All persons owning property in the City abutting upon any street and upon which there are shade trees along such street shall clean out the dead limbs and otherwise trim such trees so that the same will not become dangerous to, obstruct, or interfere with public travel or pedestrians.
All persons required by notice from the Director of Public Works to trim trees, as required under this article, must proceed to do so within 10 days after receiving such notice.
In case of failure to trim trees, as required under this article, the Director of Public Works is hereby authorized to do so, and the expense thereof shall be collected from the owner or occupant in the usual or ordinary way by suit and shall become a lien upon the premises.
Unless acting under a contract with the City, or unless there be a bona fide emergency, no tree shall be trimmed by any utility company without such utility company's having obtained a permit from the Common Council of the City. Utility companies desiring to obtain such permit may make application to the Common Council which shall contain its plan for the trimming and/or topping of trees. The permit shall be for a term of one year and may contain such reasonable conditions pertaining to the health and welfare of the citizens of the City as may be deemed appropriate to the circumstances. The Common Council shall act upon each permit application within 60 days of its receipt.
[Amended 10-8-2019 by Res. No. 76-19]
(a) Any person owning property in the City abutting upon any street and upon which there is a tree which has been deemed by the Tree Board and/or City Forester to be dangerous to, obstructing, or interfering with public travel or pedestrians shall have 30 days to have the tree removed by an insured contractor.
(b) The City of Olean will provide a rebate of 1/2 of the cost of such removal by the contractor of the property owner's choice or the City's tree removal contractor, whichever is less, to the property owner upon completion, subject to the following provisions:
(1) Eligible tree removal projects for the rebate are those which have been deemed by the Tree Board and/or the City Forester to be dangerous to, obstructing, or interfering with public travel or pedestrians. Trees removed for aesthetic purposes or at the will of the property owner will be ineligible for this rebate.
(2) An application (available in the Department of Public Works) must be completed and submitted to the Department of Public Works by the property owner.
(3) Department of Public Works inspection and designation of removal requirement by the Tree Board is required prior to the commencement of the project in order for the project to be eligible for the rebate.
(4) A permit will be required for the removal of the tree, and all work must be done by a licensed contractor in accordance with City of Olean specifications.
(5) A postremoval inspection will be performed prior to the release of funding.
(c) Any tree that has not been properly removed or maintained within 30 days of notification by the Department of Public Works shall be subject to removal by the City of Olean. In such cases where the property owner fails to remove or maintain said tree, or fails to apply for or comply with the procedures of the rebate program, the City's actual cost of removing or maintaining said tree shall become a lien on the premises.
Any person owning property in the City abutting upon any street and upon which there is a tree who desires to remove a tree in this right-of-way must request permission from and obtain required approvals from the Tree Board. In the event that the Tree Board denies such request for approval to remove a tree in the right-of-way, the property owner may appeal the decision to the Common Council within 15 days of the rendered decision of the Tree Board, and the Common Council will review said appeal by their next regularly scheduled meeting. Approval to remove the tree granted by the Tree Board (or Common Council, upon appeal) does not exempt the property owner from obtaining necessary permits from the Department of Public Works. A licensed contractor must perform the work required to remove the tree, and removal of a tree not deemed required for the public welfare or safety by the Tree Board will be done solely at the property owner's expense.
No poplar trees shall be placed in the subways of the City, and all poplar trees are hereby declared to be a nuisance and shall be removed by the owners thereof upon 15 days' notice from the Director of Public Works.