2008-01-10-TREE-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lexington Tree Committee Minutes of January 10, 2008 1. Gerry Paul was appointed scribe. The minutes of December 13, 2007 were approved as amended. Present were: John Frey, Jeanne Krieger, Dave Pinsonneault, Anne Senning, Jim Wood, Susan Solomon, Nell Walker and Gerry Paul. 2. a) Dave Pinsonneault reported on Tree Bylaw activity: 541 sites/430 closed; 1542 trees to be planted/1103 planted; 647 trees to be removed/488 removed. Dave gave an update on bylaw issues associated with the site being developed by Richard Jette b) Relative to possible Warrant articles: -The committee agreed that we would not propose any clarification language to the bylaw relative to setbacks. -It was the consensus of the committee that fees should not be viewed as mitigations. -Jeanne will get us information on current building fees and explore where fees collected in conjunction with the bylaw could be applied. -We will move forward with the proposed Warrant article for additional tree funding because it appears likely that this funding will not be in the proposed budget for next year. Gerry will arrange for a presentation to the Appropriations Committee. c) Dave will communicate with Karen to finalize the locations for the Tree City USA signs and distribute to the Committee. d) The draft annual report of the Tree Committee was approved. 3. Jim Wood explained that he is pursuing the acquisition of 25-35 Chestnut trees -- Japanese, Chinese, European, American Chestnut and American Chestnut Hybrid (American Chestnut backcrossed with Chinese Chestnut) -- which may be donated by the American Chestnut Society if they are planted in a visible public location. Jim has been exploring the possible planting of these trees on Conservation Land and needs the vote of the Tree Committee supporting this before making a request to the Conservation Commission. The consensus was that Jim should pursue this opportunity. We agreed to defer the vote pending Jim providing more information and Nell vetting the American Chestnut Society (possibly through the University of Connecticut). 4. Anne Senning reported that the CPA proposal for Belfry hill as been accepted by the Community Preservation Committee under the Historic Restoration category.