As Columbus celebrates Judicial Center, city hasn’t shown plan after razing historic trees
Reality Check is a Ledger-Enquirer series digging deeper into key issues and focusing on accountability. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email mynews@ledger-enquirer.com.
Six weeks after construction crews broke ground at 10th Street and 1st Avenue, chopping down century-old trees in preparation to construct a new Judicial Center, the city’s leadership team is celebrating the project, despite no tree plan ever surfacing yet.
The city’s neglect of its own policy has Trees Columbus Executive Director Dorothy McDaniel concerned that the same precedent of ignoring the ordinance may occur for the next massive public project at Golden Park.
McDaniel has sent multiple requests to the city asking for a tree plan for both the Judicial Center and the South Commons Golden Park project. Email responses sent in the past week and provided to the Ledger-Enquirer indicate the plans are still being worked on. Councilwoman Joanne Cogle raised concern the city may have decided to “pick and choose” which parts of the ordinance it follows.
“The landscaping plans for both the Judicial Center and Golden Park have not been finalized,” Deputy City Manager Pam Hodge said in an email. “We will work diligently to ensure the City meets the requirements of Article 6 of the UDO.”
Article 6 of the Unified Development Ordinance dictates what the city has to do before development to preserve and replace trees.
The order of when the tree plan happens is vital, as the ordinance dictated when it was established in 2002. Tree protection needs to be in place before demolition or other landscaping for the sake of the trees that they have decided to preserve or replace. McDaniel said it’s supposed to happen in tandem with a site development plan and demolition plan.
“Trees need to be properly incorporated into the design so they can be maintained and grow and have a higher survival rate,” McDaniels said. “If the developer wants to preserve trees you have to set up tree protection measures before any equipment gets out there. You have irreversible damage from soil compaction and impact from heavy equipment.”
Ryan Pruett, the director of Code and Inspections, who is managing permits for both projects, wrote in an email to Pam Hodge earlier this week, “There is no one size fits all approach when it comes to reviewing and permitting development. If we want to make the process easier for developers in our community the city needs to be as flexible as possible.”
Pruett went on to call these expectations “rigid and not reasonable” in his email to Hodge and several other city leaders, including Cogle.
Cogle contacted City Attorney Clifton Fay, criticizing Pruett’s responses to Hodge and McDaniel, calling it “arbitrary.”
In an email she wrote, “What authority is there to pick and choose which parts of an ordinance will be enforced at any given time with any given developer?”
The Ledger-Enquirer reached out to Fay and Pruett regarding site development plans or tree plans but didn’t receive a response. But at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Judicial Center Thursday, Pruett told the Ledger-Enquirer he would present updates about both the Judicial Center and Golden Park at next Tuesday’s city council meeting. He also said there is a plan.
“Everything is still being drafted but will be public information on Tuesday,” Pruett said. “We have created calculations for certain amount of trees to meet requirements.”
Sympathizing with Trees Columbus and citizen frustrations, Pruett added, “Nobody liked to see the old trees come down it was just a function of how this project unfolded and where the building ended up. There was a plan for the demolition and activities that was reviewed and approved as part of that original phase [for the Judicial Center].”
Golden Park concerns
The ballpark renovation in South Commons is expected to begin demolition Wednesday.
“It will not involve land disturbance,” Hodge said in an email to McDaniel. “Only a demolition permit has been issued at this time. Land disturbing activities are scheduled to begin on April 29th and we will have the tree plan by then, if not sooner.”
To McDaniel, it’s unclear why there is a demolition permit, as a tree plan should come before this.
Rumors are circulating on social media that up to 150 trees are threatened to be cut down for development at Golden Park. In an attempt to fact-check this, the Ledger-Enquirer has tried to reach the Department of Codes, the city attorney, and the city arborist, but has received no response.
“If a developer does not meet the required TDUs there is an option for them to pay into the Tree Fund,” Hodge said in response to Councilwoman Cogle at a City Council meeting on March 26. “Instead of planting trees, they can pay into the Tree Fund.”
TDU is a Tree Density Unit, which is a way to calculate how trees will be replaced by taking existing tree density with replacement tree density, according to the local ordinance.
“TDU is an option, but this is usually shown in the tree plan,” McDaniel said. “This isn’t rocket science it’s just a tree plan.”
This story was originally published April 4, 2024 at 3:26 PM.
