ATTACHMENT A
Subject: Community Forest Management Plan and Urban Forestry Annual Report
Audit Report Recommendations and Status Update
Finding 1: Private property tree removal permitting requires better resources and improved processes.
Recommendation 1
To ensure consistency in processing permits for tree removals, the Department of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement should:
a. Develop procedures and related training
for staff on how to process permits for
tree removals, including how to apply the
City’s standard replacement ratios; and
PBCE has formalized the procedures and
guideline documents and will use those documents
to train to all staff who work on tree removal
applications.
b. Develop procedures for supervisors to
review permits with tree removals to
ensure that replacements are required per
standard ratios.
Supervisors utilize existing replacement ratios and
update guideline policies and training when the
replacement policy has been modified and
adopted.
Recommendation 2
To support planners’ decisions regarding technical issues relating to trees, the Department of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement should:
a. Create guidance for how decisions
regarding the health of a tree and
whether the tree is native should be made,
or;
PBCE is routing applications and plans to the
Forestry team for review at the early stages of the
application process. As part of continued
collaboration, guidance on the health of the trees
has been added to the Planning Tree Review
guideline document. Additional resources in
Forestry are needed by PBCE and DOT to
support development review of approximately 130
per year.
b. Provide planners with further access to
certified arborists as needed, either
through contractors or City arborist
position(s).
Recommendation 3
To ensure that fees are appropriately aligned with
work performed, the Department of Planning,
Building and Code Enforcement should review the
process associated with a live tree removal permit
and update the permit fee accordingly.
The Forestry Team is being integrated in the
review process for tree removals applications and
within development projects, PBCE does not
anticipate additional fee increases needed for the
planning application at this time. However, this
may be re-evaluated as Forestry team involvement
evolves.
ATTACHMENT A
Subject: Community Forest Management Plan and Urban Forestry Annual Report
Finding 2: The City can better ensure replacement trees are planted and re-growing the canopy
Recommendation 4
To verify that trees have been replaced due to individual tree removals, the Department of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement should ensure applicants are complying with tree removal permit conditions to submit photographs or receipts of planted replacement trees. To facilitate this, Planning staff should:
a. Create a follow-up process for Planning
staff to review whether evidence has been
submitted and issue reminders, and;
PBCE has created the process and is
operationalizing it. PBCE has coordinated with
the IT team to include data points and triggers in
their permitting system to both allow submittals of
evidence of planting by the permittee and allow
staff to run reports to identify any projects that
has not completed the submittals process. Certain
portions of this reminder will be automated and
done through the SJPermits.org but will require
staff to review and sign off on the evidence of the
planting. Additionally, Forestry will assist by
confirming the correct tree is planted in the
correct location when they are doing their own
site visit for public trees, they can also verify the
planting on the private property when possible.
b. If the evidence has not been submitted
within the specified time frame, assess a
fine or the off-site tree replacement fee.
Staff is coordinating with Code Enforcement on
how to assess a fine or if additional update to
their fee schedules are necessary.
Recommendation 5
To verify that trees are planted according to
replacement requirements for development
permits, the Department of Planning, Building
and Code Enforcement should develop a process
for staff to collect a certification of substantial
completion of landscape and irrigation
installation prior to the issuance of a certificate of
occupancy, as described in the Municipal Code.
Forestry currently performs final landscape
inspection for the public right of way. PBCE has
included a Forestry inspection into the approval
workflow. The level that Forestry can provide is
contingent upon on Forestry’s capacity. It is
estimated that two additional FTEs may be
needed.
ATTACHMENT A
Subject: Community Forest Management Plan and Urban Forestry Annual Report
Recommendation 6
To sufficiently recuperate lost canopy due to tree removals, Planning, Building and Code Enforcement, in coordination with the Department of Transportation, should:
a. Review the tree replacement ratio to
determine if it is appropriately meeting
the goals of the community forest
program,
This item is a work in progress.
b. Revise the tree replacement policy to
include considerations for canopy size
and optimal species of replacement trees,
and
c. Provide permit applicants with guidance
for appropriate selection to meet the
replacement policy requirements and to
best ensure tree survival.
Finding 3: DOT has not been spending in-lieu fee revenues timely Recommendation 7
To ensure that in-lieu fees are spent in timely and appropriately, the Department of Transportation should:
a. Identify locations or uses for unspent inlieu fee revenues that have accumulated since 2018,
Planting space identification is an ongoing
process. DOT will spend $320,000 this year and
has obligated a further $340,000 in required
maintenance.
b. Develop a set of procedures to ensure that
plantings are accurately charged to the
in-lieu fee appropriation,
The DOT finance group ensures that new funds
will go to a standalone vis-code, and that account
is being used for planting and maintenance
activities with mitigation funds.
c. Develop a set of criteria/policy that
dictates how and when in-lieu fees should
be used on plantings, and
DOT has piloted Council adopted policy to aim to
spend 50% of collected mitigation fees in district
from which they were collected and apply 50% to
projects with a citywide equity lens. DOT will
report on findings in June of 2024.
d. Regularly review data from AMANDA to
determine new in-lieu fees that were
collected.
Forestry is now able to access AMANDA. Fees
paid go directly into a DOT managed account.
In FY 22/23, $320,00,000 will be spent for tree
planting. $340,000 are being held in reserve for
establishment work (watering). The current fund
balance that is not committed to a project is
$916,000.
ATTACHMENT A
Subject: Community Forest Management Plan and Urban Forestry Annual Report
Finding 4: DOT should evaluate costs and establish metrics for community forest program’s objectives
Recommendation 8
The Department of Transportation should create
metrics to measure progress towards the City’s
tree planting objectives, such as the number of
tree removals, tree replacements, planting efforts,
and cost-effectiveness of different planting
approaches.
Data is collected on a monthly basis. Information
collected is the number of trees removed and
pruned, number of trees planted, response times,
permit applications processed, etc. Core service
numbers to reflect planting efforts will be
collected for FY 23-24 budget with further
refinements anticipated with CFAC
Recommendation 9
To assist in measuring changes to the city’s tree
canopy, Planning, Building and Code
Enforcement should revise what data is tracked
about tree removals and replacements in
AMANDA and provide training to staff on how to
accurately complete the fields. This should be
done in coordination with the Department of
Transportation’s development of metrics around
the City’s tree planting objectives.
PBCE has added data fields in their permitting
system to aid in the tracking of the tree removal
and replacement. Once IT has updated the permit
system, additional training and instructions will
be provided to staff who intake and complete the
reviews in the AMANDA permit system. This
information can be collected and provided to the
DOT staff.
Recommendation 10
To ensure the City is able to increase the scale of
tree planting and grow the canopy effectively, the
Department of Transportation should work with
the Community Forest Advisory Committee to
develop an outreach plan, including metrics to
determine success of the outreach program.
This topic has been discussed with the Community
Forest Advisory Committee. Steps to implement
large scale tree planting are being taken and the
Forest Service grant project is moving to
execution.