Gainesville’s Planning and Appeals Board will make a recommendation to the City Council tonight about proposed changes to the city’s ordinances that could bring more trees to Gainesville.

The public hearing will be 5:30 tonight at the Georgia Mountains Center.

The proposed changes would require maintenance and inspection of buffers and trees, require more trees to be replanted when others are removed and require developers to keep or plant more trees on their development sites.

If approved, the ordinance would require commercial and industrial developments to have 18 trees per acre and residential developments to have 20 per acre.

The proposed changes came from a five-member Tree Advisory Committee that reviewed the city’s current tree code and suggested the changes.