The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday unanimously approved a motion calling for a review of the city’s decades-old tree-spacing guidelines, with the goal of adding additional greenery in more neighborhoods.
The council instructed the Bureau of Streets Services’ Urban Forestry Division and other departments to report within 90 days with recommendations to modernize the guidelines. The report is expected to evaluate existing standards and how they affect potential planting locations and identify policy, design and infrastructure changes that could expand the city’s tree canopy.
“Trees are not simply an aesthetic improvement,” said Councilman John Lee, who introduced the motion. “They provide shade, help reduce the impacts of extreme heat, improve air quality and make our neighborhoods healthier and morel livable.
“But our ability to deliver those benefits depends in part on whether our existing standards reflect the realities and needs of a modern city. Our tree spacing guidelines deserve a fresh look,” Lee added.
The councilman said the city should be using the best available research and urban forestry practices to determine how to increase tree coverage responsibly while accounting for maintaining infrastructure such as sidewalks and street lights that could be damaged by tree roots.
“Modernizing these guidelines is about finding more opportunities, not fewer, to bring trees into our streets, neighborhoods and public spaces,” Lee said.
Many of the city’s spacing requirements are internal department policies rather than requirements set forth by ordinance, according to Lee’s office. The councilman says that updating these practices could open up thousands of additional planting locations.
Lee also cited research by the USC Dornsife’s Spatial Sciences Institute and Public Exchange, which found that Los Angeles has some of the most restrictive internal street tree-spacing standards in the nation. The research indicates that updating these policies could increase the number of viable planting locations, in particular for neighborhoods facing the greatest heat burdens.
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky amended the motion to direct city staff to report on tree wall standards, among other related issues.
Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson noted that LA is blessed with abundant sunshine.
“One thing … abundant sunshine allows you to do is have lots of greenery, lots of trees, and so this motion helps push that forward,” Harris-Dawson said.
The council president recognized South LA Tree Coalition for supporting the item, noting the increase of trees makes a significant difference in quality of life and energy usage.