[CANUFNET] Boulevard Plantings

[Minielly, Michelle]

As the coordinator for the street tree program for the City of London, I
have made responses to your questions below:

 

 

 

________________________________

From: canufnet-bounces at list.web.net
[mailto:canufnet-bounces at list.web.net] On Behalf Of Guy Martin
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 2:58 PM
To: Canadian Urban Forest Network
Cc: Len Walters
Subject: [CANUFNET] Boulevard Plantings

 

Hello all,

 

We have currently been planting trees on city owned boulevards.
Basically a strip of turf 1-2 meters wide between the sidewalk and the
road...this is in residential areas.

As you can imagine we have encountered both positive and negative
comments from various homeowners. In the past we have planted our
properties and boulevard strips without much of a problem and have just
gone ahead and done so.

The road we are currently or rather I should say were working on, also
happens to be the Mayor's road (election year), and he is getting heat
from some neighbors. 

We are now sending out a letter informing that we are doing this albeit
it is late and rather obvious that this is going on.

This is not a new development but an established area that has decent
tree cover now, larger estate lots that will most likely be zoned for a
higher density in the next 10 or so years, with tree removal occurring
then, so it would be nice to have our street trees established.

 

I would like to inquire what other municipalities do or have done for
this type of scenario.

 

Do you plant trees where residents request them not to be? 

 

We leave a notice at time of checking the site for planting to inform
residents that we intend to plant a tree on the City owned boulevard
space.  If they do not wish to have a tree, they will call us and we
remove them from the list.  We currently have a back-log of planting
requests so we feel it is appropriate handle it this way for the
foreseeable future.

 

Do you only plant where residents are receptive and skip those that are
not?

 

We work from a work order system for replacement planting and handle the
replacements as noted above.  Regardless of whether it is a replacement
planting, road reconstruction infill project, neighbourhood improvement
(solicited), or other type of planting project, we always card the
owners in advance and remove anyone who wishes not to have a tree
planted.

 

Do you conduct a survey of an area and plant if a certain % of
affirmative is reached? 

 

Currently, we are still working with a back-log of replacement planting
requests city-wide.  By this fall we should be into a position to survey
and begin some 'pro-active' infill planting but will follow the same
procedures of carding and planting as noted above.

 

What about planting on municipal property with no boulevard strip
directly in front of residents home?  

 

We plant on lawns with no sidewalk the same as we plant on boulevard
strips.  Our planting location is altered to be 1.0 m. off property line
on 'lawn' locations and this creates some issues with home owners who
expect the tree to be located near the curb.  

 

 

 

 

Any insight on this problem is welcome!

 

Thanks,

 

Guy Martin

City of Langley

Parks Department

 

 

 

 

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