AN ACT to amend the charter of the city of southport to prohibit the city from regulating the removal, replacement, and preservation of trees outside the city's contiguous corporate limits.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  Article V of the Charter of the City of Southport, being Chapter 659 of the Session Laws of 1983, as amended, is amended by adding a new section to read:

Sec. 5.2. Removal, replacement, and preservation of trees. Notwithstanding the provisions of Chapter 160D of the General Statutes, its predecessor, Article 19 of Chapter 160A of the General Statutes, or any other provision of law, the City shall not enforce any ordinances regulating the removal, replacement, and preservation of trees on public or private property outside the City's contiguous corporate limits. Nothing in this section shall be construed as prohibiting the City from adopting ordinances regulating the removal, replacement, and preservation of trees on public or private property within the City's contiguous corporate limits as authorized in Chapter 242 of the Session Laws of 1987.

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.