SMITHFIELD — The tale of the tree-clearing ordinance proposed in town starts on a single street corner in Smithfield.

Visit the corner of Route 7 and Route 116. On one side, thick, lush trees line the street, peeking well above telephone lines and hiding more trees behind it. On the other side, a large plot of land waiting to be developed is riddled with stumps, branches and in some places, discarded trash.

Residents in this town, which values its rural character, were outraged that developers were allowed to cut down large swaths of trees with no oversight. They began calling Town Council member Maxine Cavanaugh to complain.

“I had a lot of people who’ve asked me to put this ordinance in,” she said. “It’s an eyesore. There’s never any need to cut down every tree to build anything.”

So Cavanaugh sponsored an ordinance to put tighter restrictions on how many trees can be cut on a single piece of property. A public hearing on the ordinance will be held July 14 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

“If the people that have contacted me are any sign of how the residents feel, I think the other council members will vote for it,” she said. “It really started an avalanche of people being upset. Some people never go there, but the people who see it regularly are pretty upset that it happened and there was nothing that we could do about it.”

If the ordinance is enacted, property owners would be required to obtain a tree-clearing certificate from the Engineering Department — at a cost of $25 to $125 depending on the size of the property — and submit a plan that shows all of the trees on the property and which ones would be removed. They would also be prohibited from burying tree stumps, stems or branches on property in town. Instead, they would have to be piled in a designated onsite area and left to decompose, removed and taken to a state-approved site that accepts stumps or ground and used for mulch.

Those found not complying with the ordinance would first receive a notice from the town asking for cooperation, then, any further permits for the site would be withheld until steps were completed to bring the property in line with the ordinance. Those steps could include replanting or implementing drainage and erosion-control measures.

If the owner refuses to apply, or fails to get a tree-clearing certificate prior to doing the work, the town could levy a fine of $100 to $600, depending on the offense and the size of the property.

The ordinance, drafted by Town Planner Mike Phillips and Town Engineer Kevin Cleary culled ordinances from communities in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Georgia. The tree preservation ordinance falls in line with the town Comprehensive Plan, Phillips said. The town already had soil erosion and stump-removal ordinances, but the tree preservation ordinance is more encompassing.

Still, the proposed ordinance needs some tweaking. Already, Phillips said he has made some changes to make sure that the ordinance doesn’t prohibit people from doing regular maintenance within reason on their own lawns.

“We need to strike a balance between protecting the visual quality by preserving street buffers and allowing people to do some work on their land when they need to,” he said. “Everyone doesn’t place the same value on trees as others do.”

tbuford@projo.com