2010-12-09-TREE-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lexington Tree Committee Town of Lexington, Massachusetts 201 Bedford Street, Samuel Hadley Public Services Building, Room 125 Minutes, Meeting of December 9, 2010 meeting opened The at 7:40 a.m. Attendees: John Frey (Chairman), Gerry Paul, Karen Longeteig, Anne Senning, Nell Walker, Jim Wood, and Jewel Kuljian. David Pinsonneault (Tree Warden), Deb Mauger (Selectman’s liaison), and Jane Beswick (Friends of Trees) also attended. Karen Longeteig took her turn as scribe. Minutes of the November 4th meeting were approved with a few corrections (“Bob”, not “Marjorie” Esselen) and the notation of two attachments. Also added at the end was the boiler-plate, “No remote participation and no audio recording at the meeting.” Tree Warden's agenda items: David Pinsonneault Dave announced that he has been promoted to DPW’s Manager of Operations th as of January 10. A stunned Tree Committee congratulated him and expressed great appreciation for his work since our formation in October, 2001. Dave will be covering both positions until his successor can be hired. Jim moved that John Frey should email Town Manager Carl Valente and the Board of Selectmen to report our unanimous desire that they fill the position as quickly as reasonably possible. Carried. removal activity a) Tree under the Bylaw since 10-01-01: 737 sites/616 closed; 2236 trees to be planted/1461 planted; 927 trees to be removed/733 removed. Fees levied for removal of trees, and collected under regulation of 8-4-08, are $30,500 (from 3050 DBH inches of trees removed). It continues to be a well-received process. DCR Grant b) application: no word yet whether granted or not. Inventory c) : John, Anne, and Nell finished up the year’s efforts by entering the trees planted in summer 2010. They used paper forms because the hand-held had frozen, but Judy Seppala from MIS later fixed the device. Amendment of Tree Bylaw d) : this warrant article, if passed, would remove Tree Bylaw Section 120-IV, B, including parts 1-4, which is the clause on “non-applicability” of the Tree Bylaw to commercial projects coming under purview of the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). Explanation: When a parcel is re-zoned for a commercial project, the developers can ask that all zoning bylaws be ignored. However, a Town’s General Bylaws, such as the Tree Bylaw, must be observed. Our article, by revoking the non-applicability, would thus require Tree Warden/Tree Committee review and approval of tree plans for commercial projects. To get other committee support for our initiative, Gerry and John met with the ZBA and the Planning Board. Part (b) of the draft article addressed the percentage of large sites to be covered by the Bylaw, but so far we lack a reliable and fair formula. Anne moved that we put forward to Town Meeting only Part (a) of the draft Article. Carried. Planting Protocolexperiment e) Tree and Mass Ave tree planting : Gerry and Jim, with Dave’s approval, conducted this experiment in planting methods: will trees survive in a tough 33”-wide berm, if planted with new protocol methods including watering tubes? They planted two ‘Redmond’ American Lindens in November. Dave had one addition to the Tree Planting Draft Protocol: under ‘Planting Methodology Considerations, he would like to add “Locations and species approved in advance”. He would also like to run it by his crew members for their input. The only other substantive change to this attachment would be the revision of the last sentence to read, “Anne Senning and Jim Wood’s partial survey of trees planted in 2010 showed that one-third to one-half are struggling.”