Lake Oswego City Hall is pictured here. (Staff file photo)

The city of Lake Oswego takes its commitment to tree protection policies seriously.

So when the Lake Oswego City Council was presented with a pair of annexation proposals at locations where the developers had removed  a handful of trees prior to the application process with the city — thus skirting the city’s regular tree permit review process — they were dismayed.

“I can’t let this go,” Council President Trudy Corrigan said. “I don’t think it’s right. It’s not caring for resources and I don’t think it’s fair to all the people who live by the rules.”

The council ultimately voted to approve annexations (for about a half an acre each) on Kenny Lane and Lakeview Boulevard during a meeting Tuesday, July 1 but with a series of conditions including that the developers replant trees at a 3-1 ratio with those that were removed, pay a restoration fee to the city’s tree fund and maintain the trees planted for mitigation for at least two years following annexation.

The city’s tree permit process for development requires applicants to submit materials to the city, including a mitigation plan, and allows the opportunity for appeal. The council did not want a loophole to emerge in which developers remove trees prior to annexation, but felt the applications still warranted approval in part because the developers didn’t clearcut the lots but seemed to cut down trees within the area planned for development.

Mayor Joe Buck described the conditions as “ways to still allow the annexation and the development to take place in the context of us wanting to encourage development and needed housing, but also making it clear that we strongly discourage this kind of behavior.”