From WFAE:
Charlotte has seen major growth in its population, and with that comes more development and bigger houses on once-wooded lots. This year will mark the city’s first tree canopy analysis since 2019.
Chief Urban Forester Tim Porter said he wants to make some changes, including more frequent analyses of the canopy.
“What we're looking to do is to better track,” said Porter. “So every time we do an analysis, we start at a high-level, citywide assessment and then our consultant or internally, our IT folks will do a secondary analysis that digs into the neighborhood level neighborhood scale. But we want to do that more than every three to five years.”
Charlotte has had a longstanding goal of building up Charlotte’s tree canopy coverage to 50% by 2050. The city’s most recent analysis of its tree canopy found that Charlotte is losing an average of three football fields a day worth of trees.
Why this matters to the Rea Road Coalition:
Much of the Gillespie Property is old growth forest. Not old growth like Washington State or Maine but old growth non conifer forest like North Carolina and you can't find that anywhere else in Charlotte on this of a large parcel.
However, City Council member Ed Driggs said that the 2050 goal probably isn’t practical.
“I challenge the '50 by 50' because I really don't like it. I think we need to be a little more honest and forthright.
“I mean, it's a great aspiration. It would be wonderful. It's just, we're below that now and I don't see the tree canopy increasing in percentage terms. So, we just need to be very intentional."
City of Charlotte Planning Director Alyson Craig said it’s clear what some of the biggest threats to the tree canopy are.
“We learned that most of the tree canopy loss had occurred in our residential areas not associated with development projects,” Craig said. “And so that was something that led us to talking about heritage trees even on individual lots. And so that those, the policy and the information of the data can really help drive what our decision making will look like.”
The city will update its Urban Forestry Master Plan in the coming months.
In short a loss of 53 acres of urban forest would be a devastating blow to Charlotte and the 50 by 50 plan. - Rea Road Neighborhood Coalition.
4 comments:
Ed Driggs is his own words "I challenge the '50 by 50' because I really don't like it." This clown needs to be removed from office. He's either stupid, or just dumb. And if the people of Piper Glen were smart they would send him packing.
Ed is a fool. He doesn't understand that if he folds on this he's done. If he can't talk the council members into voting no he's done. This is not a democrat vs republican issue. This is just common sense versus developer greed. Anyone who votes for this should get the hook.
The entire rezoning process is corrupt! PERIOD!
The issue is that there is an incumbent who runs unopposed in virtually every election. District 7 needs a strong, independent candidate who is not beholden to developers.
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