2020-12-10-TREE-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lexington Tree Committee Meeting Minutes December 10, 2020 The meeting was held via zoom and started at 7:36 am. Members Present: Gerry Paul, (Chair), Gloria Bloom, Nancy Sofen, Pat Moyer,James Wood, Marty Kvaal, Mark Connor (Scribe) Guests: Mark Sandeen (Select Board Liaison), Marc Valenti (DPW), Marcia Gens, Rick Reibstein, Stella Ca rr. 1. The November meeting minutes were accepted. 2. The Fourth edition of the tree manual was submitted to the Select Board. Nancy is currently reviewing/incorporating proposed changes suggested by the Select Board. 3. The Tree Committee proposed articles for Annual Town Meeting were submitted to the Select Board and some changes were suggested. Discussion: Article 1 A. The focus of Article 1 is to require anyone removing a town owned tree pay the appraised value to the tree fund unless the tree is determined to be a hazard. The article should be modified to allow the Select Board to adjust the appraised value if there are "unforeseen difficulties due to the tree". The appraisal shall be conducted by a member of the American Society of Consulting Arborists mutually agreed upon by the Town and Applicant. The sentence beginning with "if the tree is removed..." should be replaced by, "If the tree is removed, the applicant shall pay its appraised value to the tree fund, as determined by an arborist mutually agreed upon by the Town and the Applicant". B. Mark Valenti (DPW) expressed concern over the language and requirements outlined in Section 2 of Article 1 including: 1. Difficulty for developers/builders to identify tree species 2. Added cost associated with "as built" second survey Gerry Paul and Mark Connor defined the proposal as similar to a town building permit process where the builder is required to provide a site survey for the existing/proposed project as well as a confirmation "as built" survey at the completion of the project. Flexibility was agreed to regarding the identification of plant species.