhood.
Howie said that just recently, eight trees were clear-cut on a Beechwood lot, which included four large maples and two of the oldest tamaracks left in Newmarket.
The builder paid just 22,500 to take down the trees, Howie said, of the Town’s cash-for-trees policy.
“You cannot replace those trees for $22,500. If one of those trees was taken down in a town that had a tree protection bylaw, it’s a $50,000 fine,” he said. “Whatever we’re accepting in cash for trees has to be significantly increased as a deterrent. There’s no deterrent in place today. Builders are happy to write a cheque for $22,500 to add hundreds of thousand of dollars to their property value.”
Park Avenue resident Catherine Wellesley agreed.
She, too, appeared before council to share her support for the Town’s proposed tree bylaw and speak about the value of the area’s old-growth trees.
“While I absolutely support the planting of young trees, I would like to reinforce the critical importance of protecting the old-growth trees in our neighbourhoods,” Wellesley said. “Aside from their sheer beauty, older trees play a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”
“Older trees are storing lots of carbon, and they are also sequestering more carbon and doing it faster than smaller trees,” she said. “In this time of accelerated climate change and dangerous levels of global warming, the importance of mature trees cannot be overstated.”
Councillor Bob Kwapis, in whose ward the residents live, also agreed it was time to act.
“Yes, you’re correct, the heritage area, the downtown area, has some 100-year-old trees that have been under attack by developers on numerous occasions,” Kwapis noted.
As one of the remaining municipalities in the GTA without a tree protection bylaw on private property, Newmarket council is now eyeing the creation of one that would prohibit the removal of certain kinds of trees and sizes, for example, without the approval of the Town.
In a comprehensive and in-depth staff report to council, planner Ted Horton said the establishment of a private tree protection bylaw would prohibit the removal of certain kinds of trees, for example, or the number of trees within a certain area, without the approval of the municipality.
“It would be prohibited by this (proposed) bylaw to remove trees that were either not allowed by the bylaw, or trees that were to be removed as part of a development application that the town had approved,” Horton said.
“Other municipalities allow for the removal of some trees, provided there is an ecological importance, if they are sick or dying, or that a development that is approved is occurring,” he said.
Horton laid out a three-tier approach for council to consider on existing low-density residential properties that would, generally, allow for the removal of trees provided there is compensation, but certain sizes can be prevented from removal.
The tiers include areas that are not subject to a development application, are subject to a development application, and subject to natural heritage designation.
“This proposed approach would vary in its application from the current tree policy,” Horton said. “The tree policy inherently has this loophole of trees being able to be removed before the application because the policy only applies during a planning act application.”
The report also shared the results of the public consultation it has so far conducted on the issue, along with potential approaches that strike a balance between protecting trees in Newmarket and respecting the rights of homeowners to control their own property.
As it stands now, there are no tools that prevent the removal of most privately owned trees, including on lands that a builder-owner may develop at a later time.
Mayor John Taylor said he believes the Town needs to have a “fairly robust fee and fine structure to ensure that the protection of trees is paid for by those who seek to alter that landscape, and also to deter that”.
Councillor Christina Bisanz said the proposed bylaw is long overdue.
“I can personally speak to the emotion of what it’s like to have chainsaws hit a neighbourhood,” she said, referring to the first phase of the Glenway development. “...where gorgeous, beautiful 30-foot trees and more were struck down. We certainly appreciated there were some trees that were saved or transplanted in that situation.”
Bisanz asked staff to explore if it was possible to capture in a bylaw a way to provide incentives to developers to leave trees in place, in the first place.
“That would be something that would be greatly supported and important,” Bisanz said. “That it would cost them more to take that tree down and replace it somewhere else than it would to leave the tree in the first place, particularly with regard to buffers between existing residential homes and new development.”
The Town will continue its public consultation this summer and present several options to residents for feedback and input on what a new tree protection bylaw should encompass.
To read the full staff report, Protection of Trees on Private Property, visit here.
