By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton council members on Monday backed a measure to protect the local tree population, with one official saying residents who don’t want trees on their property should “move.”
The council is due to vote Sept.12 to strengthen the protections it already puts on trees in a measure that will make it more expensive when residents seek permission from the town to cut them down.
Property owners will have to plant more trees than they cut down, depending on the size of the tree they are removing, either on their property or some other public location. Those and other provisions are contained in an ordinance that is expected to be adopted next month.
Princeton already is one of the New Jersey towns that already have an ordinance to protect trees that fall under municipal regulation depending on their size or other characteristics. Residents must apply for a permit, now $25 but due to go up to $40, before getting permission from the town arborist to cut down trees on their property. The measure coming up for a vote next month is seen as strengthening those protections.
At the council meeting, officials discussed the measure and dismissed concerns some might have in wanting to cut down trees on their property because they are afraid of them falling.
“I think that if you’re afraid of the trees in your yard, I would say move, don’t cut down the trees,” Councilwoman Jenny Crumiller said.
Princeton, she continued, is a community with “old, mature trees that are valued by everyone.”
Earlier in the meeting, a member of the municipal board that worked on the ordinance spoke of the need for protecting a “natural resource” that benefits the community.
“The removal of trees can have significant impacts not only on the properties where they are located but also on neighboring properties, the streetscape, the tree canopy generally and the entire municipality,” said Victoria Airgood of the municipal Shade Tree Commission.
Mayor Liz Lempert threw her support behind a measure that makes property owners “think twice,” in her words, about cutting down a healthy tree on their land.
“I think that we want to make it so that there’s some consideration of the damage it causes when you take down a healthy tree,” she told reporters at her press conference. “That’s one of the jobs of the municipal government is to put controls on private property to the extent that it has an impact on everybody else in the community.”
Council President Lance Liverman, also at the press conference, said the proposed ordinance is a response to community concerns.
“There’s many people in the community that are kind of upset when a lot of these trees have been taken down and they don’t know anything about the replacement and so forth,” he said.
Mayor Lempert said there is a different process for when someone needs to cut down a sick or damaged tree.
“Certainly, I think protecting Princeton’s tree canopy is well within the rights of the Princeton municipal government. And not only I think within the rights, but I think our obligation to do that.”
