Tree Commission April 2018 Minutes Attending: Paul Josey, Rosanne Simon, Roxanne White, Mark Rylander, Lynn Rush, Matt Brinckman, Jody Lahendro, Peggy Van Yahres Staff: Brian Daly, Mike Ronayne, Heather Newmyer, Brian Ray Guests: none Approve February minutes: The commission will draft a summary after NDS presentation. Staff hopes to have a Standard and Design Manual draft prepared for the commission at the April meeting. FY ’19 Budget Update – Peggy, Brian The budget is basically done and is expected to be adopted Tuesday. The new budget essentially doubles previous year’s CIP funding but is now allocated as operating money. Itemizing these requests seemed to be an effective means to clearly state where these funds are utilized in urban forestry program. Peggy was approached by council in public recently and referred to “the tree lady.” Peggy asked about the urban forestry program budget and thanked council for their consideration. Brian has been searching and reviewing the Halprin design on the Mall to review tree well construction. It was discussed what the relationship should be between the tree study and the cultural design study. It is decided that keeping the trees alive is independent of the study of the Mall design and that there are different politics on both. Standards and Design Manual Update - Mike While staff had expected to have a draft available for the commission for the April meeting, staff is still putting together internal responses to the first daft. This will likely push back the draft being available to the public to April 27th. There was a work session originally planned for May 2nd will now subsequently be pushed back to sometime in mid-May. It is asked what the following steps need to be to complete the SADM update. Staff will provide a complete timeline of the process to commission. Dashboard prototype – Brian Ray Brian Ray introduces himself as the Data Manager for Parks and Rec. He has created this Dashboard Prototype based on the 5 measures created by the Data Committee and approved by the Tree Commission. The hope is to create “live data” online of tree removals and planting. Brian explains we do not own this software currently. In the data set for the prototype the tree points are real from the 2008 inventory, but other data is mock data set up for prototype demonstration using the Tableau program. If this program is adopted staff will be able to add new tree points and locate all new trees Parks is planting. Brian demonstrates the capability of the software, to drill down further information to look at genus, year planted and specific locations among other attributes. This information would reside on the City’s shared drive where other city staff would be able to make edits. Staff is exploring best GPS options and procedures for maintaining this inventory. Parks would like to take this concept further to inventory all Park’s assets such as benches, trash cans, etc., to create a valuable live inventory. It is suggested that providing cross-hatching or some other indication (polygon) where there are forested areas would help improve clarity. It is asked whether it would be possible to overlay the possible planting areas from the GIC project. This is something that can be explored. This data analysis software allows powerful report generation and powerful visualization. It is suggested that this could be incorporated with an app everyone could use to report tree issues to Urban Forester. There are varying levels of subscription. Other cities like Cincinnati and Alexandria are using Tableau. Staff hopes to have this available for the September Annual State of the Forest to council. Committee Reports Westhaven Update – Mike Today the 6 trees were pulled, moved and replanted in East McIntire Park. These 6 trees were trees that were moved at the request of residents and PHAR. With the remaining 11 newly planted trees at Westhaven mulched and gatorbagged today, the Westhaven project is completed. Michie Dr. may be a possibility for tree planting this fall. It is suggested that we reach out to the property manager Alex Cannon. Planting Committee- Roxanne The planting committee met together this morning. There are two new members form the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards. April 9th there will be a neighborhood meeting in Belmont where Peter intends to present a power point and flyers to engage community for the tree planting initiative. Jody and Mark will notify contacts in the neighborhood. Different marketing strategies are discussed along with a slogan or logo for this specific planting initiative. Code Update - Mark Mark proposes a standing meeting a week after today. There is a PLACE meeting on the 12th regarding the Comp. Plan land use. Mark hopes to direct Comp. Plan to amend ‘zero setbacks’ as it works against trees. Mark/Paul will send summary to Missy. Arbor Day Coordination – Mike Arbor Day will be held on Friday, April 27 which is actual Arbor Day this year. The event will be held at 10:00am at the large southern red oak in front of Venable Elementary School. VDOF will present the Tree City USA materials at this time and the proclamation will be read. At 8:00am also there will be something done with the whole school outside for Arbor Day. Parks had the large southern red oak pruned and a private citizen paid to have lightning protection installed today so the tree will be looking great for Arbor Day. Other Items It is asked what the timeline and process for review, edits and posting for public are for the Timmon’s Urban Tree Guide. It is explained several departments are interested in contributing to the revision of this document and staff has also been busy with other assignments so the project has not moved forward at this time. Brian will contact Public Works to facilitate revision process. It is proposed to add an additional column to the spreadsheet held by the clerk’s office of Tree Commission members’ information for subcommittee membership status. It is decided that the commission will create and manage the subcommittee column internally. Mike will send an up to date copy of spreadsheet from clerk’s office Roseanne has not been contacted regarding the Fontaine streetscape project. Mike will check on project status. There is a question about the tree preservation fencing requirements at the skate park construction being followed per the commission’s recommendations. The plan calls for a robust tree preservation plan here and Brian will confirm it is being implemented properly. Next meeting: Third Quarter Dashboard Review- Tree and Financial Data, Proposed planting locations for fall planting (including CHRA proposed planting design) from Tree Planting Committee Adjourn 6:55