A program aimed at preserving San Antonio’s tree canopy will be a boon to some of the city’s newest residents: Gorillas coming to live at the San Antonio Zoo.
The city’s 2025 budget, approved by the City Council on Thursday, calls for taking $500,000 from the city’s Tree Canopy Preservation and Mitigation Fund to be used on the San Antonio Zoo’s Congo Falls project, which will bring gorillas back to the city for the first time since 1990.
The two-acre exhibit broke ground earlier this year, and is expected to open in late 2025.
Zoo spokesman Cyle Perez said the money will go toward “trees for animal wellbeing and guest comfort, providing more shade and greenery within the zoo grounds,” which is part of Brackenridge Park.
In a city known for its tree lovers, the idea is drawing criticism from those who say the move doesn’t align with the program’s original intent.
The city’s Tree Canopy Preservation and Mitigation ordinance was created to ensure trees aren’t lost during development, by collecting fees from developers and requiring them to pay when trees are removed as part of their projects.
“The intent of the ordinance was to replace part of the street canopy that has been removed through development, not putting trees at the zoo,” said Eloy Rosales, whose nonprofit San Antonio Trees advocated for the city to create tree and landscape ordinances in 1996.
According to an audit report of the program published this summer, the city charges a blanket “Tree Canopy Investment fee” of $15 per lot for development of residential properties and $25 per acre for commercial properties, even if no trees are removed.
If trees are removed, it also charges by the stem: $200 per diameter inch of trunk for “significant” trees, and up to $600 per diameter inch of trunk for Heritage trees.
Those fees added up to nearly $9 million in the 2023 fiscal year, and were used to plant or give to residents roughly 12,600 trees.
The city’s Parks & Recreation Department did not respond to a request for comment.
