A Canonical Biodiversity & Urban Forest Ordinance for Bay Area Cities
A model policy template — canopy targets, native-species requirements, tree protection, and monitoring — citing Mountain View's adopted Biodiversity and Urban Forest Plan as precedent for other Bay Area cities to adopt.
On June 23, 2026, the Mountain View City Council adopted the Biodiversity and Urban Forest Plan — a long-term roadmap for biodiversity conservation, urban forest management, habitat enhancement, and climate resilience, shaped by community workshops, surveys, and multilingual outreach. GreenSpacesMV believes every Bay Area city needs a plan like it. This page distills Mountain View's plan into a canonical template — the sections and provisions we think any Bay Area city council should be prepared to adopt, using Mountain View as the working precedent rather than a jurisdiction-specific rulebook to copy verbatim.
Goals & guiding principles
- Protect and enhance biodiversity across public and private land.
- Strengthen and grow the urban tree canopy, prioritizing under-canopied and heat-vulnerable neighborhoods.
- Improve habitat connectivity between parks, creeks, and open space.
- Build climate resilience — shade, stormwater capture, and cooling — into everyday city infrastructure.
- Support community well-being and equitable access to green space.
Canopy coverage targets
A canonical ordinance should set an explicit, measurable citywide canopy-cover target with an adoption horizon (e.g. a percentage increase by a target year), plus sub-targets by land-use zone so canopy growth doesn't concentrate only in already-green neighborhoods. Baseline canopy cover should be measured via aerial/LiDAR survey before targets are set, and re-measured on a fixed cadence (see Monitoring, below).
Native-species planting requirements
New plantings on public land and as a condition of development approval should draw from a locally-adapted native species palette, with a minimum percentage-native requirement for street trees, parks, and habitat restoration plantings. The palette should be maintained and periodically revised by city staff or a regional partner (e.g. a Resource Conservation District), and should distinguish native species clearly from naturalized or ornamental ones in code language — Mountain View's own council review specifically called out refining these definitions for clarity.
Tree protection standards
- Define protected-tree criteria (species, trunk diameter, heritage/landmark designation) that trigger a removal permit.
- Require a permit and documented justification before removing a protected tree, with public notice for larger removals.
- Set a replacement ratio (e.g. more than 1:1 by canopy area, not just tree count) for approved removals, favoring on-site replacement with native species.
- Apply protections during construction (root-zone fencing, grading setbacks) so development doesn't kill trees it never formally "removed."
Development-review integration
Canopy and native-planting requirements only have teeth if they're checked at permitting, not left as aspirational goals. The ordinance should require a landscape/tree plan for discretionary development review, referencing the same canopy-target and native-species-palette provisions above, so planning staff have a single authoritative standard to apply.
Monitoring & enforcement
Commit to a fixed re-survey cadence for citywide canopy cover (e.g. every 3-5 years), annual public reporting on progress toward targets, and a defined enforcement path (stop-work order, fine, or mandated replacement) for unpermitted removals of protected trees. Mountain View's own plan explicitly separates adoption from metric-building — near-term actions began at adoption while monitoring/reporting metrics were still being developed; a canonical ordinance should shorten that gap by specifying metrics up front wherever possible.
Adoption path for other cities
- Commission a baseline canopy survey (aerial/LiDAR) if one doesn't already exist.
- Run a community engagement process — workshops, surveys, multilingual outreach — to set locally-appropriate targets and priorities, following Mountain View's engagement model.
- Draft canopy targets, a native-species palette, and tree protection standards using the sections above as a checklist.
- Integrate the standards into the development-review code, not just a standalone policy document.
- Define monitoring metrics and a reporting cadence before, not after, council adoption.
Sources
- City of Mountain View: Biodiversity and Urban Forest Plan Adopted (news announcement, June 23, 2026)
- City of Mountain View: Biodiversity and Urban Forest Plan (full adopted plan, PDF)