If

you would like to serve on a special committee

reviewing Fayette's tree protection regulations,

you have until Friday to get your name in the

pot.

County

commissioners last week decided to set the Friday

deadline for submission of names for a

five-member committee to review a proposed tree

protection ordinance currently under

consideration by the county Planning Commission.

Working

with county engineer Kirk Houser, the Planning

Commission has designed a proposed ordinance that

would provide incentives for developers to

preserve more existing trees on construction

sites.

Current

law requires that developers plant or save a

minimum number of caliper inches (diameter) of

trees per acre, but does not differentiate

between newly planted trees and older ones

preserved from the bulldozer. This often leads to

developers stripping a construction site

completely, then meeting the ordinance

requirement by planting young ornamental trees,

resulting in loss of all the native, large

specimen trees, officials say.

But

during a public hearing on the ordinance in

September, the Planning Commission heard from

numerous developers who urged caution.

"The

whole idea is to make it better, and to make it

better you need input from all parts of the

community," developer Jeff Ellis told the

group during the hearing.

He

suggested forming a committee made up of county

experts, average citizens and developers to

"come up with a compromise that's going to

suit everybody in the long run."

County

commissioners last week voted to form such a

committee, limiting it to five members, and allow

ten days for anyone interested to submit resumes

to commissioners' aide Carol Chandler.

"I'm

not interested in waiting two years to get a tree

ordinance," cautioned Commissioner Greg Dunn

before making a motion to name a committee. He

was referring to the county's sign ordinance,

which did take two years to adopt as committees

studied it for months.

"I

don't have a problem with a short duration

[committee]," Dunn added.

Interested

parties should submit resumes to Carol Chandler

at the County Administrative Complex, 140 W.

Stonewall Ave., Fayetteville 30214. Friday is the

deadline.

Commissioners

directed the Planning Commission to select the

committee from the names submitted

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