Citywide Tree Project ready for public airing

Over two years in the making, Portland’s Citywide Tree Project (CTP)  is still moving towards completion, according to the city’s project team that reported the most recent status at yesterday’s Urban Forestry Commission meeting at City Hall.

Managed by the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability, the CTP is in stage three of four, which on their Web site is titled ‘Draft Solutions‘ and is dated Aug. 2008 to Jan. 2009.

Said City Forester David McAllister on the lagging progress of the CTP: “I felt like I was in the Costco line that went to hell.”

The good news is that the draft proposal is ready for public review and a tentative timeline was presented that has a finalized document going before the City Council in late June.

“We don’t get this chance very often,” said project planner Roberta Jortner. “How do we be visionary and practical?”

The document, which relates to updating the city’s decade-old Tree Code and has an aim of elevating urban forestry, is summarized in page one and page two of the draft proposal.

Most of the discussion Thursday centered on dollar signs and what McAllister deemed a “resource allocation issue.”

“One of the big issues, you know, is the budget,” said Jortner.

“The bureau directors are focusing on (the budget) issue,” said McAllister. “Who the implementers are is still up in the air.”

Also up in the air is the amount of support and push back that is expected in upcoming hearings.

“The development community will be sensitive to elements of the proposal that will effect their costs,” said Jortner. “There’s going to be resistance.”

–Stay tuned onto the blog for updates on the Citywide Tree Project (CTP).

–Toshio Suzuki