Revised 16 page Tree Ordinance to go before Planning Commission on Tuesday Jan 10th.

The  complete text of  of the Ordinance is available on the City's website  where it is called a "woodlands ordinance."The official title of  ordinance being considered at the  Tuesday January 10th 2012 meeting which starts a t 4pm is however

An ordinance to amend Chapter 22,  Vegetation, Article II, Tree Regulations of the Bloomfield City Code.


To read  a complete copy of the ordinance's latest and perhaps final draft click on the above in red.

Very simply this ordinance will regulate and control what you may do with the trees on your property.


If you have no problem with that you may stop reading right now and go on to other things.

 If you have questions about this ordinance you may be begin by reading it. If passed it will be come the law and you best find out  what it says before being told you can't do what you want t or that you are in violation. For that reason we  have provided a Cliff  Notes, Facts in Five, Version  of the Tree Ordinance (called exactly that) in a subsequent post.

If you would like to speak for or against this ordinance you will have the opportunity to do so at the public hearing to be held at Tuesday's  Planning Commission meeting. For your information at that last Planning Commission Public Hearing  to discuss an ordinance relating to the placement of fences and gates no residents showed up and the hearing was cancelled. At the last meeting of the Planning Commission meeting five or so residents and the entire commission with two notable exceptions (Kauper and Monaghan who asked intelligent questions) voiced enthusiastic approval. A worst case scenario was often provided as a reason as to why the this ordinance is necessary. At the December Planning Commission meeting as at the January meeting  the only topic is the tree ordinance. We have included included a portion  the December minutes so you get a feel for what people were saying.

What happens Next ? The Planning Commission's may accept the ordinance as is (most likely), request more revisions (next most likely) or reject the proposed ordinance (not at all likely).  If the ordinance is accepted it would be sent to the City Commission  where there would be another public hearing. Mayor Zambricki said this would not happen until February, which means the ordinance couldn't be implemented till then. It is also theoretically possible that if no residents chose to attend the public hearing (even money on that one) the Planning Commission could pass the ordinance and the City Commiseration after breezing through a not so crowded agenda and having no residents in attendance (the norm) could decide approve it on the 10th.