Petition

to the Seattle City Council for an Emerald City Tree Ordinance

April 3rd, 2016

Joseph Szilagyi
Sunday, April 3rd, 2016

TO: Seattle City Council President Bruce Harrell, Councilmember Lisa Herbold,
Councilmember Kshama Sawant, Councilmember Rob Johnson, Councilmember
Debora Juarez, Councilmember Mike OBrien, Councilmember Sally Bagshaw,
Councilmember Tim Burgess, and Councilmember Lorena Gonzlez

Honorable Councilmembers,

As you are all likely aware, a group of at this time anonymous homeowners in West
Seattle this year took it upon themselves to clear cut a large expanse of public land
in the Duwamish Head Greenbelt, at the north end of 35th Ave SW. There has been
extensive news coverage of this incident, which is the latest of an ongoing pattern of
homeowners and builders taking it upon themselves to clear either public or
privately owned trees without proper permission. To date, this is the most
sensational event since Senior Judge Jerome Farris of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals was involved in a similar incident in 2000, which was pursued to a fiscal,
but not criminal, settlement by former Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr.

Since this West Seattle event became public in the media, reports have been
constant, ongoing, and relentless of people complaining about it both online in social
media and to the local news media. Reports have been appearing all over of far
smaller incidents of illegal tree cutting in the wake of this, bringing further attention
to the issue. We are the Emerald City, but it appears that a notable portion of our
population takes it upon themselves each year to prune, top, or cut down trees
which they have no entitlement to, for a variety of reasons.

In the wake of this, I began a petition to the Seattle City Council on March 29th, 2016,
through Change.org, which is located here:

https://change.org/p/council-seattle-gov-change-seattle-s-laws-to-stop-people-
clear-cutting-our-forests

As of April 3rd, 2016, at 8:00 AM, a total of 700 people have signed the petition.

We call upon the Seattle City Council to review and enact changes in city law to the
following ends, wherever legal under restrictions and authorizations from the
United States Constitution, United States Federal law, the Washington State
Constitution, Washington State law, and the Seattle City Charter. We ask that you
enact such changes to the fullest and most total ends that all of these allow:

Page 1 of 3

Petition to the Seattle City Council for an Emerald City Tree Ordinance
April 3rd, 2016

1. Elevate illegal cutting and destruction of trees to the highest and maximum
level of criminal offense that the City of Seattle may raise them to. Whatever
additional leeway is allowed our City by the State should be exercised in our
local law in regard to these acts: maximum per tree and offense jail time as
well as maximum per tree fine and fiscal penalty. Go to the very limits of the
authority we have.

2. As these would be specifically criminal offenses, all findings of illegal
cutting or destruction of trees should come with explicit criminal penalties,
to ensure actual arrest records of responsible parties by the Seattle Police
Department. This should no longer be any sort of civil or regulatory matter,
but explicitly a criminal matter.

3. Require in legislation not just policy -- that the appropriate departments
(for example, the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections, Seattle
Parks, Seattle Police Department, etc.) treat these crimes, in particular for
destruction in slope areas, as their maximum highest level priority in terms
of budget and staffing for rectification. These acts can and will put homes at
risk of destruction from landslides and need swift remediation to begin on a
scale far faster than we have seen in the past. For example, the Judge Farris
event was not resolved for three years.

4. Require immediate cross reporting between the City Attorneys office,
Seattle Police, and all other involved departments of such incidents
whenever a department or agency becomes aware of them.

5. Whenever the City of Seattle becomes aware of these crimes, notifications
by physical mail must be sent within 30 days by the City to all physical
addresses within one half mile as the bird flies of the site where the crime
occurred (rental or otherwise, all detached homes, condos, and apartment
units) and to all listed property owners with the full details, locations,
confirmed responsible parties (if known), SPD case numbers, DPS case
numbers, and all other public information on the matter. This will allow all
possibly impacted and at-risk parties to be fully aware, and to pursue any
civil litigation which may be required in the future if they themselves are
impacted. If the City of Seattle later becomes aware of and confirms the
responsible parties, a second follow up mail notification shall be sent as a
follow up with revised information.

6. The City will take maximum steps required to return the damaged slope
and areas to the most geologically secure form it can through repair and
replacement of the best and most efficient climate and elevation appropriate
native trees with the longest possible lifespan, as close to its original form
as possible.


Page 2 of 3

Petition to the Seattle City Council for an Emerald City Tree Ordinance
April 3rd, 2016

7. The City will take any temporary right of way access that is required for
maintenance and repair of the damaged slopes from the properties of the
responsible party. If that means we need to stage the entire repair operation
from their backyard or construction site of an under development building
with contractors and urban forestry staff for the next five years, thats what
we will do. The impact from any such remediation should be minimized as a
burden upon neighbors or businesses that were not involved.

8. All costs (total city labor costs across all departments, all legal fees, all
remediation work, materials, etc.) incurred through all items in parts 1-7 will
be billed directly to the responsible parties, with as many escalating per day
fines as is allowed per State law to encourage responsible compliance. The
City of Seattle will use liens against the property of the responsible parties to
enforce compliance. In the end, when remediation work is completed, the
ledger for the City of Seattle should be at $0.00 with all total costs, adjusted
for inflation, transferred by force to the responsible parties, to the maximum
degree we are allowed to do under Federal and State law.

In essence, this petition request can be summarized as:

Change codes and laws in a new ordinance as recommended, to the fullest
extent we can, to deter illegal vandalism or cutting of trees with as much force
as the City may legally exercise by treating these events as crimes.

We are the Emerald City and its past time our laws aggressively defend that name.

Regards,
Joseph Szilagyi






CC: Honorable Mayor Ed Murray
CC: Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes








Attachment A: List of signatures from Change.org
Attachment B: Total comments from Change.org
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