Wilmington will not waive an estimated $122,000 in tree mitigation fees for six 100-year-old live oaks slated to come down at the Hillcrest public housing redevelopment, City Manager Becky Hawke has said, according to Port City Daily. The Wilmington Housing Authority plans to double the size of the 1940s complex to 550 units. The dispute has landed in the middle of a city review of the tree ordinance, and no vote on any change had been taken as of the Nov. 2 report.
The Fee Hawke Says Stays
The city manager has the power to waive mitigation fees for affordable housing or government-assisted projects, Port City Daily reported. Hawke has said she will not do so here. The paper put the fees at about $122,000, an estimate rather than a bill. The article did not include a direct quote from Hawke.
The fee exists because of how Wilmington’s tree rules work. Developers who remove protected trees must replace them at 200 percent or pay a fine that can reach the thousands of dollars. Fees paid in place of replanting need the city manager’s approval and go into the city’s tree improvement fund, which can be spent only on public land and rights-of-way, according to an earlier Port City Daily report on the variance hearing.
Six Oaks, 30 to 40 Inches Across
In Wilmington, a live oak with a trunk diameter of at least 24 inches counts as a specimen tree, and taking one down requires Board of Adjustment approval. The six oaks at Hillcrest measure 30 to 40 inches in diameter, according to that February report. On Feb. 19 the board unanimously granted a variance to remove them and to affect the root zones of four more trees. The board’s chair recused himself because he also chairs the housing authority, so an alternate sat in.
The city’s Board of Adjustment page describes a five-member body that hears variance requests and meets on the third Thursday of each month at 1 p.m. in Council Chambers…