Denton's Planning and Zoning Commission will get its first detailed look at proposed rewrites of the city's tree preservation and landscaping rules on Wednesday, Oct. 7, in a work session that starts at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Work Session Room at City Hall, 215 E. McKinney St.
No vote is planned. According to the agenda information sheet from the Department of Development Services, planning staff will walk commissioners through the draft amendments to the Denton Development Code and answer questions before the package is scheduled for a public hearing.
Two sets of rules
The tree changes cover Section 7.7.4 and Subchapter 9.2 of the code.
Staff listed proposed changes to preservation, replacement and mitigation rates that take the city's canopy goals into account, stronger requirements for protecting trees during construction, an expiration date for tree surveys, more incentives to keep trees, revised relief provisions, a relief process for infill projects, and new terms that classify trees by health, size and species.
The landscape changes, in Sections 7.7.5 through 7.7.7, would revise street tree requirements and the landscape point table, set alternative standards for property at Denton Municipal Airport, add turf grass restrictions, update installation and maintenance practices and encourage native plants and ground cover.
How the drafts came together
Part of the work traces to the city's Water Conservation Plan, which the City Council updated 7-0 on April 16, 2024. Development Services staff were asked to look for ways the landscaping rules could encourage water conservation.
