Atlanta Passes Revamped Tree Ordinance After Making Developer-Friendly Tweaks

The price a developer will have to pay when cutting down a tree in Atlanta is set to increase by 350% after the Atlanta City Council passed the first major revision to the city's tree ordinance in more than two decades.

But the final version of the rule, which passed the council unanimously Monday night and has the support of Mayor Andre Dickens, is far less punitive toward developers and landowners removing trees on their property than what was initially proposed this spring.

“As a multi-generational Atlanta native, I am proud of our beautiful city in the forest,” Dickens said in a statement. “Atlanta has always been a national leader in tree canopy and we have taken measures to protect it for future generations.”

Conservation groups have criticized the measure as not going far enough to protect Atlanta's tree canopy, which has shrunk significantly in recent years. The fee structure that is expected to take effect on Jan. 1 is higher than what business and real estate groups had hoped for. 

In short, there’s something in the new ordinance that will upset everyone, said Fortas Homes CEO Jim Cheeks, who has been building affordable for-sale and rental housing in the city since 1999. 

“This was as good a balance that was politically possible,” Cheeks said Tuesday.

Under the previous ordinance, the city charged a flat $100-per-tree fee plus the difference in diameter between the tree being removed and the new one being planted multiplied by $30 per inch.

The new ordinance replaces that formula with a $140-per-inch fee that, starting in 2027, would rise with the consumer price index to prevent replacement costs from stagnating as they did under the previous formula — recompense fees have been $30 per inch since 2001. 

The maximum amount a developer can be charged to remove trees, depending on its underlying zoning, was increased from $5,000 an acre to between $12,500 and $35K for new subdivisions and vacant lots.  

The new recompense is far below the initially proposed $260 per inch that tree advocates say was needed to better match what it costs to replant and care for a tree until it can sustain on its own. The initial proposal didn't have any cap on fees.

Nabil Hammam, who owns luxury home contracting firm Hammer Head Construction and helped draft the revised ordinance as co-chair of the Atlanta Tree Conservation Commission, called the changes “very disappointing.” 

“We worked hard at it for years,” he told Bisnow Tuesday. “We thought we had come to a good place.”

Hammam said he was most upset that a previously planned preservation requirement that would have made developers save certain key trees on their site was excised from the final legislation. While developers do have to replant trees, even earning a credit toward the recompense for planting new trees on their own property, the city’s new rules won’t save old trees from being taken down.

He also criticized the penalty increase for illegally removing trees, which will rise from $100K to $200K per acre, as not going far enough.

“If you step back and look at the numbers, you’ll see that that’s not going to make a difference” for a developer to clear-cut a lot, Hammam said. 

The new ordinance had a long and contentious road to final passage this week. The initial bill was introduced in December, creating an outcry among both residential and commercial developers who said the penalties were too steep and would slow down the production of desperately needed affordable housing. 

But proponents say the stringent rules were needed to help preserve Atlanta’s renowned tree canopy, a feature that earned the city the nickname “City in the Forest.” The city’s goal is to bring tree coverage back to 50% of the city's land. That coverage had dropped at least 46.5% as of 2018 as development surged in the city limits. 

Last week, the city council’s Community Development/Human Resources Committee passed the watered-down version of the proposal that stripped preservation standards, a move lambasted by tree advocates who also sought to remove all financial caps that would have limited developers' tree removal costs, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported. 

The approved version also adds other features, including $400K a year in financial assistance for low-income seniors who have to remove trees on their property and funds to hire two more city arborists.

Atlanta Council Member Matt Westmoreland, who has been involved in efforts to change the tree ordinance since 2019, said he was pleased with the final product that was passed by the council even though it was never going to placate everyone. 

“My north star on this issue was: How do we update our tree ordinance for the first time in 25 years, that makes meaningful changes? What we passed yesterday is a significant improvement for the tree canopy in Atlanta,” Westmoreland said. “When 15 out of 15 people can vote on something, I think we've progressed on the issue.”

While Cheeks said he supports the final form of the bill, the homebuilder told Bisnow the new requirements may force him to pass on potentially developing some city lots, especially if the housing he builds is above the 80% of area median income ceiling that would give recompense breaks to developers. 

“I would be screaming bloody murder right now if one of the previous drafts were adopted,” Cheeks said. “At the end of the day, that’s where good negotiation is: Everybody is upset.”