As used in this chapter:
A. "Alter" means to change, prune, graft, remove limbs, do root or tree surgery work;
B. "City street" means the area of a street in, and maintained by, the City, whether or not improved, from easement line to easement line, and includes the sidewalks and any area between the sidewalk and the curb;
C. "DBH" means the diameter of the tree trunk at any point which is measured four and one-half feet above the grade adjacent to the subject plant;
D. "Director" means the Director of Maintenance Services and his/her authorized agents;
E. "Fee" means the replacement cost of trees and/or landscape material plus the installation cost;
F. "Forestry themes" means the intentional planting of certain species of trees in a fashion to achieve a desired thematic effect;
G. "Ground cover" includes grass, turf or perennial plants that normally grow in a prostrate manner so as to conceal, or with the purpose of concealing, the ground surface, and that do not exceed eight inches in height, and that will tolerate light pedestrian traffic;
H. "Injure" or "injury" means any act which damages a tree, including but not limited to impact, cutting, carving, transplanting, poisoning or knocking over any tree on public property;
I. "Landmark Tree" means any tree which has been found to be of high value because of its type, size, age or historic associations, and has been designated by resolution of the City Council as a landmark tree;
J. "Landscape material" means any organic or inorganic substance used in landscaping such as, but not limited to: trees, shrubs, ground cover, textured concrete, rocks and bricks, etc.;
K. "Maintenance or maintain" means pruning, spraying, bracing, root pruning, staking, fertilizing, watering, treating for disease or injury, and other work performed to promote the health, beauty, or adaptability of trees and shrubs, but shall not include the watering of such trees in residential zones;
L. "Parkway strip" means either (i) the area between the curb and sidewalk within a fully improved street right-of-way, or (ii) that area extending from the curb to the street right-of-way line in an area with no sidewalk, or (iii) any area within a street right-of-way in which a street tree is located;
M. "Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization of any kind;
N. "Planting" means putting or setting into the ground or into a container to grow;
O. "Public area" means parks, playgrounds, areas around public buildings and other areas under the supervision and maintenance of the City not including any street right-of-way;
P. "Removal" means to cut down a tree and includes any intentional or negligent act which causes a tree or landscape material to decline and/or die within a period of three years, including but not limited to damage inflicted upon the root system of a tree by the application of toxic substances, the operation of heavy machinery, the change of natural grade above or below the root system or around the trunk of a tree, excessive pruning, or the severing of part or all of the trunk or root system;
Q. "Replacement value" means the actual cost to the Maintenance Services Department of replacing a tree or landscape material removed or destroyed, or if irreplaceable, its value as determined pursuant to the valuation formula adopted by the International Society of Arboriculture, as amended from time to time;
R. "Shrub" means woody vegetation or a woody plant having multiple stems and bearing foliage from the ground level up;
S. "Street tree" means a tree planted or caused to be planted within a parkway strip;
T. "Topping" means the severe cutting back of limbs to stubs larger than three inches in diameter within the tree's crown to such a degree that the tree's canopy is removed or the tree is disfigured;
U. "Tree" means any live woody plant having a single trunk or multiple trunks which measures three and one-half inches in diameter or larger at any point which is measured four and one-half feet (diameter breast height) above the grade adjacent to the subject plant.
(Ord. 2859 § 2 (part), 1995).