TREES


The current draft under consideration has no exemptions, even though the Watershed Center, Russ Soyring, and Lauren-Tribe have all said

that NMC should be exempt. Without an exemption, the current draft would make all of the NMC land North of Eastern Avenue unusable for

anything other than a tree lot, as it is currently all wooded. Building a dorm or a classroom or a library would require removing enough trees

that the replacement requirements under the currently proposed ordinance could not be met. An exemption for “units of local government”

would not exempt NMC, as the Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that community colleges are not units of local government. NMC has not

been a ruthless remover of trees and, in fact, has worked to keep the wooded sections of its campus intact to a great degree.


The proposed ordinance needs to be amended to exempt NMC by name.