S.A. tree canopy ranks No. 1, why pass a new ordinance?:
San Antonio has the most extensive tree cover of any major U.S. city. Even with its semi-arid climate, San Antonio's tree canopy of 38 percent ranks first among the nation's 50 largest cities.
We rank ahead of cities with much higher rainfall — like Seattle, New Orleans and Atlanta. In Texas, we rank ahead of Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin. With the nation's best urban tree canopy, why impose even stricter government regulations?
We believe the city has an opportunity for a common-sense approach involving the entire community. The real estate industry values trees, already plants more than 100,000 trees annually in San Antonio and has planted over 1 million trees here since 2003.
The April 21 Express-News editorial supporting the new tree ordinance overlooked its negative effects and harmful impact on economic development.
I just noticed this, hence the late comment. San Antonio is most assuredly NOT #1 in tree canopy. A recent Landsat analysis showed we had 18% tree canopy. The developer's bogus claim is based on comparing analyses using high resolution aerial photos against other cities imaged with low resolution Landsat images. Their claim is completely false.
ReplyDelete