Denton city leaders have a new message for companies wishing to drill natural gas wells or install transmission lines in the city: Go around trees or pay the price.

The City Council amended the city’s tree ordinance on Tuesday to require developers who construct pad sites or install gas transmission lines to mitigate one-fourth of the tree removal on a property by paying into the city’s tree preservation fund.

The action came despite objections from three gas industry representatives who questioned why their industry was being singled out.

The amendment also applies to entities that raze trees to install fiber-optic communication lines, although public utilities, including Denton Municipal Electric, can be exempted under certain circumstances. Public utilities include companies franchised by the city to use public rights of way to carry out business.

The council adopted its current tree preservation ordinance in October 2004 to establish permitting, mitigation and enforcement procedures for land under development. A previous tree preservation ordinance had been in effect until 1998.

The 2004 ordinance requires nonresidential developers, in­cluding natural gas companies, to preserve 25 percent of the trees on an affected property. But drilling and transmission-line activity generally doesn’t remove more than 75 percent of trees on a property, meaning the mitigation requirement is rarely applied to such development, city officials said.

“A pipeline typically goes through the middle of a forest, but it doesn’t destroy that much of a forest,” Mayor Perry McNeill said.

That meant the burden of tree mitigation often shifted to surface-rights owners to address later, when they developed their property, city officials said.

Under the amendment, entities wishing to construct natural gas wells or install transmission or fiber-optic lines must pay into the tree fund if they are unable or unwilling to avoid clearing trees. The required payment is $125 per inch of thickness for each razed tree measuring at least 6 inches thick.

For a gas well that affects 3 acres of trees of a 10-acre site, for example, a company would pay to mitigate trees removed on 0.75 acres, or 25 percent of the affected area.

“It’s a huge incentive to go around the trees; that’s the point,” said Kelly Carpenter, Denton’s director of planning and development. “If you’re going to go through the trees, you’re going to pay.”

The surface-rights owner then will be responsible for mitigating the removal of 25 percent of the rest of the property’s trees whenever the land is developed.

Although the total tree mitigation will remain 25 percent on a property, the amendment eases some of the burden from surface-rights owners, city officials said.

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Joe Mulroy said the purpose of the amendment wasn’t to benefit the tree fund, an account allocated for tree preservation efforts, including buying land and planting trees.

“We’re not really looking for money in the tree bank,” Mulroy said. “We would rather they [developers] take the path that destroys the least amount of trees.”

At a public hearing Tuesday, gas industry representatives said the change denies their industry some of the tree mitigation options available to other developers.

“Now the only choice that they will have is to make payment that is required of them under this ordinance,” said Medferd Owen, an attorney representing NGG Gathering Co. and Endeavor Energy Resources. “They will no longer be able to take advantage of other mitigations provided in the [tree preservation] ordinance.” 

Owen also said the amendment prevents companies from working with surface owners on agreements for tree mitigation.

Bill Coleman of Denton-based Coleman & Associates Land Surveying also objected to the amendment, saying it applies different rules to the natural gas industry than to other developers. He also said the amendment was moving forward with little input from the public.

Council member Guy McElroy suggested the council table the amendment for further study, but council members later unanimously approved it.

City officials said the issue had been discussed in numerous meetings since March 2005, including one last month with gas well developers and industry representatives.

Public utilities are exempt from the amendment if they already had a route established through a master plan or had acquired an easement prior to the amendment’s effective date, City Attorney Ed Snyder said.

“If they [utilities] don’t have their route already planned, the idea is they’re supposed to choose a route that has less impact on the trees, or pay into the fund,” Snyder said. “It’s not a total exemption.”

Snyder said he believed communications giant Verizon, which is installing fiber-optic lines throughout Denton as part of its unveiling of fiber-optic television service, would be considered a public utility under the ordinance.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com .

In other action Tuesday, the Denton City Council:

• Approved a resolution explaining how the city will lease its oil, gas and mineral interests in city-owned land. A recent Texas attorney general’s opinion says cities don’t have to competitively bid such leases. According to the resolution, Denton will use the following steps: publish a newspaper notice that the city is receiving leasing proposals from companies; have city staff or consultants negotiate with one or more companies and recommend the best lease to the council, based on any factors the city decides are relevant; and have the city manager also recommend the best lease to the council. The council then could endorse the recommended lease, approve another lease or reject all proposals.

• Adopted a resolution supporting an alternative route for the state’s planned Trans-Texas Corridor, a multiuse transportation project expected to incorporate new and existing highways, railways and utility rights of way. The Texas Department of Transportation’s recommended route roughly parallels Interstate 35 but largely bypasses metropolitan Dallas-Fort Worth, leading regional leaders to suggest an alternative path that includes a loop around the two cities. The Denton City Council on Tuesday officially supported that route, which also would pass through Denton, saying it would connect urban centers more efficiently than the state’s suggested route. Transportation officials say the privately funded corridor is needed to reduce congestion on I-35, but critics say it would dislocate too many property owners along its path.

• Approved naming Denton’s dog park Wiggly Field at Lake Forest Park. Lake Forest Park opened to the public May 8, featuring a 3-acre park for dogs, Denton’s first. The city Parks, Recreation and Beautification Board had recommended the name after receiving public input.

• Administered the oath of office to new and continuing members of various city boards and commissions, and approved a resolution of appreciation for outgoing members.

—Lowell Brown