2023-09-14-TREE-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lexington Tree Committee Minutes, 9.14.2023 1. Present: members Mark Connor (co-chair), Pat Moyer (co-chair and minutes), Nancy Sofen, Barbara Tarrh, Gloria Bloom, Gerry Paul, Joe Pato (ex-officio). Regrets James Wood. Guests Nancy Trautman, Richard Reibstein, Patrick Mehr, Charlie Wyman, Marcia Gens, Charles Hornig, Pam Lyons, Kathleen Lenihan. 2. Meetfng was called to order at 7:33 AM. 3. Minutes of August 10, 2023 ,were approved. 4. Informatfon from the mid-meetfng with Dave Pinsonneault, Pat and Barbara were reviewed and shared with the committee. Neither Forestry staff nor Dave plan to attend our meetfngs at present. Dave feels our formal relatfonship is non-functfonal, although the mid-meetfngs are working for him. Fall plantfng will be focused on the area near Hanscom. He was also willing to consider areas along Mass. Ave that Nancy and Pat had marked out a year ago. The replantfng done behind the town tennis courts earlier in 2023 has had 5 of the 70 trees fail; those will be replaced by Fotf, and the shrubbery planned will also be planted this fall. A carving project for some remaining tall white pine stumps has not materialized as funding was not approved by Town Meetfng. The stumps have been removed. 5. We received the report of the May-August hazard trees removed. We were reminded of the ISA definitfon of hazard tree: flaw in the tree which cannot be remedied, which poses a risk to Town. 6. Pam Lyons presented informatfon about the MBTA bus stop issue. There is a proposal to move a stop from the front of Conte Bikes, to 1666 Mass Ave. There are advocates for staying vs. moving, but if we move the stop, we do not need to remove trees. To comply with access for disabled passengers at the Conte locatfon, tree and other obstructfons would have to be removed. We unanimously endorsed the move to 1666 Mass Ave. 7. Bylaw Working Group. (see below for their full presentatfon).We reviewed the current iteratfons of the changes proposed. We agreed that exempt hazard trees require no mitfgatfon. We discussed whether postfng permits for tree removal on abutters’ neighboring propertfes might save trees. (The homeowner might have a chance to object). After discussion, we agreed not to recommend this. We discussed a proposed sectfon concerning mitfgatfon on constructfon propertfes. This proposal would require that the first 20 feet of the setback be the first place chosen to replant, if replantfng required. We were generally in favor. A guest raised the questfon whether a town can impose this sort of restrictfon. The city of Springfield has done so. This will be reviewed with Town Counsel. 8. Bylaw proposal disseminatfon. Our Bylaw Working Group has met with Dave, and he was generally supportfve of their thoughts. We want to disseminate the proposal, get citfzen reactfons, and set prioritfes. We also want to simplify enforcement. It’s possible that parts of the bylaw need rewritfng.