Calvert County Government officials hope to reduce the financial burden on property owners and builders for the removal of trees in the Critical Area. The Critical Area Commission’s new buffer zone regulations mandate a fees-in-lieu of planting rate that would add several thousand dollars to the cost of building a single-family home, county officials reported.
During their Tuesday, Aug. 30 meeting, the Calvert County Commissioners received an overview on the situation from Dr. David Brownlee, the Department of Planning and Zoning’s principal planner. The board voted 4-0-1 to schedule a public hearing on proposed changes to the Critical Area fees. The public hearing is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 27 and will be a joint hearing with the Calvert County Planning Commission.
Commissioner Gerald W. “Jerry” Clark [R] abstained from voting, noting that he has a tree on his property, located in the Critical Area, that he intends to remove.
Brownlee characterized the Critical Area Commission’s fees-in-lieu of planting rate of $1.50 per square foot ($4.50 per square foot for activities in the buffer that require a variance) as “onerous.”
“We’re making our homeowners pay more than it actually costs to mitigate,” said Commissioners’ President Susan Shaw [R].
The state commission’s insistence that Calvert’s property owners pay big bucks for removing trees poses problems unique to other areas of the state, Brownlee indicated.
The state measure would require mitigation if a tree is removed from a cliff. Brownlee reported the county’s Cliff Stabilization Advisory Commission has requested a change to the zoning ordinance “to allow removal of trees within 10 feet of a cliff without mitigation. Large trees within 10 feet of a cliff are often in jeopardy of falling over the cliff and accelerating erosion of the cliff.”
Brownlee pointed out Calvert has a variety of “highly erodible soils” that could make newly planted trees add to or create an erosion problem.
Brownlee stated the lower fees would be more equitable than the Critical Area Commission’s proposal and would be enough to mitigate for the forest loss.
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