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Cape Coral City Council nixed spending $377,099 for an Urban Forestry Master Plan Wednesday.
The motion to approve the request for proposal submitted by Davey Resource Group, Inc. for the development of the Cape Coral Urban Forestry Master Plan failed with Mayor John Gunter and Council members Keith Long, Rachel Kaduk, Joe Kilraine, Jennifer Nelson-Lastra and Laurie Lehmann voting against.
Council members questioned whether it was the right time to spend more than $300,000 on a plan.
Council has been presented with $66.5 million in unfunded staff requests and has set the caps for both next year's property tax rate and fire services assessment higher than the current rates: a tentative 5.2188 millage rate; a tentative 81% recovery fire service assessment, up from 70% while keeping the public service tax on electric bills at 7%.
These rates are maximums and may be lowered through the remainder of the budget process but cannot be raised.
"Is the juice worth the squeeze, so to speak," Long said of the tree plan expenditure, acknowledging that City Arborist Omar Leon has garnered many awards and recognitions, and obtaining grants, since he began with the city, a testament to the job he is currently doing. "I would spend $300,000 on the trees that we are short. From my position, it is a little bit of a hesitation because of how good of a job you have done so far."
The master plan came before Council because the board prioritized the hiring of a staff arborist last year so as to identify the city's tree canopy and how to grow it.
Leon said the tree canopy citywide sits at 11-12%, which is lower than the surrounding communities of 30-35% coverage.
To grow by 8%, the city would have to plant half a million trees.
In addition, Leon said 80% of forestry is planted on private land, leaving 20% controlled by the city.
The key to the master plan, Leon told the elected board, is how does the city properly plan to plant trees, and properly manage the existing tree canopy and preserve what the city has.
"The development of an urban forestry master plan is critical if we are going to have a truly sustainable resilient canopy, and it opens the doors for additional grants," Leon said. "It also looks at our current codes and ordinances related to tree canopy, and how we can improve those."
With the current stage of development in the city -- growing but still half built-out -- it is the ideal time to create a plan, he said.
Leon said although they can be successful without the plan, he believes the city will have issues down the road when it comes to proper development.
"We need to look at that in a larger scope - 10-to-20-year plan. How do we drive our tree canopy over the next couple of decades," he said.