(A) The Board of Commissioners finds that:
(1) Trees are proven producers of oxygen, a necessary element for human survival;
(2) Trees appreciably reduce the ever-increasing environmentally dangerous carbon dioxide content of the air, and play a vital role in purifying the air people breathe;
(3) Trees transpire considerable amounts of water each day and thereby purify the air much like the air-washer devices used on commercial air conditioning systems;
(4) Trees have an important role in neutralizing waste water passing through the ground from the surface to groundwater tables and lower aquifers;
(5) Trees, through their root systems, stabilize the groundwater tables and play an important and effective part in soil conservation, erosion control, and flood control;
(6) Trees are an invaluable physical, aesthetic, and psychological counterpoint to the urban setting, making urban life more comfortable by providing shade, cooling the air and land, reducing noise levels and glare, and breaking the monotony of human developments on the land, particularly parking areas; and
(7) For the reasons indicated in division (A)(6) above, trees have an important impact on the desirability of land, and therefore on property values.
(B) Based upon the findings set forth in division (A) above, the Board of Commissioners declares that it is not only desirable but essential to the health, safety, and welfare of all persons living or working within the town’s planning jurisdiction to protect certain existing trees and, under the circumstances set forth in this subchapter, to require the planting of new trees in certain types of developments.
(Ord. passed 12-20-2001)