ATHENS, Ohio — The city of Athens administration has abandoned plans to eliminate the Shade Tree Commission’s regulatory authority.
Athens Service-Safety Director Andy Stone told the Independent in a Nov. 4 interview he did not believe the administration could get previously proposed code changes through Athens City Council.
He attributed that to the members of the public who spoke against the changes at last week’s council committee meetings.
In an Oct. 28 email to Shade Tree Commission Chair Tristan Kinnison and Ann Bonner, the eastern Ohio urban forestry coordinator with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Stone said the administration would reevaluate the path forward.
“It is clear after last night that no changes I recommend will be accepted, regardless of how much we work on anything,” Stone said in the email. “The mayor has directed me to pull our request for this legislation at this time. We are reevaluating the way ahead and will notify you when appropriate.”
Commission members argued that shifting the Shade Tree Commission’s approval authority to the Planning Commission, as the city administration proposed, could benefit developers at the expense of the urban canopy.
The administration, meanwhile, maintained that the changes would not harm the urban canopy but would simplify approval processes for developers.
Athens Mayor Steve Patterson previously said he would not appoint new members to the Shade Tree Commission until the administration’s proposed code changes were accepted — a stance that had drawn the ire of commission members.
Stone told the Independent he was uncertain how the administration would proceed regarding appointments to fill vacancies, and Patterson was not immediately available to comment for this story.
A request for recent communications between Patterson and Stone about the Shade Tree Commission did not result in any responsive records.
“I know better than to write anything to the mayor, because all you’re going to do is ask me,” Stone said in an interview, in reference to the Independent’s records request. “So, I just talked to him.”
Kinnison told the Independent that he did not want to see the city defeated in moving forward with any changes to the commission whatsoever. However, he said the outcome provides the commission “a little chance to catch our breath and kind of regroup and hopefully work a little more collaboratively, rather than reactively.”
In prior emails in the exchange, Stone blamed Shade Tree Commission members for riling up the public.
“It is extremely unhelpful and uncommon for a member of a city commission, appointed by the mayor, to promote a rally against the mayor’s administration,” Stone said in an Oct. 16 email, in reference to a late October meeting that he said commission member Michael Lincoln had promoted in emails to commission supporters. “Tree Commissioners are not separate elected officials; they work at the pleasure of the mayor.”
Shade Tree Commission member Gene Deubler announced the event at the Oct. 9 Shade Tree Commission meeting, describing it as a “tree talk” organized by community members. He said the event would feature experts including Bonner, Athens Arbor Day Committee member Mary Reed, and Ohio University Professor of Environmental and Plant Biology Glenn Matlack.
“We’re hoping to get feedback,” Deubler said at the Oct. 9 meeting. “Come with questions and ideas for supporting our urban canopy.”
In a reply to Stone’s comment about the meeting, Bonner said, “It sounds like you are feeling defensive and I feel bad about that.”
Bonner also noted, “Trees tend to bring out the passion in people.”
“I’m sorry that you and the admin are feeling defensive about this as well,” Kinnison said in his own reply. He also said Athens administrators were invited to attend the Oct. 20 meeting.
Kinnison told the Independent in a text message that the event ultimately went as planned and that Stone attended along with some members of Athens City Council.
“The commission is not unwilling to work with the city, but unprompted code changes that will hurt the city are things that we must speak out about as citizens, if not as responsible commissioners,” Kinnison added. “We serve to improve and give our expertise to the city, not to agree with the mayor and his decisions.”
In a subsequent email Oct. 24, Stone said, “I truly hope you can get behind these changes and would be willing to call off the people mobilized to oppose them.” The email came after Bonner, Stone and Kinnison had gone back and forth adjusting the proposed changes to reach a compromise.
Kinnison replied the same day with suggested revisions he said he was “happy to back.” Bonner then offered to get together to discuss the final proposal, the last message in the chain before Stone said the city administration was abandoning the effort altogether.
Kinnison told the Independent that the outcry from city residents over the proposed changes “shows that the citizens of Athens really value the urban canopy and would rather strengthen, and have better oversight and expertise working on it, and really support it in whatever way that they can.”
“People are very ready to support changes, and a better urban canopy,” Kinnison said. “Instead of stopping a bad change now, hopefully we can gather that support and see if we can get some good change going as well.”
Stone said in an interview with the Independent that the public opposition to the administration’s proposed code changes did not necessarily reflect the whole of public opinion.
“No developer or member of the business community wants to invite the ire of people to go and … speak for it,” Stone told the Independent. “So I think that we’re not gonna change council’s mind.”
“People get the government they deserve,” Stone added. “And this is what we want, clearly, in Athens, so we’ll figure out how to make it work with what we have.”
Kinnison said in emails to Stone and in conversations with the Independent that during his time on the Shade Tree Commission, the body has not received any complaints from developers about current approval processes. Stone did not clarify either in emails or in conversations with the Independent how exactly the current approval process has negatively affected developers.
Correction: A previous version of this story misrepresented which changes Kinnison told Stone he was “happy to back.“ Also, the story initially misattributed Deubler’s comments.
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