CITY of Kalamunda council unanimously voted for a motion to advertise a new future forest policy as residents raised concerns about the broadened scope for exemptions to tree retention.

The latest development follows from the council’s resolution in February to draft a new policy instead of adopting the WA Local Government Association’s (WALGA) tree retention policy.

During public question time, residents questioned the new draft policy’s capability in meeting the city’s 30 per cent tree canopy target with the broadened scope of exemptions allowing tree removal.

Kalamunda resident Hannah Lill asked why the WALGA tree policy was rejected and sought clarity on exemptions for residential land under the new future forest policy draft.

City of Kalamunda approval services manager Regan Travers said council asked for a custom policy, to balance the bias to keep trees in the previous policy, so residential exemptions reflect planning changes, and said R codes now did some of the work the previous policy did.

“Officers were given a clear direction from council that the bias towards tree retention in the revoked policy was not meeting community expectations and the WALGA policy largely reflects that bias towards tree retention,” he said.

“If a residential site was subdivided to build grouped housing there naturally would be a requirement through the R codes to replant trees and we wouldn’t need to rely on city policy to do that.

“The revoked policy did a lot of the heavy lifting at the time because the state planning framework was yet to fully deal with tree retention and tree replanting.”

According to council documents, the original tree retention policy adopted in 2022 was scrapped after council received blowback from residents over the inability to remove trees from their private properties.

“The priority of tree retention was evident in the hierarchy of mitigation which listed retention and avoidance strategies as preferred, prior to more balanced measures such as offset planting and offset payment,” it said.

“Rather than dealing with a range of environmental aspirations, the future forest focus has narrowed to be a clear and precise planning instrument dealing with the matter of canopy cover.

“The scope of exemptions has broadened, particularly in regard to land use only for residential purposes.”

Gooseberry Hill resident Victoria Laurie asked why the new draft policy shifted away from a tree retention focus.

She said the WALGA template policy used by other councils like Victoria Park and Fremantle had proven effective without being labelled a burden and was concerned that exemptions under the new policy will allow developers to remove trees post-building approval.

Mr Travers said it did and that the new policy was not primarily about protecting trees but was instead about encouraging a balance between tree retention and replanting.

The past tree retention work done by city officers in High Wycombe, which was recognised at the WALGA Urban Forest Conference this year was also praised at the meeting.

“Under the tree policy that did exist, a development occurred on some tree land, and your own council officer did excellent work which was actually displayed at the WALGA conference earlier this year and applauded,” Ms Laurie said.

“I’d like to know did that lead to the retention of a large number of mature trees on that land in High Wycombe as a result of a policy that Kalamunda council had passed and that your own officers created?”

Mr Travers said it had.

“It was a subdivision approved (in) Bloom estate  where a number of trees were retained through that subdivision process and as a direct result of the formal policy being in place at the time,” he said.