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.