County trims tree chopping fees

The new rates are intended to pare developers' costs in heavily wooded areas.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
Published June 10, 2005

NEW PORT RICHEY - County officials have whittled the fees for chopping trees.

Under Pasco's tree ordinance, developers usually pay $100 per inch of trees they remove without replacement.

But the fees add up quickly on heavily wooded properties where developers need to clear out scores of trees and have little open space to plant new ones.

Consider the Timberwood Acres development in Hudson, where the fees for removing trees for 37 homes would have totaled $1.45-million. Or a parcel in Key Vista near New Port Richey, where the tree tab would have topped $3-million for 109 homes.

In both cases, the county's Development Review Committee waived the fees, as the developers were keeping as many trees as they could, said Cindy Jolly, the county's development director.

With an eye on those extreme cases, however, the County Commission this week approved a new fee schedule for certain cases.

Instead of paying $100 per inch of removed trees, developers would pay $50 per inch, with a limit of $500 per residential lot or $500 for each 2,000 square feet of a commercial building. But they would only pay the lower fee if the Development Review Committee approved a variance, a process that includes a public hearing.

The potential for racking up fees in the millions of dollars "seemed like reaching a bit too far," said County Administrator John Gallagher, who heads the committee.

The option will make a big difference for the developers of a 52,533-square-foot Trinity medical complex: Originally facing $35,100 in tree fees, they will now pay only $13,133, Jolly said.

The fees go into a tree mitigation fund, which the county uses to pay to plant trees on public land.

[Last modified June 10, 2005, 01:11:19]