“We made it easy to tell your Councilmember to vote no and protect these (and future!) Heritage trees”

What is happening

• Councilmember Allen is introducing emergency legislation tomorrow (Tuesday, September 17) asking for a special exception to the Tree Canopy Protection Amendment Act of 2016.
• The bill is called the “Sursum Corda Cooperative Association Clarification Temporary Amendment Act of 2019”. It is emergency legislation that only requires a yes/no vote by the Council upon introduction.

What the emergency legislation says

• This bill will allow the Toll Brothers Development Company to remove all of the Heritage Trees on their Sursum Corda Housing Development site near North Capitol Street.
  • Heritage Trees are large, mature trees that are 100 inches in circumference or more.
• The developer (Toll Brothers Development Company) will be paying $270,000 to compensate for the removal of the Heritage Trees.  Toll Brothers Development Company is a national development company that makes $5.8 billion a year in revenue and is a Fortune 500 company.  These trees legally can not be removed without mayoral consent if they are healthy.

Issues

• If this emergency legislation passes, it opens the door for other developers to also ask for this special exception. Take Action! Protect D.C.’s Heritage Trees.
• This legislation also allows developers who were already told that they could not remove their Heritage Trees to go and ask for a special exception.
• Having the option for a legislative exception implies the current removal exceptions can be circumvented.
• Long term could remove the teeth from this law, passed in 2002 and fought for decades before that.

Ask

• Use our easy online form to tell your councilmember vote no on this emergency legislation! (Don’t know who your Councilmember is? Our form helps you find out!)

Other Facts

• This area is already one of the most susceptible to the urban heat island effect (it can be up to six degrees higher than the average District temperature).
• Large, mature trees, Heritage Trees especially, provide the most environmental benefits to neighborhoods.”