San Anselmo is moving closer to revising its regulations on private trees.<\/p>\n
A proposed ordinance would add a category of protected trees, define heritage trees and outline a permitting process to alter or remove them. The Planning Commission voted unanimously in May to recommend the changes to the Town Council.<\/p>\n
The council took up the proposed ordinance during its meeting on July 22. The current ordinance was last updated in 2001.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince then, there are a handful of changes and regulatory updates that could be made,\u201d Marc Matundan, a town civil engineer, told the council.<\/p>\n
Matundan said the current ordinance is too broad about which trees are protected, lacks clarity and carries a maximum fine of $2,300 for illegally removing a tree.<\/p>\n
A heritage tree is defined as one with a\u00a022-inch trunk diameter. The proposed ordinance uses a list of native and non-invasive species instead. The list of nearly 40 trees includes coast redwood, California bay laurel, California live oak and the common manzanita.<\/p>\n
The proposed ordinance includes a trunk diameter that warrants protection for each listed species. Heritage trees are protected trees, but with larger diameters. For example, a coast redwood with a diameter of 10 inches is protected, but at 20 inches it would be considered a heritage tree.<\/p>\n
All trees more than 7 inches in trunk diameter would be protected on undeveloped properties. If a heritage tree is removed, another native or protected tree would have to be planted on the property. If planting one isn\u2019t feasible, an in-lieu fee \u2014 equal to the cost of removing the tree \u2014 could be paid.<\/p>\n
Public Works Director Sean Condry said some large trees can cost between $20,000 and $30,000 to remove. The in-lieu fees would go into a tree preservation fund and used for planting and maintaining trees in town. The fine for removing a listed tree without a permit would begin at twice the valuation of the tree.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Eileen Burke disagreed with the requirement to plant new trees after removing older ones. She wants more leeway for people to plant the trees they desire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessary and I think it restricts private property rights too much and I don\u2019t think people will follow it,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Yoav Schlesinger said the in-lieu fees would be too expensive and a burden on residents. He suggested a fee cap, and also asked for more explanation behind the species and diameter selections.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the intent is right, but I\u2019m not sure all the specifics have been detailed to my satisfaction,\u201d Schlesinger said.<\/p>\n
The Town Council delayed a vote pending more information from staff.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: July 29, 2025 at 4:57 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Anselmo is moving closer to revising its regulations on private trees. A proposed ordinance would add a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[2356,192,2558,983,5415,3,4910,39792,39793,79,23636],"class_list":["post-51683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-california","tag-environment","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-marin-county","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-san-anselmo","tag-san-anselmo-town-council","tag-science","tag-trees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}