FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                    June 13, 2001

CARY, NC – After years of trying, the Town of Cary has been given the OK by the General Assembly to adopt laws addressing clear-cutting on residential and non-residential property. Under HB 910 ratified yesterday, Cary may now adopt ordinances regulating the removal and preservation of existing trees and shrubs prior to development within a perimeter buffer zone of up to 65 feet along roadways and property boundaries adjacent to developed properties and up to 32 feet along property boundaries adjacent to undeveloped properties. The new special legislation also allows for the adoption of ordinances regulating preservation and removal of significant specimen or "champion" trees on sites being planned for new development. Specific standards for identifying and designating such trees, including species and size, shall be incorporated as part of any such ordinance.

"I want to personally thank representatives of the Home Builders Association for working with us in moving this legislation forward," said Cary Mayor Glen Lang. "Without their willingness to reach outside the box and beyond the past, Triangle citizens would not face the greener future this legislation enables."

Lang went on to thank House Representative Jennifer Weiss and Senators Wib Gulley and Brad Miller for shepherding the legislation through the General Assembly. "They demonstrated a remarkable ability to work within the political process while appropriately balancing the needs of special interest groups with those of the common person. It is clear that without their leadership, support, and determination, our cooperative effort with the Home Builders I would have led nowhere."

The clear cutting act excludes normal forestry activities on property taxed under the present-use value standard or conducted pursuant to a forestry management plan prepared or approved by a forester registered pursuant to Chapter 89B of the North Carolina General Statutes.

The clear-cutting authority in HB 910 was also granted to the City of Durham and the Towns of Garner, Morrisville, Knightdale, Fuquay-Varina, and Spencer and affects land in each jurisdiction’s corporate limits as well as its extraterritorial jurisdiction. Each must hold public hearings before adopting such laws.

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