The councilman most opposed to the ordinance says he’s open to compromise, but still itching to repeal it. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
On Monday night’s borough council agenda in Fair Haven: another attempt to retool the controversial tree-protection law.
Whether it actually goes to a vote is a separate matter.
The proposed amendments, which loosen restrictions, were drawn up before Councilman Bob Marchese, who chafes at the law, had a mid-summer “summit” with proponents of the law, he tells redbankgreen.
That meeting yielded some compromises, which Marchese says will make the law less even less onerous, in his view.
Among them: boosting the size of trees that qualify for protection to 15 inches in diameter at chest height, from the current 10 inches.
So why’s it on the agenda at all? Marchese, who considers the ordinance an affront to property rights, isn’t shy about it: bargaining power.
“Hopefully, they’ll understand that while I don’t have the votes to repeal now, I might,” he says of the law’s backers.
Here’s the ordinance with the proposed amendments; additions to the existing text are shown in bold italics with underlines. Deletions are shown as strikeovers in bold italics: fh-tree-ord-091211
