City Commission Packet
Planning Commission meets at 4pm Today to consider a draft
of an ordinance, that will take away your right to be the exclusive determiner
what you do with the trees on your property. The fact that you own the property
will become secondary to the mandates of the Government of the City of
Bloomfield Hills. The number of trees that you retain exclusive control over is
limited in number and varies over time. After that, permission in the form of
permits, is required and may be denied. If that happens you have some right of
appeal but that appeal will cost you money. If your permit is granted you will
agree to post on your property
notification of such approval and to agree to inspection(s) during normal
business hours. You will also be required to provide money for replacement
trees too be planted elsewhere in the city. In short in regards to trees, your home
will longer no longer be your castle.
The draft of the ordinance appears in it's entirety is the last post and in Planning Commission Agenda package which also appears here. The draft, as the name implies is not written in stone. So far it is the work of the the individuals who make up the Ordinance Task Force.This little known entity has not chosen to solicit the input of residents or to divulge much of what they are doing.
There are dissenting opinions. One appears in the Agenda Packet for this meeting. It contains the opinion of Planning Board member John Monaghan. Also mentioned is Michael Dun a former Planning Commission member who also is thought to have a similar reservations. Following the letters is another draft of the ordinance. with scribbles in the margin.Whose scribbles they are is not known . Jay Cravens, who sits on the Ordinance Task Force, as non resident employee of the City, consults but does not vote. His e-mail ends with the notation in green "Please do not print unless you really need to." Since it is in green we believe it is
meant to save the environment one tree at a time. We do not print on paper.The whiteouts in the below emails removes phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
What is frustrating about the ordinance is the whole "Please don't tell." attitude that pervades it., and says in effect "we can't tell you because if we do you won't like it. So we are going to do it anyway without your knowing about it." That's stuff I remember from second grade playgrounds. Yet we live in a City which until very recently gave us no indication that it could be anything less than honest or above board.
Or did it ? We will learn more at 4pm. Stay tuned.
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There are dissenting opinions. One appears in the Agenda Packet for this meeting. It contains the opinion of Planning Board member John Monaghan. Also mentioned is Michael Dun a former Planning Commission member who also is thought to have a similar reservations. Following the letters is another draft of the ordinance. with scribbles in the margin.Whose scribbles they are is not known . Jay Cravens, who sits on the Ordinance Task Force, as non resident employee of the City, consults but does not vote. His e-mail ends with the notation in green "Please do not print unless you really need to." Since it is in green we believe it is
meant to save the environment one tree at a time. We do not print on paper.The whiteouts in the below emails removes phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
What is frustrating about the ordinance is the whole "Please don't tell." attitude that pervades it., and says in effect "we can't tell you because if we do you won't like it. So we are going to do it anyway without your knowing about it." That's stuff I remember from second grade playgrounds. Yet we live in a City which until very recently gave us no indication that it could be anything less than honest or above board.
Or did it ? We will learn more at 4pm. Stay tuned.
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