Tree Commission July 2019 Minutes Attending: Paul Josey, Mark Rylander, Brian Menard, Roxanne White, Lynn Rush, Peggy Van Yahres, Rosanne Simon, Matt Brinckman Staff: Mike Ronayne, Brian Daly Guests: None June Minutes Corrections – Approved without corrections. Belmont Tree Planting Project - Rosanne Funding of project has been secured through the Ballyshannon grant of $3,375.00 and the group is moving forward with planting adjacent streets in Belmont that were done last year. The streets to be planted for project will be Montrose Av. and Elliott Av. and there are about 35 houses potentially. Out of the 6 trees that died from last year’s planting only 4 of them will be replaced. Trees for this fall will be containerized 3/4 - 1 1/2” caliper trees and the group will be excluding black gum since they did not perform well last year. August 24th will be the canvassing date and November 9th or 16th will be actual tree planting. Paul will be collecting documents (City volunteer waiver, CATS volunteer waiver, responsibility of tree recipient) to send with letter to City Attorney regarding liability of parties involved in project. CATS committee meets next week on this. Friendship Court Site Plan - Paul Mike has brought copies of Friendship Ct. for the group to take with them to review and provide comments to Brian Haluska by end of the week. Mall Tree Study RFP – Brian Daly Brian shares copies the draft RFP which has most of the tree items on page 4. The Attachment for additional resources will include Jim Urban’s study as well. There are concerns about trees being over shadowed by some of the other items in the draft. Brian will send out a Word Doc as well and asks for all comments be back by July 19th. Brian Menard will collect comments centrally before submitting. Review Bylaws/Urban Forestry Goals – Roxanne/Paul Roxanne has compiled urban forestry goals and objectives in a matrix as it pertains to the mission of the commission from various City documents. After some discussion it is decided that Mike will go through and indicate which ones are complete or ongoing. This will then lend itself to have the other objectives prioritized by the commission. It is also suggested that the bylaws could be reorganized or simplified. Upcoming Projects that Impact Trees - Mike Nothing currently. Standards and Design Manual – Mark/Paul The group met with Mike to review comments. Paul will send out comments for SADM to everyone after one final pass. The diagrams will come later after comments. The committee values showing a diagram of practical tree preservation detail in a real life, urban situation in the SADM. Final comments will be submitted to staff before the end of the month. E. High St. Streetscape – Brian Menard Brian M. and Mark took commission comments to the public hearing. At the hearing there was a strong consensus that the proposed understory trees were inconsistent with Streets that Work and community values. The funding for undergrounding of overhead utilities cannot come from VDOT funding and the issue will likely be heading to City Council. General impression was that the project is moving towards getting larger trees. Development and Code Committee - Roxanne Mike and Brian Ray have not had a chance to get together to create end of the FY report. After the report is created it will be reviewed with the committee prior to the Tree Commission meeting. It is said it would be good to associate values with trees. Other online tree inventories are discussed such as Philadelphia and New York City which appear to be more workable, engaging. Other items/Announcements not on agenda – All It is suggested putting the agenda onto City Notes which would be done by providing the agenda to the Communications Dept. for posting on the website. Also the monthly calendar which appears alongside of the webpage seems to have dropped the Tree Commission meeting notifications. Staff will look into these items. Meeting Action Items: • Mark, Brian M., Peggy will draft comments for Friendship Court • Mike will indicate which items are complete/in progress from matrix created by Roxanne and send to Roxanne, Rosanne and Paul. • Everyone will send comments for the Mall Tree Study RFP to Brian M. to summarize comprehensive comments to submit to Brian Daly by July 19th. • Paul will collect documents (City volunteer waiver, CATS volunteer waiver, responsibility of tree recipient) to send with letter to City Attorney regarding liability of parties involved in Belmont planting project • Final comments for the SADM will be submitted before the end of the month • Staff will look into adding the agenda to City Notes and to the monthly calendar Next meeting: Prep for Tree Commission Annual Report to Council in September, End of the Year Dashboard report, Arborist Final Tree Planting Bid Package Schedule, CIP Proposed Budget Request from Parks and Rec. Draft. Adjourn 7:00