A. No separate forest practices/land clearing permit shall be required under this chapter if an application has been filed for a development permit, so long as no alteration of the site is made pending the consideration by the city of such application. The purposes and standards set forth in this chapter shall apply to said pending application;

B. The installation and maintenance of fire hydrants, water meters, pumping stations, and street furniture, by the city or its contractors;

C. Removal of trees and ground cover in emergency situations involving immediate danger to life or property or substantial fire hazards;

D. Removal of dead or diseased trees, dead or diseased shrubs, or dead or diseased ground cover;

E. Removal of invasive, nonnative trees, shrubs, or ground cover unless located within a critical area or its buffer;

F. Removal of ornamental, landscape trees installed for aesthetic purposes in association with a residential use subject to the landscaping and tree retention requirements of Chapter 12.18 BMC and the critical areas requirements of Chapter 14.04 BMC. Trees associated with timber production such as Douglas fir, western hemlock, western red cedar, western white pine, Engelmann spruce, western larch, and other timber trees as determined by the director of community development shall not be considered ornamental landscape trees for the purposes of this exemption;

G. Removal of trees, shrubs or ground cover for purposes of general property and utility maintenance or landscaping on developed properties one half acre or less in area, subject to the landscaping and tree retention requirements of Chapter 12.18 BMC and the critical areas requirements of Chapter 14.04 BMC. This exemption shall not apply to any forest practices or land clearing which involves the use of a bulldozer or similar mechanical earth-moving equipment, neither shall it be construed to eliminate the requirement of obtaining other applicable development permits;

H. Removal of trees as part of the normal maintenance within the Tolt River pipeline right-of-way and the Seattle City Light transmission line easement;

I. Forest practices on ownerships of contiguous forest land equal to or greater than 20 acres where the forest landowner provides, to the Department of Natural Resources and the applicable county, a written statement of intent, signed by the forest landowner, not to convert to a use other than growing commercial timber for 10 years, in accordance with RCW 76.09.240(1)(a)(i);

J. Forest practices necessitated by fire, flood, windstorm, earthquake or other emergency defined by the state Forest Practices Board, in accordance with RCW 76.09.060(7);

K. Forest practices conducted to control exotic forest insect or disease outbreaks, in accordance with RCW 76.09.060(8); and

L. Forest practices consistent with a habitat conservation plan approved prior to March 25, 1996, by the United States Secretary of the Interior or Secretary of Commerce, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 as amended, in accordance with RCW 76.09.340. (Ord. 2041 § 4 (Exh. B), 2010; Ord. 1815 § 1, 2000; Ord. 1629 § 1, 1996. Formerly 12.12.030).