HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-26-2006 TC MinutesCITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO
SPECIAL TREE COMMITTEE MEETING
CORPORATION YARD
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2006
MEMBERS PRESENT: Jim Lopes, Don Dollar, Ben Parker
STAFF PRESENT: Ron Combs, Todd Beights
SPECIAL GUESTS: Barbara Lynch, Jeff Hook, Kim Murray, Deborah Cash
PUBLIC COMMENTS
1. TREE LIST
Jim Lopes passed out the current Street Tree List and the Trees for Major Streets list.
Once the list is finalized, it will need to be approved by the City Council. Would like list
to be finalized and staff report written for Council meeting Oct. 17th.
Deborah Cash invited Ron to the Downtown Association and Design Committee
breakfast on October 6th.
There was much discussion about the state of the trees in the downtown area. Citizens
say the downtown trees are too large, dangerous and they provide too much shade. The
downtown trees need a more open structure with a narrower canopy. We need a diverse
urban forest and need to look at how the downtown is changing in regards to verticality
and adapt to that. Mr. Parker noted the damage that commercial trucks do to the
downtown trees. The Downtown Association is concerned mostly with trees that drop a
lot of litter.
Kim Murray of Community Development thanked the committee for all their hard work
but wants the committee to note the General Plan in regards to the Downtown Trees.
Ron stated that while there are removals of the larger older trees in the downtown, there
will only be two removals this year. There are 15 empty tree wells in the downtown area
and there will only be 1 or 2 new trees planted this year. Ron encouraged the committee
to finalize the list quickly so that he can order and plant the trees.
The discussion went into how better to protect the downtown trees. Todd asked if
Protection of Downtown trees should be a separate meeting for discussion. One
suggestion was for metal cages to be installed or larger sized trees to be planted.
Jeff Hook stated that he believes the new downtown tree list had too many tree choices
and the ones weren’t right for the area. He believes the ficus tree still should be the
dominate tree. There was a vote for Diversity vs Landmark Trees with 6 for Diversity
and 4 for Landmark.
He also stated that the adopted Open Space Policy states that we should incorporate more
native plants into our Urban Forest. Natives and “Theme” trees that reflect the Mission
feel should be considered such as: California Pepper, Coast Live Oak, California Bay
and Fruitless Olives.
After much discussion, the list for the downtown was altered to; 40% Ficus, 20% Coast
Live Oak, 30% London Plane and 10% Fruitless Olive. The accent trees chosen were
Jacaranda, Purple Robe Locust, St. Mary’s Magnolia, Aristocrat Pear, Scarlet Flowered
Gum and Cape Chestnut. A vote was taken on the list and it was unanimous in favor of
the list.
Ms. Cash asked Ron if it would be possible to bring a slide show of the chosen
downtown trees the Oct. 6th breakfast.
The meeting adjourned at 7:21 p.m. to the next regular meeting of Monday, October 23,
2006, at 5 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sheila New, Recording Secretary