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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-08-10-TREE-minLexington Tree Committee Minutes 8.10.23 1. Meeting called to order at 7:30 AM on zoom. The meeting was recorded by a guest. 2. Present: Members Mark Connor (co-chair), Barbara Tarrh, Gloria Bloom, Gerry Paul, Pat Moyer (co-chair and minutes), Nancy Sofen, Joe Pato (ex-officio). Regrets James Wood. Guests Ingrid Klimoff, Charles Hornig, Patrick Mehr, Todd Rhodes. 3. Minutes of 7.13.23 were accepted without change. 4. David Pinsonneault could not be present, but items from the pre-meeting with Barbara and Mark were presented by Barbara. a) The new form for developers (on which they seek approval from the Tree Warden for tree removals) is not being met with happiness by them. Scrolling issues cause misinformation. There will be a training session for builders when the IT director returns from parental leave in a few weeks. We wonder if we can attend? Nancy told us she had reviewed copies of the first bunch of the new forms, and about ½ of them were satisfactory, the other half did not contain all information required and some were approved anyway. b) Dave wants to focus on work we do together in the future, not pick apart the past. c) Dave needs specifics of what we want in the UVM Canopy report. d) Town Counsel will tell us which permits are susceptible to the new 3-year lookback provision e) Final requests for FY24-25 budget due in Oct. Dave has asked for an assistant superintendent, and more help with pruning and planting. A new position will free up about 1/3 more time to allocate to trees. Should we take a position on this request? We realized we needed more data on what Forestry does; what percent of their time is spent on trees? f) There are vacant DPW positions g) Extending the amended bylaw to the entire Town was discussed. The impact on Forestry would seem immense. What if just the 30 foot front setback of private properties became subject to the Bylaw? h) Dave stated he did not want the TC to target his staff. i) Barbara and Mark asked when the tree inventory would be available online. Answer unknown. j) The requested list of hazard trees that have been removed by the Town has been compiled, but not shared. There have been about a half-dozen, including 2 American elm with Dutch Elm disease. Storm removals are not included in the list. Dave promised to forward the list. 5. Tree Bylaw Enforcement. Mr. Patrick Mehr submitted and discussed a power point focused on his sense that the tree bylaw (he was one of the original writers) is not being enforced. . He was thanked for his concerns, which we share, and his presentation, and invited to attend the 8/21 Select Board meeting (see below). 6. Tree Bylaw Enforcement. Gerry Paul reported that he estimates the Town has lost $600,000 - $800,000 in revenue in recent years due to lax enforcement of fines, fees and mitigations regarding tree removals. As per the May presentation of the Tree Statement of Concern to the Select Board, the Tree Committee has requested the Town Manager appoint a joint working group to improve enforcement of the Tree Bylaw, including both the collection of information, the collection of fees and mitigation payments, and the planting of new trees on the developers’ sites. There will be a meeting of the Select Board on the evening of August 21, 2023, at which the appointment of such a group will be discussed. We are encouraged to attend. 7. Select Board Meeting. Mark Connor reviewed that the official carriers of our requests regarding trees to this meeting will be himself, Gerry Paul, and Nancy Sofen. They will meet before 8.16.23 to organize their points and requests. 8. Tree Bylaw Revision Group. The group presented its framework for amendments to the Tree Bylaw. The Committee expressed that it was important to take a position to explicitly discourage clear-cutting, and two new proposals were added: the prohibition on removal of significant trees in the front 20’ of any property, and on construction sites a certain percentage of significant trees in the setbacks must be retained. The amended framework is attached, and the committee supported pursuing these changes to the bylaw by a vote of 5-0, in the priority order listed. The next working group meeting will focus on strategy for presenting the framework. 9. Canopy Survey. The Committee discussed and voted to forward to Dave Pinsonneault the following questions to include in the RFP to UVM for further analysis of the canopy data that they collected. These are, in priority order: a) A canopy analysis of a corridor 90’ wide along all streets (which encompasses a 30' setback on either side of a street.) b) Add a street map overlay of the canopy change maps. c) We note that in their canopy reports, other cities and towns showed data represented by smaller hexagons than Lexington's. [Lexington 20 hectares (49.5 acres), Brookline 25 acres, Cambridge 10 acres, Wellesley 2 acres]. All but Wellesley were done by UVM. Does this mean that the data used for the other municipalities was collected or analyzed on a finer scale? Or was it just reported on a finer scale? We would like to see our maps broken down into smaller hexagons and are interested to learn whether there is there a sweet spot for cost vs. utility when deciding the size of the hexagon used. d) If Lexington supplied UVM with a list of properties that underwent (began and completed) development or redevelopment between 2015 and mid -2021, could they evaluate the canopy changes before and after development for a random subset of those lots? UVM did this for Seattle, using Google Earth imagery to assess 80 parcels. e) Our report does not distinguish between conservation land and private land when it talks about forested areas (p. 17). We'd like further breakdown of canopy on conservation land. It would also be helpful to distinguish between open space that may be planted to increase canopy cover, and those such as recreation fields and golf courses that cannot. 10. Liaison Reports. The Planning Board passed Site Plan Review regulations that include some good tree protections. Meeting was adjourned at 10:34 am.