To: Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council
From: Breyana Brandt, Parks & Recreation Director
Prepared By: Jeff Gittings, Parks and Urban Forestry Manager
TITLE:
Title
Tree Services (Planting and Pruning) Application Fee Waiver
LABEL
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommendation
Adopt a Resolution authorizing the Parks and Recreation Services Director to waive application fees set by the Master Fee Schedule for street tree pruning and tree planting applications associated with special tree projects and programs
Body
DISCUSSION:
Background
The development and implementation of the 2026 Urban Forestry Management Plan (UFMP) provided the Parks and Recreation Services Department with a unique opportunity to develop and analyze a significant amount of data sets regarding the City’s tree infrastructure. Work on the UFMP included a tree canopy coverage analysis, and critical work in several key areas including a condition assessment of the City’s street trees, and analysis of ongoing maintenance needs of these trees. Tree canopy coverage identified land area shaded by trees, summarized by social and political boundaries. A key piece of data identified through the UFMP is the ratio of public and private land ownership in Napa as it relates to the City’s canopy coverage. Based upon the land and canopy coverage analysis, 76.4% of the land in Napa is privately owned. Publicly owned lands account for 23.6% of the land coverage in Napa
The canopy coverage analysis identified priority planting areas where additional trees and enhanced canopy coverage would benefit the general Napa community by highlighting areas of climate vulnerability and heat islands and identifying areas prioritized for increased green infrastructure given sensitive populations and equity analysis.
Public lands are often needed for key public infrastructure. Privately owned lands provide an opportunity to augment tree canopy in public areas with limited space available for additional tree planting. Given this, one of the early implementation items identified in the UFMP is the focus on additional tree planting and canopy coverage expansion on private lands. The UFMP calls for the education of private landowners, and the implementation of special programs and programs to increase canopy coverage on private property.
The Parks and Recreation Services Department oversee the applications and permits associated with tree services fees. The permit process requires that residents submit an application for pruning, planting or removal of street trees (trees located in planter strips between curb and sidewalk).
Residents are required to submit an application for both street tree planting and tree pruning. The fee for each of these applications is currently $205.00 and proposed to change to $35 as part of the recent Master Fee Schedule updates. Tree pruning specifically does not have any additional fees provided the pruning is performed by the applicant (resident). For the tree planting application, the Department provides the tree and materials at no cost, and the resident is required to plant and care for the new tree. To reduce the finical burden of the application cost and incentivize additional tree planting on private property and improve the care of street trees, staff is proposing a special program to pilot an initiative aimed to educate and incentivize private property owners to plant additional trees. This special program is an action item identified in the UFMP aimed to maintain and enhance the City’s urban forest. To position this program for success, staff recommend Council consider authorizing the Parks and Recreation Services Director the authority to waive the associated application fees for street tree pruning and planting applications related to special tree projects and programs.
FINANCIAL IMPACTS:
The Department typically receives less than 50 applications for pruning and planting annually. Eliminating this fee during special projects or programs would have little financial impact on the revenue collected annually by the department.
CEQA:
City staff recommend that the City Council determine that the Recommended Action is exempt from CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guideline 15378 as the adoption of the resolution is more akin to a government fiscal activity where the City is waiving or reducing certain City fees. Although this reduction or waiver may lead to an increase in the planting of trees, because any trees would be planted on private land at a private party’s request that the City does not control, it would be too speculative at this time to analyze any impacts under CEQA.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
ATCH 1 - Resolution
NOTIFICATION:
Parks, Recreation and Trees Advisory Commission