City's Urban Forest Commitment

Sustainability Strategy

City Sustainability Plan

Sustainability in the landscape is about creating healthy places and robust systems that mimic the natural environment. Green spaces include natural areas, parks, yards, ponds, lakes, and even back yards. Green connections are streets, trails for bicycles and pedestrians, habitat corridors, natural drainage systems, streams, and views. These spaces provide benefits, including opportunities for people to walk or bike instead of driving their cars, habitat protection for native plants and animals, and improvements to water quality by managing storm water and filtering pollutants. (Goal IV - Mountlake Terrace Sustainability Strategy.)

City of Mountlake Terrace Sustainability Strategy (PDF)

Landscape Development (Tree Ordinance)

The retention of significant trees and vegetation in the City is important and necessary to maintain and protect property values, to enhance the visual appearance of the City, to preserve the natural wooded character of the Pacific Northwest, to promote utilization of natural systems, to reduce the impacts of development on the storm drainage system, and to provide a better transition between the various land uses permitted in the City. (Landscape Development Code - 19.130.140 Retention of existing site vegetation.)