Ben Schachtman: Alright Kelly, so, you recently hosted an episode of The Newsroom, where you brought some concerns we hear about development to JC Lyle, who chaired the city’s planning commission. I thought she did a good job — but there was one answer that kind of caught me off guard, and from some of emails we got, I wasn’t alone!
Kelly Kenoyer: That’s right — so, we were talking about concerns about clear cutting for development, and Lyle noted that you can’t do that.
BS: Right, and some folks pointed to some major projects along Military Cutoff Road, like the Galleria project, where a developer famously cut down a host of live oaks, or the Avenue — and especially Center Point, right near Eastwood — where it looks like they’ve completed cut down like literally a million square feet of forest. Not an exaggeration, it’s a 24-acre project that was largely covered in pines and other trees.
KK: You’re so right! And of course, people feel really emotional when those trees come down, and it must feel like gaslighting to hear local officials say clearcutting isn’t happening. But, I have a fairly reasonable explanation for that.
BS: Alright, let’s hear it.
KK: Well, it comes down to code changes, and the lengthy timelines we have with development. Those new developments people are seeing clear trees, they were approved under the old code. Center Point, for example, was approved for rezoning way back in 2018, and didn’t break ground until 2022.
BS: So it was approved under the old code.
KK: Exactly. The new code wasn’t approved until 2021, so the stricter tree protections don’t apply to those older developments. New developments that get approved since then are required to follow stricter tree protection guidelines.
BS: Well let’s dig into what that looks like for Center Point, since that’s one of the biggest concerns we heard about. Even under the old code, trees were supposed to be protected, and almost every single one was cut down.
KK: That is true. I asked City Planner Brian Chambers about that.
Brian Chambers: “If the trees on site are not protected, if they're under the threshold to be a regulated tree, then they're allowed to take those out. And if they are protected, if they're there, if the removal requires them to be taken out for an essential site improvement, they're allowed to be taken out and be taken out. It's only the significant trees that have to be saved, protected or mitigated. Like I mentioned earlier this week, Center Point, they did remove 13 significant trees, but they're also going to plant back 159 trees on site.”
BS: I’m not an official arborist, Kelly, but I think there were more than 13 trees on that plot of land.
KK: Yeah, they only really count the “significant trees,” which means trees above a certain caliper size. And that’s determined by the species. Both the old code and the new code count “regulated trees” and “significant trees” to determine required re-plantings, but the new code also added a category called “specimen trees.” These trees require an entire hearing from the board of adjustment before they can be removed. So that means most new developments actually plan their buildings around big, beautiful trees rather than cutting them down.
BS: You still lose that forested look, though. And I don’t think that 159 trees will fully replace what was taken out of Center Point’s land.
KK: Certainly not. There were about 500 trees removed from that site, according to my count from the tree inventory. But we have, on top of the 159 required for mitigation, 170 trees required for landscaping, making 329 trees to replace the 500 or so that are cut down. And it doesn’t count the trees they actually left on the site - numbering around 44, if I’m counting them up in the development’s tree plan correctly.
BS: I think it will still be pretty rough for a lot of folks to see that — but I get as the replacement trees age, the greenspace will fill out. That’s gonna take time, though. And I get why some of our listeners remain upset. But at least there are some upgraded protections going forward. Thanks for the update, Kelly.
KK: No problem, Ben! And if anyone wants more information about Wilmington’s tree protections, you can find details about it from WHQR’s Development 101 series, at WHQR.org. And you can hear our latest newsroom episode there as well.
If you have a question you’d like to ask a journalist from WHQR news team, email it to staffnews@whqr.org.