Tallahassee Environmental Management Objectives

This rule intends to protect, maintain, and enhance the immediate and long-term health, safety, and general welfare of the residents of the city. The following objectives support this purpose by encouraging productive and enjoyable harmony between humanity and nature. The objectives are listed according to their primary purpose, but many objectives also relate to and support other purposes of the chapter: Overall: (1)To promote, protect, and enhance community values by conserving and creating a more aesthetically pleasing and functional environment;(2)To protect natural systems and avoid impairment of their beneficial functioning;(3)To preserve natural resources of significant value in important sites and corridors;(4)To encourage residents and guests to preserve the natural, scenic, and historic resources of this community;(5)To eliminate unessential topographic changes and clearing of natural vegetation and habitat;(6)To ensure efficient and effective implementation of environmental regulation;(7)To provide protection for the natural resources identified in the Conservation and Preservation Overlays specified in the Tallahassee-Leon County 2010 Comprehensive Plan, Conservation Element;(8)To require that development projects are designed to insure the continued functioning of ecosystems with minimum disturbance, when located in or adjacent to conservation and/or preservation areas as identified on conservation and preservation overlay maps maintained by the Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department. […] Tree protection:(18)To encourage the preservation of trees and vegetation and to prevent unreasonable or unnecessary damage to the community’s existing native tree canopy and vegetative understory;(19)To enhance the natural value of trees and vegetation which contribute to air purification, oxygen regeneration, groundwater recharge, stormwater runoff control, and abatement of noise, glare, and air pollution;(20)To promote energy conservation by maximizing the shading and cooling effects of trees;(21)To protect and provide habitat for endangered, threatened and native species; Landscaping:(22)To promote vehicular and pedestrian safety and to limit physical site access to established points of ingress and egress;(23)To clearly delineate and buffer the bounds of abutting vehicular use areas so that distractions of movement, noise, and glare from one area do not adversely affect the activity in another area;(24)To ensure that the local stock of native trees and vegetation is replenished;(25)To buffer uncomplimentary or incompatible land use through use of vegetated transition zones;(26)To provide psychological counterpoint to man-made urban settings; and(27)To maintain natural beauty in developed areas.