Jacksonville tree protection fund nearly depleted, council says

The main financial resource Jacksonville's mayor and City Council have used over the years to plant trees and improve landscaping on public roads and property is nearly depleted.

There is about $2 million left in the city's tree protection trust fund, an account fed by developers' contributions that had a balance of more than $10 million just a year ago.

The council's Finance Committee, led by Stephen Joost, has stopped new spending out of the tree protection fund until a decision can be made on how the remaining dollars should be used.

"At the rate we're going, we're going to run out of money," he said. "Maybe there ought to be some kind of hierarchy so we can prioritize some of the upcoming projects."

Councilman Reggie Brown wants to use $97,000 from the fund to plant trees along Moncrief Road, Avenue B and 45th Street in his district. Brown said it doesn't make sense to stop using the money in the way it was intended.

"I believe that stalling it only stalls beautification of Jacksonville," Brown said.

The fund was established by ordinance decades ago and required developers who cut down protected trees to mitigate those losses by either planting new trees or, more often, paying into the account. Later, a citizen referendum in 2000 led to a charter amendment that strengthened requirements and extended the accountability to housing developers.

As the city grew and development remained robust, the fund was constantly replenished. When the mayor's office or a City Council member wanted to use the money to plant trees along a public road or landscape property, few questions were asked, Joost said.

"Every time a councilman has a request for trees, it's pretty much rubber-stamped," he said.

It wasn't until recently that Finance Committee members began asking for an accounting of the money that remains and where it has been spent.

Numbers supplied by the Council Auditor's Office show that of the nearly $19 million spent in the past five years, the districts with the highest tree protection fund spending were those adjacent to downtown.