12 Canopy Cover Questions

QUESTIONS ON NOTICE TO CITY OF LAUNCESTON COUNCIL AND ALL COUNCILLORS 

 QUESTIONS

1. Given the increasingly evident impacts that ‘Climate Change and the ongoing Climate Emergency’ and their unanticipated consequences upon the sustainability and viability of urban cultural landscapes, not to mention civic planning and urban livelihoods, will Council now move proactively and expeditiously towards a total reworking of its current planning and approvals processes aimed at putting in place a fundamental change in priorities with identified and targeted ‘achievement indicators’ relative to upgrading the city’s urban canopy cover? 

2. Moreover, against the background of the City of Launceston’s ‘colonial histories’ and their aftermath, will Council now be proactive in regard to putting in place cultural landscaping protocols that acknowledges and indeed celebrates palawa/pakana cultural realities, cultural sensibilities and cultural landscaping cum placemaking aspirations relative to upgrading the city’s canopy cover? 

3. Further to that, given the ‘elasticity’ of Council’s current ‘tree preservation cum canopy protection preservation’ provision will Council now reinforce these provisions and apply meaningful consequence – significant fines and/or other measures – for ‘developers’ who fail to meet their obligations, undertakings and/or some developers’ blatant recalcitrance in regard to the conditions of approval for a development? 

4. Further to that, will Council now move expeditiously and proactively towards putting in place a ‘set of dollar value assessment protocols’ for individual trees and groups of trees based on canopy value, and their sequestered carbon value, upon which an offset mechanism and replacement system can be invoked in cases where, for good planning reasons, trees need to be displaced from a precinct cum urban landscape in accord with other jurisdictions in Australia? 

5. Further to that, will Council now act expeditiously towards enabling and encouraging private property owners to register trees within their property and/or within/near their area as being ‘significant canopy trees’, and have them registered with Council to the effect of having them protected by Council policy now and into the future? 

 6. In accord with that, will Council now put in place a ‘voucher system’ that enables all citizens and ratepayers to receive, plant and ‘adopt’ a number or trees ‘per annum’ in designated zones for ‘canopy cover cum carbon sink purposes’ whereby these trees collectively might well also be components of a ‘food forest’, a ‘nature habitat’ and/or simply add to the environmental amenity of urban spaces? 

 7. Additionally, will Council now enable and encourage ‘citizens’ to plant ‘identified and marked memorial trees’ in the urban landscape and have them marked – say with a QRcode – as designated ‘canopy trees’ and thus protected by Council policy determinations and policy implementation? ......... 8. Consistent with all of the above, will Council either maintain a ‘WOOD BANK’ or endorse a community group to establish such a facility with wood resources recovered from the public urban landscape ‘banked’ in the ‘resource reserve’ to be used as a ‘material’ by artist makers, cultural producers, women’s/men’s shed memberships etc. as is increasingly the case in Europe? 

 9. Furthermore, will Council now be proactive in enabling and encouraging the ‘microchipping’ of both the sites of, and the significance of, canopy trees in order that Council can better maintain the city’s urban canopy cover and ensure accountability into the future? 

10. In accord with the above will Council now proactively revisit its zoning provisions in order that it may reassess the utility of land that is of marginal value, flood prone, compromised in some way, susceptible to land slippage etc. in a residential or commercial context and invoke ‘AGRIHOOD ZONES’ in urban cultural landscapes dedicating these zone’s utility as being directed towards primary food production, fibre production, market gardening, orchards, nurseries, habitat reserves and like uses? 

11. In accord with the above will Council now proactively market such policy initiatives via social media etc. and provide the city’s citizenry with incentives to join with Council and work towards a 15% minimum increase in canopy cover by 2025 and an increase of a further 20% by 2035? 

 12. Backgrounded by the above will Council now proactively advocate that adjoining Council jurisdictions join with the City of Launceston in invoking and implementing such policy initiates by the time of this year’s Local Government elections 2022?