Some people think Macon and Bibb county need to plant more trees, and protect the ones that are already here.
Members of the Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning Commission discussed the new draft of the Tree Conservation Ordinance Monday.
They talked about what the twenty-eight page document would mean for developers.
Connie Head, an Urban Forester Contractor, spent over a year researching the trees in Bibb County, and surveying residents.
In the briefing she discussed the need for an ordinance that would require new developers to conserve trees and plant a tree every forty feet along roads.
The ordinance would also require fifty percent tree coverage in parking lots.
Head says there are huge economic benefits to expanding the tree canopy. "There are communities across the state that have these ordinances, developers develop within the scope of these ordinances all the time. Actually there's no evidence that shows that adding more trees is going to cause an economic decline, the evidence all points to the fact that adding more trees is going to improve the economy of the site , the business and of the community."
Head plans to have the final version of the ordinance ready within a couple of months.
It would then go before Macon City Council, Bibb County Commissioners and the Planning and Zoning Commission for approval.
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