The hills are alive, and will be for years to come thanks to countless hours on the part of council members and staff to revamp the West Lake Hills tree ordinance.

“It’s critical that we preserve the rural character of our unique communit,” Mayor Dave Claunch said. “Most of the rules that are in this new ordinance have been in place for years. We have strengthened and clarified them so that property owners can better understand their responsibilities.”

Before, the muddled ordinance basically required a flow chart to understand what required and did not require a permit for the various things residents could do to their trees. Now, the council clarified it to basically require a permit for everything, but all permits under the ordinance carry no fee.

“It requires them to call [City Inspector and Certified Arborist] Christy [Shull] and say here’s what we’re going to do,” said City Administrator Robert Wood.

The council unanimously voted the new ordinance into law at last week’s city council meeting. And while council member Cindy Probst could not stay for the late night vote, she expressed her support before leaving.

“If you want to prune a single tree, or if you want to mow your yard or pull weeds – that’s not the issue,” Wood said. “Those kind of regular yard maintenance things are OK.”

But Wood stressed, the city of West Lake Hills takes a very broad definition of the word tree. Under the new ordinance every type of tree from laurels to yaupons to the understory vegetation beneath larger trees has protection.

“The council was very clear that they weren’t looking to add revenue by doing this,” Wood said. “It wasn’t saying they were going to expand the permitting process, they just wanted to have better oversight of what’s going on with trees and vegetation.”

While the tree ordinance is among the strictest in central Texas, the wooded look and feel of West Lake Hills makes it stand out from other nearby communities. That, coupled with a strict impervious cover allowance, endeavors to maintain the private feel of individual lots.

“Really, it’s because it’s not like some other things where somebody makes a mistake, that you can fix it,” Wood said. “Once they remove the trees or vegetation, it’s gone, and might take 30 years to grow back to where it was.”

Included in the tree ordinance vote was a decision by council members to include an explanation of the new ordinance in the citywide newsletter scheduled to come out next month.