A new task force will take another shot at updating the city’s tree policy after an earlier effort by Mayor Steve Noble failed in the face of strong public opposition. The policy review comes as the city has begun making progress towards a goal of planting 1,000 new trees by 2030.

Alderwoman Marissa Marvelli (D-Ward 3) outlined her concept for the task force in a Sept. 21 memo to Kingston Common Council President Andrea Shaut. Marvelli, a historical preservationist with a background in urban design, said she modeled the plan on another task force set up to study and make recommendations on zoning and permitting standards for battery energy storage systems in the city.

In Marvelli’s plan, the 12-member task force would solicit input on the city’s current tree policies from the community. The effort would also include outreach to commercial tree services, utility companies and building contractors. The group would then assess the current policy’s strengths and weaknesses, look at tree ordinances from other communities and draft a set of recommendations for the mayor and Common Council. Marvelli’s resolution calls for the task force to meet monthly and lays out a detailed timeline for its work culminating in June 2027 with a final set of recommendations for changes to the policy.

Marvelli’s proposal comes six months after a new tree ordinance developed by Mayor Steve Noble in collaboration with the city’s urban forester and tree commission was roundly rejected by the council. Noble’s proposed legislation would have extended the city’s authority, which currently includes trees on city property or private property adjacent to city rights-of-way, to all trees on public or private property. Property owners wishing to remove a healthy native tree would have to replace it with one of equal or greater value or pay a fee based on the value and condition of the tree.

Noble’s law would also have required builders to include a “tree protection plan” as part of their application to the planning board and prohibited construction that could damage the root systems of trees at the worksite or on adjacent properties. Noble first proposed the legislation in April 2025. But it was not until a year later, when Wiltwyck Cemetery Executive Director Matthew Sirni made a series of videos laying out the implications of the law, that the public took notice.

Sirni argued that the proposed legislation would add enormously to the already considerable expense of removing trees while creating situations where backyard projects could be prohibited based on the property owner’s proximity to trees on a neighboring policy. In June, amid a public outcry over the proposed new rules the Kingston Common Council voted unanimously and without discussion to reject the legislation.

Noble has called the city’s urban canopy a valuable asset not only for its beauty but as part of Kingston’s “climate resilience” infrastructure. Noble has argued that trees provide shade, combatting the effects of heat waves produced by a changing climate and help mitigate stormwater runoff from more frequent and more severe storms. To support the effort, in 2024 Noble created the position of urban forester and acquired over $2 million in state and federal grants. Later this month, crews will begin work on a project to plant 60 new street trees on Elmendorf Street between Broadway and Flatbush Avenue.