City of Sacramento
Racial Equity Committee Report
915 I Street Sacramento, CA 95814
www.cityofsacramento.org
File ID: 2025-00911 4/29/2025 Item 3.
Sacramento Urban Forest Plan Follow Up
File ID: 2025-00911
Location: Citywide
Recommendation: Review, comment, and provide direction.
Contact: Rachel Patten, Sustainability Program Manager, (916) 808-5016, [email protected]; Kevin Hocker, City Urban Forester, (916) 808-4996, [email protected]; Lucinda Willcox, Assistant Director, (916) 808-5052, [email protected]; Department of Public Works Presenter: Lucinda Willcox, Assistant Director, (916) 808-5052, [email protected]; Rachel Patten, Sustainability Program Manager, (916) 808-5016 Attachments:
1-Description/Analysis
2-Attachment A - Funding for Tree Maintenance and Canopy Expansion 3-Priority Intervention Areas Map
4-PowerPoint Presentation
Description/Analysis
Issue Detail: On August 13, 2024, as part of the community outreach and engagement for the Sacramento Urban Forest Plan (SUFP), the Racial Equity Committee (REC) received a presentation on the Draft SUFP, focusing on policies and programs to address inequities in existing tree canopy within the city.
In the Draft SUFP, the Social Equity section of the Status of Sacramento’s Urban Forest chapter provides context to the intersection of racial equity and urban tree canopy within the City. The full Draft SUFP is available on the City’s website at the following link:
https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/content/dam/portal/pw/climate-action/urban-forestry/Sacramento% 20Draft%20Urban%20Forest%20Plan.pdf
Multiple scientific studies have been conducted in Sacramento demonstrating correlations between
File ID: 2025-00911 4/29/2025 Item 3.
tree cover, urban heat, race, income, and public health. The Draft SUFP identifies “urban forest priority intervention areas” based on census tract level data for existing tree canopy, state or federal designation as a disadvantaged community, and ground level exposure to extreme heat. The Draft SUFP recommends that canopy expansion efforts should be focused first on those priority residential neighborhoods with the lowest canopy, highest vulnerability to extreme heat, most socio- economically vulnerable populations, and the most significant potential for canopy increase.
The REC requested a report back on how City funding for urban forestry is currently applied and potential opportunities to better align City funding to support increasing tree canopy in under-invested communities.
This discussion is included as Attachment A.
Policy Considerations: The Draft SUFP is consistent with the 2040 General Plan and Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. The primary 2040 General Plan policies that are supported by the Draft SUFP include the following:
ERC-3. A well-maintained, resilient, healthy, expansive, and equitable urban forest for an environmentally sustainable future.
ERC-3.1. Urban Forest Plan. The City shall maintain and implement an Urban Forest Plan.
ERC-3.2. Tree Canopy Expansion. The City should strive to achieve a 25 percent urban tree canopy cover by 2030 and 35 percent by 2045. Prioritize tree planting and tree maintenance in areas with the lowest average canopy cover and explore strategies to reduce barriers to tree planting in disadvantaged communities and improve tree health.
ERC-3.3. Tree Protection. The City shall encourage public agencies and require private development projects to consider alternatives to removals of healthy trees whenever feasible and to evaluate the longer-term consequences of inability to meet tree canopy objectives when conducting project analyses and environmental documents. Ensure adequate protection during construction to protect existing tree roots and structures.
Economic Impacts: None.
Environmental Considerations: The informational update in this report is not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), because it is an administrative activity that does not involve any commitment to a specific project which may result in a potentially significant physical impact on the environment, as contemplated by Title 14, California Code of Regulations, Sections 15378(b)(2) and is, therefore, not subject to CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15060(c) (3). A Master EIR was prepared for the 2040 General Plan. The Sacramento Urban Forest Plan is
File ID: 2025-00911 4/29/2025 Item 3.
one of the subsequent projects of the 2040 General Plan Master EIR and will be reviewed in accordance with CEQA Guidelines section 15177 prior to adoption.
Sustainability: Policies pertaining to sustainability have been incorporated into and are one of the core missions of the Draft SUFP.
Commission/Committee Action: This item is a report back to the REC from a presentation on the Draft SUFP on August 13, 2024. Presentations and requests for input on the Draft SUFP also took place with the Sacramento Youth Commission, Active Transportation Commission, Disabilities Advisory Commission, Parks and Community Enrichment Commission, Preservation Commission, Planning and Design Commission, and the Measure U Community Advisory Committee.
Rationale for Recommendation: Staff are providing information as requested by the REC.
Financial Considerations: This discussion focuses on the City’s efforts to ensure appropriate resources to its obligation to maintain its existing trees for tree health and to protect health and safety and expand the City’s urban forest.
The goal of the Draft SUFP is to achieve 35 percent tree canopy by 2045, which would essentially double the number of trees in the city. To implement the Urban Forest Plan, including equity policies and programs to increase tree canopy levels in low-canopy disadvantaged communities, will require a comparable budget increase, doubling the City budget for urban forestry. This increased funding is needed to: 1) increase the frequency of maintenance levels generally from current practice, 2) increase tree planting in parks and streets, 3) increase maintenance capacity to care for new trees added to the inventory from increased planting levels, and 4) implement new programs to support tree planting and care on private property. The City would likely need an additional $12 to $13 million annually to fully implement the City’s responsibilities under Urban Forest Plan, which will require the identification of new revenue streams.
Local Business Enterprise (LBE): Not applicable.
1 Attachment A
Funding for Tree Maintenance and Canopy Expansion
The City plants and maintains trees in the public right-of-way and on City property. The majority of City-managed trees are street trees planted in planter strips along City roadways and trees in City parks. In addition, there are trees in parking lots at City facilities, on property managed by the Department of Utilities (e.g., water treatment plants, drainage facilities) and in other City-owned areas (e.g., the Sacramento Marina).
Over 90 percent of trees in the City are located on private property and on property managed by other public agencies (e.g., State of California, colleges and universities, school districts, Sacramento County). While the City has a critical role in planting and maintaining trees in City right-o- way, preservation and expansion of tree canopy is a community wide responsibility.
For publicly-managed trees, street trees are typically planted when roadways are constructed or reconstructed. Trees are planted in parks in various phases as parks evolve. On private property, trees are planted either as a condition of development or at the property owner’s discretion.
The tree canopy analysis indicated that while the City has an overall canopy of 19 percent, there are significant disparities among neighborhoods related to the level of canopy coverage.
Characteristics of neighborhoods with highest canopy levels:
Older neighborhoods with mature trees
Neighborhoods with development characteristics that accommodated large shade trees. These are most commonly seen in neighborhoods built in the 1940s or earlier, before widespread adoption of air conditioning. Characteristics include:
o Planter strips between the street and sidewalk
o Front and back yards large enough to accommodate shade trees o Larger and older parks
Higher levels of homeownership
Characteristics of neighborhoods with lowest canopy levels:
Newer neighborhoods with younger trees
Developments with smaller lots and/or small front and back yards that are not large enough to accommodate large shade trees
Neighborhoods where development patterns and requirements did not support future tree canopy. This is a common characteristic of neighborhoods developed after World War II and before the 1980s
2 o Streets were typically constructed without planter strips between the street and sidewalk, thereby not creating space for public trees o Parking lot shading was not a requirement until the 1980s, and that period saw the expansion of commercial strip malls with large parking areas Areas with higher levels of rental units. Landlords may not have incentive to invest in trees and tree maintenance care.
Areas with lower levels of park acreage
Outside newer developments with less mature trees and/or those that didn’t include large shade trees as development requirements, canopy levels also tend to correlate with race and income.
City Funding for Tree Programs
The City incurs costs related to planting, irrigation, watering, and tree maintenance for the City’s publicly-managed trees. By far the most significant cost is ongoing routine maintenance and responding to individual tree issues. After tree establishment (three years), best practices call for regular pruning of all 100,000 City managed trees every five to seven years to support tree structural health, disease and pest identification and mitigation, and to identify and address safety concerns. In addition to routine maintenance, the City responds to individual issues related to tree limbs falling, potential hazards, and other issues.
Street Trees: Tree planting is not a significant cost of the urban forestry program. Trees are planted to replace trees that died or were removed and to plant new street trees where there are available spaces in the public right-of-way. The City regularly plants and replaces trees in available public right-of-way during the Spring and Fall, when trees are most likely to be successful. Most areas of the city that have canopy levels below the citywide average have limited available spaces in the street right-of-way for new trees without significant reconstruction of the roadway’s design.
The strategy for creating space for new trees in these areas is generally through complete streets projects, where the roadway is reconfigured and typically automobile traffic lanes are removed (also known as a “road diet”) to allow space for planter strips and often protected bike lanes. These projects are very costly and tend to require grant funding. In recent years, the City has added trees on complete streets projects on Meadowview Road, has recently begun construction on a major effort on Franklin Boulevard, and is currently working on obtaining funding for additional complete streets projects. When new trees are planted, they are added to ongoing City maintenance responsibilities. Please note that as a rule, the adjacent property owner is responsible for watering City street trees.
Park Trees: Trees in parks are usually part of the initial park development or redevelopment over time. Available space for trees depends on other activities that are included in parks. Tree planting in parks is also often part of community wide volunteer efforts. Again, the major cost is not the cost of tree planting, but ongoing care. 3 Additionally, many city parks are older facilities where trees were installed without irrigation because passive irrigation from turf sprinklers was all that was required at the time. However, due to changing climate conditions, funding to install dedicated irrigation for trees is needed to serve existing and newly planted trees.
Ongoing Tree Maintenance Funding
In 1989, the City adopted a citywide assessment district, known as the Citywide Lighting and Landscaping (L&L) District. This is an assessment tax on all City properties where assessment proceeds must be used for specific purposes, primarily for the maintenance of streetlights and for park and street tree maintenance. The assessment is broken into specific categories by which funding is allocated.
The City must annually review and adopt its assessments. The most recent document for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024/25 was adopted on June 18, 2024, and can be reviewed at the following link:
https://sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=22&clip_id=5964&meta_id= 785328
The approved budget for FY2024/25, by category is as follows:
Assessment Category FY2024/25
Street Related Operations & Maintenance:
Safety Lighting & Medians $3,018,000
Neighborhood Street Lighting Maintenance 5,800,000
Street Tree Maintenance 6,942,588
Administration & Billing 394,988
Subtotal Street Related O&M $16,155,576
On-Going Park Maintenance:
Park Maintenance & Improvements $4,740,000
Graffiti Abatement 262,600
Administration & Billing 125,374
Subtotal On-Going Park Maintenance: $5,127,974
TOTAL DISTRICT BUDGET $21,283,550
This discussion focuses on funding from L&L that supports street tree maintenance and park maintenance (highlighted in green). As approved, the district allows for the following improvements:
4 Street Tree Maintenance:
The general care and maintenance of street trees within the public right- of-way are included in Tree Maintenance. This category includes:
The trimming, maintenance, general care, and replacement of street trees within the City street right-of-way.
The planting of new street trees within the City street right- of-way. All costs associated with the operation and administration of the street tree maintenance program.
Any other miscellaneous work related to street tree care and maintenance.
Park Maintenance and Improvements
Park Maintenance and Improvements includes:
The construction, care, and development of City maintained landscaping, irrigation facilities, and other appurtenances for neighborhood and community parks.
The construction and maintenance of all greenbelts, linear parkways, and buffer zones on City owned lands.
The trimming, maintenance, general care and replacement of trees within City parks.
Proportional costs of the contingency fund for the district. Any miscellaneous cost related to any of the items described under this category.
FY2024/25 Annual L&L Assessment (no streetlights)
Land Use Type Annual
Assessment*
Single Family Home $ 59.70
Multi Family Unit $ 41.34
Non-Residential (Parcel Square Footage)
0-25,000 SF $ 186.22
25,001-100,000 SF $ 931.06
100,001 SF or more $ 1,936.58
Church $ 53.20
*Excluding street lighting assessment
Funding for Urban Forestry that manages street trees is nearly completely L&L funds, which is required to cover all staff costs, vehicles, fuel, equipment, materials (e.g., trees, 5 mulch), emergency response during storm events, and contracts with tree companies for specific services. In addition to using L&L proceeds, the Division collects a small amount of funding from permit fees and also assesses a tree mitigation fee when trees are removed in connection with development.
The City Council has previously authorized an automatic annual adjustment of the maximum L&L assessments to address rising costs. This adjustment is based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index for the San Francisco area, with a cap of three percent (3%). As costs have been increasing at an annual rate of more than 3% annually and the City continues to add new street trees to its inventory, it becomes more challenging to meet recommended maintenance schedules.
Funding for installation of trees in parks is part of the overall park development and maintenance budgets, which includes L&L and General Funds (including Measure U), and in some locations, specific maintenance districts. Since funding is pooled, the Department of Youth and Community Enrichment (YPCE) must make decisions about what park assets to maintain and expand within its total maintenance budget. In general, park maintenance budgets have not increased proportionately as new parks and trails are added to the City inventory, so it is also challenging for YPCE to meet recommended tree maintenance schedules and to fund enhancements in existing parks. YPCE often relies on grants and volunteer efforts to increase tree canopy.
Trees on Private Property
The vast majority of trees (about 90%) in the City are on private property or property managed by other agencies and are the responsibility of individual property owners. Any efforts to increase canopy will require owners to plant new trees, care for existing trees, and replace trees when they die. The most significant program available to support private property owners is the Sacramento Shade Tree program, funded by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and implemented by the Sacramento Tree Foundation, which provides up to 10 trees per property and advice on species, planting, and tree care.
Through grants, the City can also support efforts to support additional trees on private property. In the last year, the City was awarded about $2 million in two federal grants to support tree planting on private property, schools, and in public locations in priority neighborhoods. Unfortunately, with the new administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) terminated the grant to support private property and schools. The remaining grant was paused but is currently active.
A primary barrier to tree planting by property owners is the long-term cost of tree maintenance and perceived cost for watering. (In fact, watering trees is less than the cost of watering lawns, and the reduction in evaporation and reductions in building cooling costs can offset the cost of water.) These barriers are greatest for those with lower incomes and landlords who see tree maintenance as an added cost and liability.
These are extremely challenging issues to address.
6 There have been suggestions that the City should take on maintenance of trees on private property in priority neighborhoods. This idea has significant legal barriers and would not be a feasible or cost-effective strategy. Except under very limited circumstances, the City cannot enter private property without permission. Getting and tracking permission to enter and to prune trees for each individual property owner before pruning activities would not be practical and monitoring and administering such as program would be very costly. In addition, this could expose the City to liability if property owners or others claim any damages to or from a privately-owned tree pruned by the City. The draft SUFP calls for programs to address the costs of maintenance without requiring the City to directly take on maintenance responsibility for thousands of privately owned trees.
Funding gap for implementation of the Urban Forest Plan The funding for the Urban Forestry section in Public Works Department is about $7 million annually, primarily L&L funding, and YPCE’s typically allocates about $1 million of their annual budget for tree planting and care.
As described above, City funding streams have not grown at the rate of either inflation or tree inventory expansion. Increased funding is needed for urban forestry efforts to continue operating at current program capacity and maintenance levels. As a rough order of magnitude, YPCE’s budget for tree planting and care would need to be increased to roughly $3 million to maintain the current inventory of park trees with a similar program capacity that Urban Forestry section has for street trees. The Urban Forestry section would benefit from an additional $1 annually to keep its maintenance intervals from increasing beyond best practices.
The goal of the Draft SUFP is to achieve 35 percent tree canopy by 2045, which would essentially double the number of trees in the city. To implement the Urban Forest Plan, including equity policies and programs to increase tree canopy levels in low-canopy disadvantaged communities, will require a comparable budget increase, doubling the City budget for urban forestry. This increased funding is needed to: 1) increase the frequency of maintenance levels generally from current practice, 2) increase tree planting in parks and streets, 3) increase maintenance capacity to care for new trees added to the inventory from increased planting levels, and 4) implement new programs to support tree planting and care on private property. The City would likely need an additional $12 to $13 million annually to fully implement the Urban Forest Plan, which will require the identification of new revenue streams.
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Sacramento Urban Forest
Priority Intervention Areas
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Prioritization
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Note: Priority criteria include urban heat, CA or Federal disadvantaged community status, and low tree canopy.
All areas of the City require urban forestry efforts, but this priority map will be used to support strengthened interventions in areas with the highest need. Within priority areas, program efforts will further emphasize residential areas, corridors, and parks and consider existingJ�fr,i!mJ.,cture constraints.
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Draft
Sacramento
Urban Forest
Plan (SUFP)
Racial Equity Committee
April 29, 2025
Agenda
Recap of SUFP
Equity Strategy
Equity Recommendations
Funding for Implementation
Existing Funding
Future Funding Needs
Purpose of the SUFP
The SUFP will be the City's primary planning tool for the protection, expansion, maintenance, sustainability, and enhancement of trees in the City.
The SUFP outlines the policy recommendations and
implementation actions that City staff from a variety of departments will use to guide oversight and regulation of trees.
Identifies the community's needs and priorities for the next 20 years, as it relates to the urban forest, including both:
City-managed trees
Private trees
Public Outreach & Comment
Review period closed
Over 600 comments received
Comments solicited through:
Online self-guided workshop on project website
Community meeting presentations and outreach events
Commission meetings
Press conference and local new coverage
Social media campaign
Digital billboards
Yard signs
Aiming for City Council adoption in June 2025
Existing
Conditions
~1 million trees Citywide
10% City-managed trees
90% private trees/managed
by other agencies
Currently
19% Canopy
Cover
Goal of 35%
Canopy Cover
by 2045
*Essentially double
the number of trees
citywide!
Priority Intervention Areas
Guiding Principal
of Equity
All communities are entitled to
the same access to tree canopy
and its benefits. Inequities in
tree canopy must be addressed.
Equity Recommendations
Equity Recommendations
Conduct City-wide urban forest public outreach and education. Target public outreach in disadvantaged, high heat, and low-canopy neighborhoods. Encourage active participation by residents in the development and promotion of a sustainable urban forest. Target City-led community tree planting events and volunteer opportunities in disadvantaged, high heat, and low-canopy neighborhoods.
Strengthen partnerships with entities in disadvantaged and low tree canopy neighborhoods.
Build workforce pipelines from Sacramento's historically under-employed and low-income neighborhoods into the City's urban forest workforce. Explore providing financial support to residents in disadvantaged communities for tree planting and care.
Explore financial incentives to support residents with mature trees.
Public Comment relevant to Equity
Strong support for prioritizing tree planting and care efforts in neighborhoods with the least tree canopy
Desire to see investment from the City for supporting tree care on private property in Disadvantaged Communities
Desire to see incentive programs to reduce cost of tree care for low-income residents
Funding for Implementation
Existing Funding
Are there opportunities to
realign existing funding?
Future Funding Needs
Questions?
•Planting trees
•Irrigation
•Ongoing Maintenance
What are costs for City
trees?
How does the City fund
these activities?
What factors result in
disparities in tree canopy?
Characteristics of High Canopy Areas
• Older neighborhoods with mature
trees
• Planter strips between the street
and sidewalk
• Front and back yards large
enough to accommodate shade
trees
• Larger and older parks
• Higher levels of homeownership
Characteristics of
Lower Canopy Areas
• Newer neighborhoods with
younger trees
• Developments with smaller lots
and/or small front and back
yards that are not large enough
to accommodate large shade
trees
Characteristics of
Lower Canopy Areas
o Streets without planter strips –
attached sidewalks
o Unshaded commercial parking
lots
• Areas with higher levels of rental
units
Funding
Lighting and Landscape District
• $7 million Street Trees
• $4.6 million Park Maintenance (includes trees as one element) Grants and Partnerships
35% canopy would require $12-$13 million in
new funding annually
Rachel Patten, Sustainability Program Manager
[email protected]
916.808.5016
Lucinda Willcox, Assistant Public Works Director
[email protected]
916.808.5052
Thank you!
Kevin Hocker , City Urban Forester
[email protected]
916.808.4996