Denver council OKs fines for failing to care for trees

By Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published June 16, 2008 at 1:52 p.m.
Updated June 16, 2008 at 11:54 p.m.

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Denver property owners who fail to care for trees in the right of way will be fined in the future.

The City Council voted 11-1 Monday to authorize the city's forester to issue administrative citations to property owners who ignore violation notices.

Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz cast the dissenting vote and Councilman Charlie Brown was absent.

Before the vote, council members expressed concern about the fines, saying they could create a financial hardship on some and discourage others from planting new trees.

They asked City Forester Jude O'Connor to make property owners who receive a notice aware that funds are available for low- income people and that the city also offers a repayment program.

Failure to comply with the first notice of violation carries a $150 fine, followed by $500 for the second and $999 for the third and any subsequent notices.

The council also authorized the forester to impose development review fees and a tree preservation fee. The forester has proposed development review fees of $250, $400 or $1,000, depending on the size of the project, and a $65 tree preservation fee.

In other business:

* The council approved on first reading a $795,510 agreement with Sequoia Voting Systems to provide ballots, voting equipment programming and support services for the 2008 elections. The council also authorized the purchase of four ballot scanners from Sequoia for $334,000.

* Council members signed off on a nearly $1.3 million supplemental request from Denver Health to pay for the medical care of jail inmates in 2007. The hospital had budgeted $5.6 million, but the actual costs were $6.9 million.

* The council settled for $30,000 a claim stemming from a red-light accident in 2001 that involved a Public Works employee. According to court documents, Brad Kahland, of Boulder, was eastbound on Colfax Avenue in a 1989 Mazda truck when he was hit by a heavy-duty truck driven by Patrick Villarreal, a water quality investigator. Villarreal ran a red light, court documents state.

chacond@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5099

• June 16, 2008

  2:47 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  JamesNasium writes:

  Gene obviously doesn't understand the meaning of "subsidy". Rather than have the entire City and County foot the cost of all of the division resources, residents who impact the tree canopy will pay for their reviews, inspections, etc. This, in turn, will reduce the subsidy on all property owners, thus reducing the subsidy of the general operating fund budget. Gene, take Finance 101 then check back with us.

• June 16, 2008

  3:01 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Woogford writes:

  What a crock of poo...I'm cutting down all my trees.

• June 16, 2008

  3:21 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  BMat writes:

  Are the City and County tree inspectors eligible to join Bill Ritter's union for gov't employees?

  If they are eligible to join then the union would certainly object to homeowners maintaining their own trees since that could reduce the work done by union Members.

  Trees and unions keeping the planet sustainable!

• June 16, 2008

  3:21 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  davies writes:

  Charge triple for those #%!@ing Chinese elms that drop all those #%!@ing seeds all over the #%!@ing neighborhood!

  #%!@!!! ;-)

• June 16, 2008

  3:43 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Cowboy63 writes:

  Big Government at its finest!

  One more avenue into your wallet.

  You get what you vote for.

• June 16, 2008

  3:52 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  davies writes:

  This is a personal responsibility issue, you bunch of hillbillies. If you want to have trees, you have to water them and if branches are blocking the sidewalk or dying, you have to trim them. Last, if and when the tree dies, then yes, you as the tree owner need to have the frickin' thing taken down. Don't like it? Don't grow trees.

  The Forestry Division probably has a few trees here and there they need to take care of in the city parks and medians and such. Why should YOUR trees be the "taxpayers" responsibility?

• June 16, 2008

  4:12 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  happymike44 writes:

  How can anybody in their right mind approve this law.
  Why does a tree at the parkway how is it my problem.
  I have no control if and when the city wants to cut down a tree.
  Why should I be fined for the tree when it seems it does not belong to me in the first place.
  So don't fine me for something that does not belong to me.

• June 16, 2008

  4:41 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  superbad writes:

  You don't own the parkway, but in exchange for getting to use as though you do, it is your responsibility to maintain it. Don't want to be bothered with maintaining trees? Cut them down and put rock down like the slumlords do. You don't own the sidewalk either, but it's your responsibility to shovel the snow off it. Don't like responsibility to people other than yourself? Don't live in a city.

• June 16, 2008

  4:46 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  rmnreader writes:

  I agree with this fine - I'll put the phone number in my speed dial - it is a huge annoyance when I am running with my dog in the morning (I am not a morning person so it doesn't take much) and I am hitting my head on all you lazy homeowners trees! I'd like to carry a darn saw with me & pile all the branches on their front steps - except that then I would be doing the lazy@$$es job for them.

  I live on a corner - we don't enjoy taking care of property that is owned by the city either but the fact is that this is something you likely will have to do as a homeowner in the city.

• June 17, 2008

  12:37 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  happymike44 writes:

  I rented a home and the tree out front had sat there since before I rented it.
  I moved in a neighbor decided to throw beer cans from the former tenant in my yard.
  I called the police and filed a report for littering.
  Then the police made the creep clean up the mess since I was a new tenant and not the offender.
  This guy turned me in the city and guess who he kept trying to get fined,ME.
  By the way this guy never walked by this house everyday till I moved in then he would complain about everything.
  I am a avid gardener this guy never was and also lived in the house behind me on the bottom of the hill.
  Well before you know it then it was complaints to the city about the height of the rose shrubs.
  So this went on for 2 years the guy was bragging about how he was filing complaints about me to the city every week.
  My solution because he was constantly looking in my windows and filing complaints.
  Whenever he was in the front yard and peeking in my windows turn on the lawn sprinklers.
  His response was to call the property manager and file complaints.
  So out came the property manager and their attorney.
  The property manger who had been a long time friend broke my lease and allowed me to move out.
  After I moved out the property manger who was a friend said he left the next tenant alone.
  She also believed he did because he feared litigation.
  Her attorney told him they would sue and take his house if it continued.
  Also they had witness statements and police reports and pictures of him looking in my windows.
  Wherever he is right now I hope he rots in the misery he likes to create.

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