Town working to save industrial park trees

Councilmembers Fudge and Salmon urge engineers to keep
trying for a more tree-friendly street design
by BERT WILLIAMS, Staff Writer
The Windsor Town Council heard a report last week about trees in
the proposed new industrial park along Conde Lane between Shiloh
and Mitchell roads. Not everyone on the council was pleased with
what they heard.
Town engineers had worked on the design of the industrial park
with trees in mind from the beginning. Their initial designs
preserved 131 trees out of a total of 273 in the project, but after
reviewing the plans in a June 20 meeting, the town council
instructed engineers to try harder. Councilmembers wanted to save
more trees.
James McNair, consulting arborist for the town, studied the
trees and the the industrial park’s design and came back to last
week’s council meeting with a report. He spoke of curbs, gutters,
retaining walls, culverts, road base and pavement. He explained the
function of root systems for trees weighing as much as 250
tons.
After McNair had discussed the challenges to several specific
trees, Mayor Pro Tem Debora Fudge broke in. What the council was
looking for, Fudge insisted, was ways to save trees, not reasons to
remove them.
A discussion ensued among councilmembers and town staff. Part of
the discussion focused on a median strip that had been designed for
Conde Lane between Mitchell Road and Pool Creek. The median is
designed to run along the west side of the existing road.
“The whole idea of the median was to save trees,” said Fudge, “…
and now it’s not going to work.”
“I had no idea what the plan was,” McNair replied. “I was just
evaluating the trees.”
Councilmembers began to question whether they were ready to vote
on the Mitigated Negative Declar-ation prepared by town engineers
for the Mitchell/Shiloh/Conde Assessment District. The purpose of
the declaration is to affirm that there will be no significant
environmental effect from the project.
“I am real concerned about those trees at Conde and Mitchell
Lane,” said Councilmember Sam Salmon.
“How many trees did we save in the median?” asked Fudge.
“You’re saving about 30 trees in the median,” replied
Councilmember Steve Allen.
“It just doesn’t look like the median is doing what we hoped it
would do,” said Salmon.
“I looked at this and saw something different,” Allen replied.
“From what I can see in the road design, it did look like they
tried to preserve trees. You don’t want to lose any trees, … but to
make that roadway the kind of road we need out there, we’re going
to be taking out trees. I’m looking at the road width, and the
trees that are there, and I’m not really seeing a way around
it.”
“I’m not satisfied,” Salmon replied. “We have to be the ones
that set the example. We can’t force developers to save trees if we
don’t do it ourselves. I want more. I am not being critical of
staff. But I am trying to figure out how to create something that
is unique. That’s our charge. I know you’ve tried to save the
trees, but I just think there needs to be one more cut at it for me
to be satisfied.”
“Would you propose a narrower street?” asked Allen. “What I’m
asking is what you’d see as a possible solution.”
“When you’re looking at all these trees coming out,” said Fudge,
“I’m afraid this is going to look just a tiny notch above any other
industrial park.
“I have a bias against engineers,” Fudge continued. “They tend
to design roads to handle traffic. I didn’t see an attempt tonight
to answer questions that we had about saving trees. We’re not any
city. We’ve proven that in other ways. We need to continue that
here. We need to set a higher standard for ourselves.”
“In the median we end up saving a large number of trees – 30
trees,” said Allen.
“There may be 45 that we’re not saving,” replied Salmon.
“That’s true,” said Allen, “but it’s in the middle of a
road.”
“I want to be proud of this,” said Salmon. “I want to be able to
say we did everything we could to save trees. I’m not there yet.
Maybe I will be, but I’m not there yet. We can’t pressure
developers to do things we’re not willing to do.”
“If you compare roadways to acreage, I do think these are
different scenarios,” said Mayor Steve Scott. “One of the problems
we’re always going to have is that trees have been spaced to
accommodate a narrower road. In some cases it’s going to come down
to, which side do you take out?”
When the floor was opened to public comment, Charles Evans, a
real estate developer who represents property at Conde Lane and
Mitchell Road, agreed with Scott.
“Maybe there are more trees that can be saved,” said Evans, “but
I wasn’t hearing it from the professionals. There’s a lot to be
said for the current plan. There is a traffic issue. The road needs
to be wider. At some point you’re going to need to chose between
one tree and another.”
Assistant Town Manager Matt Mullan suggested the possibility of
field trips and a workshop at which councilmembers, as well as
interested members of the public, could continue to study the
issue.
The discussion concluded with no action taken on the Mitigated
Negative Declaration. Mullen suggested that it may be brought back
to the council for a vote in four to six weeks.
Following the meeting Dane Schilling, the engineer responsible
for the project, discussed it further.
“Our goal is to preserve as many trees as possible,” Schilling
said. He explained that the Conde Lane median strip has been
designed to include the strip of trees on the west side of the
existing road. Eventually that road will become the northbound
lanes, with southbound lanes running on the west side of the trees.
Schilling said that the median, as currently planned actually saves
29 of the 61 trees.within its boundaries.
Most of the eucalyptus trees will go, Schilling said, because
they are actually a danger to traffic. Many oaks will be saved, but
left turn pockets in the median, providing access to businesses,
will require the removal of some oaks as well.
Schilling said that the many oak trees, sprinkled across the
various properties that are slated for development, are not
specifically included in the plans his department is working
on.
“Those are on private property,” said Schilling, “The town does
have a tree ordinance that covers all trees.” He explained that the
town works with developers to preserve as many trees as possible.
The developer is usually required to plant many small young trees,
he said, to mitigate the loss of a mature tree.