# Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee - May 24, 2016 > Auto-transcribed civic record · May 24, 2016 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/3964 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/3964?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2016-05-24 - **Last revised**: May 24, 2016 - **Length**: 9,789 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Environmental Quality & Public Works Committee convened on May 24, 2016, at 1:00 PM with Farmer presiding as the meeting officer. The committee addressed four agenda items during the session, focusing on both administrative matters and informational presentations related to city infrastructure and environmental management. The committee took four votes during the meeting, approving the committee summary from a previous session and items that had been referred to the committee for consideration. Two significant informational presentations were delivered to committee members: one covering the city's Pavement Management Plan and another detailing the Urban Forestry Management Plan. These presentations provided committee members with updates on the city's approach to maintaining road infrastructure and managing urban tree resources. No public comments were heard during this committee meeting. The session appears to have been primarily focused on internal committee business and receiving informational briefings from city staff on key infrastructure and environmental management initiatives. The approval of referred items suggests the committee processed various matters that had been forwarded from other city bodies or departments for their review and action. ## Attendance The following members were present at the May 24, 2016 meeting: • Farmer • Stinnett • Kay • J. Brown • Gibbs • Evans • F. Brown • Mossotti • Hensley **Absent:** • Moloney No members arrived late to the meeting. ## Votes and Decisions The committee took four votes during the May 24, 2016 meeting, with three passing unanimously and one passing by a margin of 8-1. **Committee Summary Approval** [timestamp: 00:30] Stinnett motioned to approve the committee summary, seconded by Kay. The motion passed unanimously with all nine members voting in favor: Farmer, Stinnett, Kay, J. Brown, Gibbs, Evans, F. Brown, Mossotti, and Hensley. **Neighborhood Traffic Management Program** [timestamp: 01:30] Evans motioned to approve proposed revisions and a resolution for the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program, with Mossotti providing the second. The vote was unanimous (9-0) with the same nine members supporting the measure. **Affiliate Processing Fee Increase** [timestamp: 02:30] Gibbs motioned to increase affiliate processing fees from $35 per ton to $50 per ton, seconded by Mossotti. This motion also passed unanimously with all nine committee members voting in favor. **Consent Decree Projects Grouping** [timestamp: 03:30] Hensley motioned to accept the recommendation to group Consent Decree projects by watershed, with F. Brown seconding the motion. This was the only non-unanimous vote of the meeting, passing 8-1 on a roll call vote. Eight members voted in favor: Farmer, Stinnett, J. Brown, Kay, Gibbs, F. Brown, Mossotti, and Hensley. Evans cast the sole dissenting vote against the measure. All motions that came before the committee were approved, with the Consent Decree projects grouping being the only item to generate opposition from a committee member. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting addressed one significant financial amendment related to affiliate processing fees. The board considered an increase in affiliate processing fees from the current rate of $35 per ton to $50 per ton, representing a $15 per ton increase. This fee adjustment is projected to generate an additional $220,000 in revenue. The amendment reflects a substantial increase in processing fees that would affect affiliate operations and revenue generation. The proposed change from $35 to $50 per ton represents approximately a 43% increase in the fee structure. No specific vendor or recipient information was provided for this financial item, and no resolution number was identified in the available documentation. The $220,000 revenue projection suggests this fee increase would apply to a significant volume of processing activity across affiliate operations. *Note: Transcript timestamps are not available for this meeting's financial discussions.* ## Contested Items The meeting featured one contested item that resulted in a split vote among council members. **Grouping Consent Decree Projects by Watershed** The primary point of contention involved a motion to organize Consent Decree projects by watershed groupings. This proposal generated debate among council members, ultimately resulting in a divided vote rather than unanimous approval. The motion successfully passed with an 8-1 vote, indicating broad support among the majority of council members for the watershed-based organizational approach. However, Council Member Evans cast the sole dissenting vote against the proposal. The specific details of Evans' objections to grouping the Consent Decree projects by watershed were not detailed in the available materials, but the voting pattern demonstrates this was the only item during the meeting that failed to achieve consensus among all council members present. This vote represents the sole instance of division during the meeting, with all other matters apparently receiving unanimous support or going uncontested. ## Approval of Committee Summary [timestamp: 00:30] The committee considered approval of the summary from their previous meeting held on February 16, 2016. The agenda item was presented as a resolution requiring committee action. Key speakers during this discussion included Stinnett and Kay, who addressed the committee regarding the meeting summary. The specific details of their presentations or any concerns raised during the discussion were not detailed in the available materials. Following the discussion, the committee voted to approve the summary of the February 16, 2016 meeting. The resolution was successfully adopted, allowing the committee to proceed with their current meeting agenda. This procedural item represents standard committee practice of formally approving minutes or summaries from previous meetings before conducting new business. ## Pavement Management Plan [timestamp: 05:00] Council Member Fred Brown presented an update on the city's ongoing development of a multi-year pavement management plan during this informational agenda item. Brown emphasized that the pavement management planning process needs to be both flexible and continuous to effectively address the city's infrastructure needs. He discussed the framework being developed for managing pavement conditions and maintenance across the municipality over multiple years. The presentation focused on the strategic approach the city is taking to develop a comprehensive system for evaluating, prioritizing, and scheduling pavement maintenance and improvements. Brown highlighted the importance of creating a plan that can adapt to changing conditions and budget constraints while maintaining a systematic approach to pavement management. This agenda item was informational in nature, with no formal action taken by the council. The discussion served to update council members and the public on the progress of this infrastructure planning initiative. ## Urban Forestry Management Plan [timestamp: 10:00] Susan presented the development of the Urban Forestry Management Plan during this informational agenda item. The presentation focused on three key areas: the mission of the urban forestry program, implementation goals for the plan, and the critical importance of preserving and expanding the city's urban tree canopy. The presentation outlined the strategic approach to managing the community's urban forest resources. Susan emphasized the significance of maintaining and growing the existing tree canopy as a vital component of the city's environmental and community health infrastructure. Gibbs also participated in the discussion, though the specific nature of their contribution was not detailed in the available materials. This agenda item served as an informational presentation to update the meeting participants on the progress and direction of the Urban Forestry Management Plan. No formal action was taken, as this was designed to provide background and context on the city's urban forestry initiatives and planning efforts. The presentation represents part of the ongoing municipal planning process to establish comprehensive guidelines for urban forest management, tree preservation policies, and canopy expansion strategies within the community. ## Items Referred to Committee [timestamp: 15:00] The committee reviewed various items that had been referred to them for consideration. During the discussion, F. Brown and Stinnett served as the key speakers addressing the committee referrals. The primary focus of the agenda item involved the removal of several items from the existing list of committee referrals. The speakers discussed which items should be taken off the referral list, though the specific details of which items were removed were not detailed in the available materials. The committee's review of referred items represents part of their regular administrative process to manage their workload and ensure that items requiring committee attention are properly tracked and addressed in a timely manner. Following the discussion led by F. Brown and Stinnett, the committee approved the proposed changes to the items referred to committee. This approval allows the committee to proceed with their updated list of referrals and continue their work on the remaining items that require their attention. The outcome demonstrates the committee's ongoing effort to maintain an organized approach to handling referred business and ensuring that their agenda remains focused on items that genuinely require committee review and action. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (9-0): Approval of Committee Summary - **Motion** — passed (9-0): Approval of proposed revisions and Resolution for Neighborhood Traffic Management Program - **Motion** — passed (9-0): Approval to increase affiliate processing fees from $35 per ton to $50 per ton - **Motion** — passed (8-1): Accept recommendation to group Consent Decree projects by watershed --- ## Full transcript In the Summer Youth Jobs Training program, they will learn work readiness skills. They will learn how to create a resume and will be able to use their work experience on a resume. They will also learn how to work with financial literacy, how to budget their wants, budget their needs. And they will also have the opportunity to have constructive leisure time. I think, again, this career exploration is so critical for young students, and I think that the school systems have a hard time potentially being able to provide counseling for every single student, and I think that this gives every child the opportunity to understand what it's like, to have opportunities to see the businesses in the community, and get a whole hands-on experience, which they may not get during the school year. So it is a long-term investment in our young people because of the skills. You teach them the value, you instill them, and that will carry them all for the rest of their life. A skillful workforce society will make a much more productive community, which is what we all want, a vibrant, effective community. And that's why we need you to invest in our young people, help them grow to be the young person that you would like to see, help them become the leader when they get old, that they will be the one taking care of us. I was an assistant for Sarada for her line, and then I ended up becoming a designer in a competition, and then I won the competition, and then I started doing a lot of shows on my own and everything. We're excited about the 2016 Summer Youth Job Training Program. The game will consist of six weeks beginning June 13th through July 22nd. We're projecting to hire 300 youth worker trainees, which is a 75-slot increase from just last summer. We're also looking forward to providing more job training opportunities. We feel that it's not too early to introduce our Lexington teams and students to the workforce careers of tomorrow. And we're very fortunate to have local businesses to help us in that effort. For the youth coming in, it's a wonderful opportunity for them to experience a different set of skills than what they're used to in a school environment. It helps prepare them for business interviews so that they know how to support themselves in the future for their own benefits. It's important that we think about how to maximize the city's resources for long-term benefit. And one of those ways is taking the opportunity to have 300 kids this summer in a job training program and matching them with some of our private sectors and putting them together and saying, how can we look and make this work the best? And part of that is getting as many kids as possible and giving them the most exposure as possible. And what I'm excited about is seeing so many private sectors come in and say, yeah, we want to be a part of this. We want to... Good afternoon, everyone. We've had a long budget links meeting earlier that has led to a slowly returning council after we had a break and a little bite to eat. So thankfully for the rest of this day, this Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee meeting should not be too long. We have an abbreviated agenda, but it does have some important topics on it. I'm going to ask you all to take a look at the committee summary, which begins on page one and runs through page four. There are a couple of subject motions there that I will bring forth on behalf of the committee at work session. but at this time I'd ask for a motion on these unless there's other questions. Motion to approve. And a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed, like, sign. All right. Now then, the pavement management plan is something that we had seated a subcommittee on several months ago, and Council Member Fred Brown has been kind enough to spearhead that. I know, Council Member, your work is still ongoing, and on page 7 of our packet kind of highlights some opportunities for the future, but do you want to give us a thumbnail of how your work is going and a little bit of a horizon, please? Yes. Thank you, Chair. Page 7 kind of sums up where we're at as far as trying to get this reported out for this fiscal year and I think chairman that that probably is workable if we get it reported out at the June 21st Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee meeting. That allows us to go to work session and then to council meeting first and second reading in early July. And the reason for this on a timetable is that there's paving to be done especially while we're on break, and if we get this plan developed and passed, they will be able to do several of the streets paved in July and August and get a jump on the fall paving. So that's the reason that this is the timetable is in that. I think I'll appreciate you and your group taking your time. I think we tasked you with coming up with a plan that would be over the next five or ten years, didn't we? Yeah, let me just bring you up to date on that, where we're at. Thank you. Council members Jennifer Massadi and Russ Hensley are on the committee with myself, and we have met several times starting in January 16. The mission was to adopt a five- to ten-year plan for paving infrastructure, and the concern was based on a consultant's report in 2015 that indicated the Urban County Government was not keeping up with the maintenance and repairs of our road system in Fayette County. So that was the gist of it. A very important part of the pavement management plan is the commitment of this council to budgeting enough monies in the next five years. So it looks like in fiscal year 17, we don't know for sure until the budget's passed, but it looks like we'll have $12.8 million going forward. And that's the number we're using in our subcommittee group for the next fiscal year. And after looking at all the information that came forward for each of our subcommittee minutes, each time we came forward with additional information, then that kind of prolonged the fact of how we were going to do some things going forward for five years. I think five years is going to be the limit that we could look at anything because it's really going to be a flexible plan and it's going to be a moving plan because each year kind of builds on the previous year depending on your budget amounts. So we're currently fine-tuning some areas of the plan, most notable in the amount of reconstruction paving versus the maintenance part of it. So that's a big part of maintenance going forward. um we're looking at different types of maintenance uh the two main things are crack seal rejuvenator which is not new to council members and they've been doing that for some time but one of the new processes is a thin overlay and we're trying to wrap our arms around what that does and how and how that uh makes our paving and our roads to last longer and what we can do there. Right. And I think the main point on this whole process is, not the main point, before I get to the main point is the fact that I didn't realize there was so much to it until Dow started giving me all that software and all that information the commissioner did. Yes, sir. But I think the main point is that we need to keep in mind is that the pavement management plan is and will be a continuous process because each succeeding year, per our computer model, will depend on how much work was done in the current year. And the road conditions that change faster than others and then the anticipated monies that we're going to need going forward. And this is something we can only budget a year at a time. But in this plan, we've got to address some type of dollars. So what we're looking at going forward for the four years after this, we're working our model of our plan on $12 million coming out of the budget. So this is kind of a commitment from the council, but certainly administration doesn't have to commit to these type of dollars at all. So that's why the plan is such a work in process and been a little difficult. So there's other things there, but we hope to report out 21st, okay? If anybody has any questions, I'll be glad to answer. We gave you a large topic, and we gave you kind of a quick turnaround time, so I appreciate your work. And really up until now, we've only done paving with a fire hose. It's like how much money can we throw into it? And I think the yoke of your plan will show us some different outcomes for what we can get out of having a constant program and knowing where we're trying to get to over a period of time. Well, I'm a big advocate of planning, and I think this is long overdue to get the paving and our infrastructure into a planning process. So will you have policy as well as budget recommendations? Yes. Yeah, there will be some policy and procedures, but none of them are in concrete. I mean, it's going to be a moving plan. The committee should have time to take this up in its entirety or I won't say at leisure. There will be a lot of questions because it affects each council district. So in your opening sentence or two, you said you would hope to be done. Do you think that you will be well enough? Yes, we're having our next subcommittee meeting June 2nd, which gives us plenty of time for PowerPoint presentation and all that information actually to get to each council member maybe two weeks before the June 21st. I was going to suggest something. We want to give council members as much information as we can, and I hope you'll look at it and study it because we have put a lot of time in it, the three of us have. Set the table a little bit with everybody. I appreciate that. I think you've engendered one question from Council Member Maloney. Thank you, sir. My question to you guys is the best weather is we're getting ready to have here in the next four months, And it seems like when we start these pavements, it's usually around October. We just went through four of the best months to do pavements. I'm just hoping we're not delaying any work being done. This is the peak time. The procedures are going to step up the dates. The procedures will step up the dates. And I can tell you this. I think we're pretty much in agreement. We've got to separate the factions out on what we pave. and what we're looking at is probably doing a fall paving and a spring paving based on this plan. So then everybody knows when something is going to be paved, and it can be paved earlier as long as the budget's passed. I don't like things being paved in December. I just think it's too late in the ballgame, and you put them in a few months, you have potholes. But when you do it in the summer, it heats up, that's when it's the best. The timing is an element that's in the plan. I think we need to start finding a way to do it in the peak time, and it seems like we've never got there. And I'm just hoping this pavement thing would conventionally get there. But I know our budget is hard because we cycle it around July, but still, it seems like the last few years we've been doing it, we didn't start to October. I just hope we can get back on track and not lose those good months. But the hotter it is, the better I think the pavement is. All right. Any other comments from anyone? the potential report out and then a critical path for passage on page 7 of the packet, not really for anything other than information. I just want to see any other questions before we move on. All right, thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate your work there. All right, starting on page 8, the Urban Forestry Management Plan update. Council Member Gibbs, this has been assigned via your leadership. Would you like to make comments, sir? Yes, thank you, Chair. Susan Pfluger for Environmental Quality is going to give us a presentation on this. I just want to I thank Susan for all the work she's put into it. Also, Kristen Curry and John Saylor, who are hiding back in the corner, have worked on this a lot, as has Tim Query. And I've worked a lot with our urban forestry people the last several months, and I think we have a really good crew, and you're going to be hearing a lot from them in the future. Very good. But thank you. Thank you, sir. Ms. Pluger, welcome. Thank you. It's good to be here. This is the first presentation on this plan that you all have received, but it's not going to be the last presentation. This is a new plan that is currently under development. I just want to give you a status update on where we are. I'm going to cover a brief history of the urban forestry program, talk about how we're developing the plan, and then talk about the mission and the implementation goals in a little bit more detail that we currently have drafted in the plan, and then take next steps and questions. We're currently about 15% complete, I would think, with the plan. as we currently stand. A little bit of history on urban forestry in Lexington. Even back in 1931, when the first comprehensive plan was done, there was a chapter on street tree planting. So all the way back to then, people were thinking about urban trees. In the 60s, the urban tree canopy, and this is just the tree canopy within the designated urban area, was less than 4%. We entered the 80s. We have Arbor Day. We have hiring the first arborist. we have an urban forestry management report that I believe Jim Redman worked on. And we participated in Tree City USA. As a lot of municipalities around the country moving into the 90s, we began to have ordinance changes. So we had the street tree ordinance adopted. Tree board was established. Our first urban forester was just directly tied to the street tree ordinance was hired. We have tree protection ordinance and the zoning ordinance. And then moving into 2010s, we had in the 2013 comprehensive plan, the urban forestry management plan was first mentioned there. And we did our urban tree canopy assessment and preferred planting areas map, which you all were updated on. That was completed in 2014. And then just a year and a half ago, there was an expansion within our urban forestry program within the Division of Environmental Services to add a full tree crew and to expand our operations and focus in this area. And then the Council Committee on Urban Tree Canopy established in 2015. So as you can see, there's been significant improvement focus in this area. As far as the comprehensive plan, I want to just give you a brief update on what was included in that. We were to develop a plan that provides strategies for reaching tree canopy coverage goals and for the management of public trees. This includes inventory, street trees, trees required by regulation, evaluation of woodlands, and ancient trees, considering them, what's considered a significant tree, what is not. And within that comprehensive plan, this plan would support four of the goals that you see listed there. One's directly related to urban forest, one related to carbon footprint, green infrastructure, and then transportation. So that's how this plan fits in. to that larger scheme. From the planned development process, we're actually going to do this one in-house. We feel that we have the expertise to do that. Council Member Gibbs mentioned Kristen Curry. She replaced Jim Redman in the senior environmental planner position, and she's the lead writer for that. We also have quite a few subject matter experts in-house, and we have a lot of stakeholders that are assisting us as well. So you see the tree board, the urban tree canopy committee, We all are providing input into this plan as it moves forward, and there are diverse groups, a good cross-section of the citizenry that's interested in this topic. And so it's moved forward through this process. Then, in 2018 and prior, we'll be working with Planning Commission to formally recognize and incorporate the goals from this plan into the comprehensive plan. Now, for the mission statement for the plan is what's listed above, Achieving a Sustainable Urban Forest in Lexington and Fayette County. And when we're talking about urban forests, we're talking about all trees within the urban area, whether they're publicly owned or privately owned. And we have seven implementation goals that we've developed for this plan. Resources management and development, tree inventory data collection and management, stewardship of publicly owned trees, that's how we take care of our own trees that we're responsible for, Ordinances and tree protection measures. This primarily relates to trees that others are responsible for. Public education and engagement, preserving the existing tree canopy, and expanding the urban tree canopy. We've broken it into two phases of time. I'm a proponent of the idea that your house needs to be in order before you expand it. So the goal here with the two phases is to look from 2016 to 2020 to build a strong foundation to address our issues within the urban forestry program, get everything in a good place, to where we can look at the next 20 years, 2020 to 2040, as expanding the urban tree canopy. And as part of that, we always have to continue the ongoing preservation of the existing tree canopy. This is a visual representation. We want to have a visual representation of the plan. so that you could easily look at that and say, oh, I get what the goal of this plan is. Now, I'm an engineer, so my initial idea was to have, it was almost like Greek columns going up. It was like some building or something, and Kristen was like, hmm, I think I can do something different with that. So sure enough, she came up with the idea of more of a tree motif, which makes a lot of sense. So we have resources at the very bottom. This is our forest floor or our soil that we're looking at. And then coming up from that are these four pillars of the implementation goals of public education and engagement, the inventory and data management, how we take care of our public trees, and then our ordinances and tree protection. And that moves up, and there's some buildings there, the skyline of Lexington, moves into the tree canopy, which is then the tree canopy, expanding that canopy over 20 years. So this is just a visual representation of what we came up with for the plan. So now I'm going to go into the implementation goals a little bit. And also, as I do this, I'm going to talk about recent accomplishments that we've made in each of these areas, because we've been working on these areas diligently for the last couple of years. So under resources management and development, we want to be able to officially manage our existing resources, identify additional resources that we need, pursue grant funding and donations as we can, and encourage private sector activities. And in this area, we've had significant accomplishments, which we really appreciate the administration and council's support in this area because that's been so key to doing a significant expansion in public investment and in focus. We have a new tree crew that we're working through in the Division of Environmental Services that we're building. We have new equipment related to that. We have had the Street Tree Cost Share Program, which has been fully funded for the last two years. And so we've made significant progress there and also working toward program consolidation. The second goal, collection and management of tree inventory data. This is where we need to inventory the public trees and the street trees. It is not possible to manage well any type of asset if you do not know what it is or where it is. So we need to have that data in order to do our best job in managing those assets. We need to track the work as we complete our work on public trees, and we need to identify and recognize the landmark and heritage trees. So those are three of our main objectives under this goal. Recent accomplishments? Well, in 2014, this was a big one. We completed the Urban Tree Canopy Assessment. So this included where's our current canopy. It also provided us GIS mapping on preferred planting areas going forward. So those are two really important items that we have already completed. And then we are currently proactively looking to identify where our hazardous street trees are as part of our enforcement program. Goal three, stewardship of publicly owned trees. This is probably the nearest to my heart, this one. We've really focused a lot on this, and for me, public safety is number one. And so if we have dead or diseased or encroaching trees within our right-of-ways, our roadways, we need to address that. City crew tree care procedures, how do we maintain and manage our trees? Whether it's environmental services, whether it's parks, whether it's the streets and roads crew, whether it's general services, whether it's contractors, We need to have consistent procedures for that across government. And then how do we write our contracts, our specifications for our contracts, where we're doing tree planting or tree maintenance. So we've been working on that as well. And how we do on-site inspection when we have contractors install trees. So we've been beefing all of those things up and working on those issues. And then internal coordination for tree protection on city projects. I've been working with Doug Burton with the Division of Engineering. So we're looking at how we're going to provide additional tree protection as they do projects, for example, that may affect an existing tree. And then approving coordination and consistency across divisions in general is part of the objectives for this goal. as far as recent accomplishments we have when we took over the right-of-way maintenance vegetation maintenance we began proactively mulching and pruning over 2 000 median and right-of-way trees so hopefully you may have noticed that we have also altered the mowing contractors approach just tell them to avoid the trees you're not to get within two feet of the trees now sometimes this causes a problem where we have grass that grows faster than we can take care of it. But we are working on a plan to address that. We've been addressing it, and I think by next year that will not be an issue. So each year we work to progress. I know that our first year, last year, getting these new responsibilities, we were really making sure we hit all the areas we were supposed to hit, even from mowing and all the different honey circle cutbacks and trees. And this year we're moving more into a proactive mode, and so we want to keep moving in that direction. So we have proactive pruning and removals on corridors through the Corridors Commission funding, which has been significant for us. We have done over 250 trees on corridors through Corridors Commission funding in the last year and a half. And then also the same thing with county roads. And again, I mentioned we have improved our contract specifications for tree planting. We've increased the professional level that's required for that, tightened up the specifications, and I think we have improved our internal coordination on tree protection, as I said, with the Division of Engineering. This is really, the picture's worth a thousand words, so this is probably my favorite slide of the whole presentation, and this is an example. If you look on the right, what we're doing in the right-of-way and in medians is we're doing mulch rings around the trees, but you will not see that in, say, a water quality lot or a greenway. We're looking on the left to a different approach in those areas where we let the grass and the native flowers grow up underneath the trees as a protective zone. And it's actually a really nice approach. This one on the left is off of Armstrong Mill. It's been an ongoing area of complaints we've had for years. This year, I didn't get a call of complaint. I got a call thanking me. They said, it's never looked so good. This is where we want to get on all of our properties. So this is what we're going for. Our fourth goal, ordinances and tree protection measures. So here are our objectives. Again, this is also a public safety focus, but in this case, it's related to trees that are primarily the responsibility of the abutting property owner under Section 17B of the Street Tree Ordinance. So we want to focus on public safety first. We have a lot of issues out there that we need to address. But we want to review and improve our ordinances and our planting manual. And these are the two goals. The next two, this is where my staff kicks me under the table, but reaching full compliance on street tree removals and replacements and full compliance on street tree pruning for clearance. What does that mean? I don't mean 100%. I don't think that's what I mean by full compliance. But it's some percent, high percent of compliance. That means that we've gotten through our backlog. So, for example, street trees, we have 55,000 street trees. Approximately 5,000 of those are ash. Now, some of those ash have been removed, but over the next how many years? It could be five years. It could be ten years. It varies every year. Those trees are going to die. They'll have to be removed and replaced. So that full compliance on street tree removals and replacements, We'll be working on determining what that percent number is going forward. And we're also going to have to think outside of the box. I mean, the Street Tree Cost Share Program is a 50-50 cost share with the abutting property owner, and it's been very successful. But as the ash trees begin to die off even more, we're going to have more and more pressure on that program. And the funding may need to be reevaluated, or even how the program is implemented may need to be reevaluated as we move forward dealing with changing conditions. And then reaching full compliance on street tree pruning for clearance. This is where we need to prune 12 feet on the street side so that school buses and the waste management trucks can get through there without being pushed into the middle of the road. This is a significant issue that we have. We also have clearance on sidewalks of 7 feet. So when we're talking about clearance for pruning, that's what we mean. So recent accomplishments related to this. We have addressed over 300 hazardous trees in the last two years. Thank you for the Street Tree Cost Share Program. That has significantly enhanced our ability to do this compliance effort. We have begun, in some cases, doing proactive clearance pruning of street trees when required. For example, when the police have a request. We went out and pruned all of the trees on 7th Street about a year and a half ago. The request of the police, and it's made a big difference, I think, there, in the environment on 7th Street. We have other situations where we may have someone who's disabled. We may have exhausted all of our enforcement. People have pruned, and yet there may still be some issues. It may be resurfacing. Yes? I'm going to ask for a motion to give you five more minutes for your presentation. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Proceed. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt. I'm going to start talking about trees. I just keep going. It's good. Or we may have block signs, for example, that need to be immediately addressed. So we're proactively doing some pruning, and then we are also updating the planting manual to be a digital version. And in addition to that, this plan, as it's being worked on, we're doing digital versions, so it'll be web-accessible. All right. Goal five, public education engagement. I mean, this is a pretty obvious one. We obviously need to be collaborating with our partners. We have great partners in Fayette County. We have great subject matter experts that we need to be working with and increase public participation. Recent accomplishments, we've done public workshops on the urban tree canopy assessment, and our website has our tree canopy report cards on it, which includes each council district, by the way, with detail. Goal six, now we move from the building the foundation into preserving and expanding the tree canopy. Really, all of these things here are things that we're currently working on, evaluating and improving our ordinances, monitoring and treating public trees, the public education piece, and removing hazards around public trees. We're already doing those things, but those are something that you'll have to continue to do going forward as well for the next 24 years and beyond. and then our seventh and last implementation goal is to expand the urban tree canopy focusing on those preferred planting areas that we already have mapped and so we may lead that planting area on publicly owned properties but only i think it's 16 of those preferred planting areas are located on publicly owned properties so most of this is a private endeavor so it will require a lot of investment and interest from the community. And then obviously helping build a network of professionals that's committed to the urban forest. I only have two more slides. This slide shows the percent increase in canopy. So we've had a significant increase over time. The first little tree is 1967. The last tree, 2012. So we've increased our canopy by 20% in 35 years. And just as a little note, if we were to plant 22,500 trees a year for 20 years, we would be up at the 40% urban tree canopy level, which is kind of an industry standard across the country. But first and foremost, we want to make sure that what we do, what we focus on is a healthy urban forest, and so diverse species. You have the emerald ash borer come in. If you're all ash trees, you're going to have a problem. So we want to be diverse. We want to be healthy in all of our practices. next steps so we will have a framework document that will show all of this information we're going to distribute that to everyone in summer 2016 it will be up on the website and we're going to continue our stakeholder involvement we're going to be coming to all of you as council members to talk about district specific opportunities and goals and then we'll work to complete the plan and incorporate it into the 2018 comprehensive plan Awesome. That's great. I'm sure there are follow-up questions or comments. I would, I guess, go back. Council Member Gibbs, would you like to start off? Do you have any questions? Thank you, Chair. Yes, sir. I just want to emphasize a couple of things that Susan said. We've made tremendous progress under Susan on mowing and protecting trees. A few years ago, Tom Kimmerer brought to the attention of the city, some of the damage that is being done. I know one over in Bell Park, a beautiful ginkgo that got whacked by mowers over the years, and then they had to take that down. And Susan's doing a really wonderful job on that. In fact, several months ago, Susan and I both attended a Cherokee Park neighborhood association, and she gave a report on what's going on with the medians, and the neighborhood association applauded for her. They didn't do anything for me, but they applauded for her. So there's a lot happening there. Another thing, Susan mentioned she's been working with Doug Burton, the new engineering director, and there's been a long history of, not conflict, but lack of coordination between those areas on tree protection. And they've come to a very nice agreement on that, and Susan and Doug will be reporting to this committee in August on that. One other thing, could you pull up page 16 from that report? Page 16, the graphic of the canopy. Which one? I'll take a quick look at that and emphasize something near and dear to my heart. I don't know if you can see it up there, but the tree trunk all the way to the left says public education and engagement. And Susan's area is doing some on that here, particularly things like reforest the bluegrass. But a lot of that is going to be left to the – we formed the vice mayor, appointed the tree canopy committee back in November, I think it was. And that tree canopy committee has been working very hard, and we're close to coming up with a plan. And what we're going to be doing is most of the public education and engagement. And as Susan pointed out, what the Davie resource study that was done back in 2012 indicated that about 84% of the land that is suitable for planting trees is on public property. And so this tree canopy committee will morph into something else eventually, but the focus is going to be on planting on private property. So that committee is going to be a key component of carrying out this plan. And I think that's all I had to say. But again, thank you, Susan. Thank you, sir. Councilor Mazzotti. Thank you. Thank you, Susan. I'm glad you have such a passion because it really shows in your hard work. I appreciate. When are you going to get to us the specifics? Because I'd like to be able to know, in my district specifically, the public areas where we're short. because I have got a little bit of money left from our allocation, and I want to go ahead and get that done. How soon can you get that to us? Well, we have the map right now. So you do, because I was told that we had another process we had to go through in order to get those specific spots that we were laying. Okay, well, we can overlay. We'll work with GIS. We can overlay that and figure that out. Really, the planting needs to occur in the fall, right? So there's time to do that. And as far as the species of the different trees, I mean, who determines that? Do we just say, okay, we're short here, you guys do that, or how does that work? Well, when we do a planting project, they go out and they do soil testing. So we need to know that. There's other issues related to determining which are the best species to go in certain places. For example, salt resistance, if it's in a right-of-way. In a median, they need to be more salt-resistant species. So we look at all those things. And our arborists, John Saylor, we have people in-house who can select good trees for the right locations. And the last question is, in new developments, developers were always required to put trees in the easements. Is that still part of the deal? Yes. I mean, in the zoning ordinance, land subdivision regulations, those have not changed. And what happens when, over time, because this has happened in a lot of my neighborhoods, where those trees have either died or they've come down or whatever, and the neighbors say, well, whose responsibility is it now? Because it was here when I bought the house, and now it's dead or whatever. Why do I have to pay for it? I mean, it comes up in a lot of neighborhood association meetings. Right. And it is responsibility of the abutting property owner, the street tree in the front of their residence is a responsibility. But the street tree cost share program really assists in that. It's a 50-50 cost share. So, for example, say a tree died years ago, but they need to replant it, and that was not caught in this process, or the street tree cost share program went dormant for several years and came back a couple years ago, either we'll catch it and contact them, or they can contact us and enter into that program in order to replant. Or if they have a tree that's dying or dead, then they go through that program, and Tim Query runs that, And they will actually get quotes from vendors that have gone through a pre-selection process that meet our specifications. And they get the quotes, and then one of those vendors will remove the tree and replace. So you say it's going to take us up to 2040 to get to where we need to be? Well, our plan is a 2040 plan as far as what we're looking for for what we're writing today. We don't want to write something for 50 years because it won't be viable. We think for the next 25, 24 years that what we write with this plan will be applicable. I was just hoping that we could expedite it instead of making it 20, 40, if we reach the 40 percent, that maybe we could make it 20, 30. I think it's all about resources. You look at 22,500 trees planted in a year, and those are not seedlings. Those would be like a two-inch caliber tree. Maybe it's two and a quarter. But on a nice day of a reforest of bluegrass when it's not snowing, and this year it snowed and we still had 300 people out there, we planted 3,000 seedlings. On a nice reforest of bluegrass, we can plant 7,000 seedlings in one day. So what could be done if we had a really motivated organization and citizenry out there, helping people plant trees finding resources to assist with that i think i think it could be done and what groups do you partner with to get this done well i mean the tree board obviously is i'm talking about community groups oh well i mean obviously neighborhood associations but the the urban tree canopy committee i didn't know if like maybe the sierra club or something like that maybe if you had a larger group that would kind of invest in this as well well well i think there's some interest in creating those local organizations. I think there's people already on the ground who have that ability, and I think they're moving in that direction. We also have Lakes and Tree Foundation. There's other garden clubs. There's existing organizations, and I think that's going to grow from the grassroots here. So they've got the word, or you're disseminating the information. Right. Between the council committee and the tree board, I think we're touching all of those people. like, for example, UK and the Urban Forestry Institute is very well connected in Fayette County, brings in a lot of experts to speak, and they are really involved in what we're doing. Great. Thanks for all your help. Appreciate it. Let's see. Council Member Evans, please. Thank you, Chair. Council Member Massadi hit on one of the issues I was going to address. So I guess my comments more would be, first of all, thank you for this. Yes, your enthusiasm is great, and I know I've sent some things your way, and you all have taken care of it. Actually, mentioning the Reforce the Bluegrass, I was there and had a discussion. So I appreciate the education part. As I was talking to, I think, someone from UK, we were having that discussion that for those that trees aren't their perhaps main concern and perhaps look at it as a nuisance as opposed to having to keep up, you know, the upkeep of a tree as a nuisance when they're responsible for the leaves and responsible for placing it and trimming it and all that stuff. So we'd be really interested to hear what the ideas are for that education because it is a tough sell when you've got, and I suspect that will be happening in my area with the ash borer and all that, happening that i suspect there will be a lot of people concerned and complaining that well i didn't plant this tree you all should have known um why am i going to be responsible for it so i'm hoping you can help me out with that okay um go ahead a lot of times part of the problem is not having the right tree in the right place there are some neighborhoods that have for example the Bradford Pears. They're notoriously difficult trees and they're very difficult to prune and keep managed and so I think that's part of it is addressing that the tree species the tree location. So we're trying to be flexible. We want to provide the right information and within the Division of Environmental Services we have a public involvement and engagement section and they're the communications people and so they're going to be on this job as well. part of this plan that we're working on. So they'll be involved with that. And we just want to proactively reach out to citizens who are having issues and see how we can best assist them. And one more thing, when it comes to safety, in the 6th District, I think there are a lot of, well I've just seen it just around the city in general, people look at the 7 feet clearance, but they're not looking where the streetlights are. Is that something that your division would be willing to do as a safety measure? The clearance requirement is 12 feet on the roadside. We'd have to look at each one from a case-by-case basis. Okay. But the streetlights, I mean, I've seen it where the trees are covering the streetlights, so I think it becomes a safety issue. Is that something that you want to be speaking? I'm not sure that we've ever addressed that in the past, but I can look into that. Okay. All right. Thank you. And then Council Member Akers. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Susan. It has been great working with you this past year and all of your work that you've done with the Corridors Commission. And I just commend you because you came in, I think, just one time to request some funds, and now you're a permanent new member of the commission, and you have accomplished an amazing amount of work in a short amount of time. And so I think that you're just great. I wanted to ask about specifically the True Canopy Study that was released a couple years ago. And in my district, where there's so much new construction and new development, it is one of the least canopy districts in the city and so as you develop and continue to complete this management forest management plan and comprehensive plan will you I assume prioritize districts or how will you like for instance how is the next reforest to bluegrass going to be identified the next location is that who makes that decision and I know some of it I've talked to John in the past. But are we thinking with that urban canopy study about things like Reforest the Bluegrass? And I would love to help and partner on other projects, if there are any that you can think of, to initiate in the district by organizing neighborhood associations or other nonprofit groups that are interested in trees. And like we mentioned recently, Citation and Leastown that are barren and in need of some trees. as well. So I would welcome you to come into the second district and I'll do whatever I can because I also recognize the value of trees for the community and for neighborhoods and for homeowners. And I hear this a lot too in new construction, new developments of the complaints of I didn't plant the tree. When actuality, the trees are, it's a requirement of the city and it's actually a benefit that the developer provides to homeowners. It increases your property value. It increases the values of the neighborhoods. And it's a really good thing in that we should be thankful and grateful to the developers for doing it. Sometimes they don't always pick the best trees, but it's a good thing. And that's what we just have to constantly remind homeowners of, is that this is an asset to your property and not an expense, I guess, or hassle that they see it as sometimes. So I appreciate all of your work and good luck with the plan of 22,000 plantings a year. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, ma'am. Vice Mayor Kay, please. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Susan, for the report. I want to basically follow up on a few things that have been said. People who were on council a few years ago will remember that the late Councilmember Beard was close to apoplectic about what was happening with trees in the city. And he was not reluctant to share that view. And I shared his view of what had been happening. We were planting the wrong trees in the wrong place. We were planting them poorly. When they were planted, they were being scalped. So we were basically killing trees about as fast as we were planting them. what I'm really encouraged by is that we've stopped doing those things wrong. You've taken measures, other people have taken measures to ensure that staff understand how to maintain trees so that contractors understand how to do that. We're being more diligent about what we plant and where we plant it and how we plant it. So if that was all that was happening, I'd be thrilled because it was really a problem. And I applaud you and the others who have worked on this for correcting all of those things. And now being in a position to be, as the cliche has it, proactive to begin to work on making things even better. So I look forward to the continued work. And I would echo, again, what a couple of other people have said. Trees add to the aesthetics of the city, but they are important for the economy. They save us money. They clean our air. They do a lot of things that really make a big difference to quality of life. So thank you for all your work. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, sir. I was going to go to Council Member Hensley, then come back to Council Member Gibbs. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for the work. One of the questions I have, and maybe a thought, is the cost of the trees that you're planting in the public spaces. is with all of the discussion of the 10-acre lot exemptions in the AR area, could we do a joint venture with some of these to create tree farms to help offset the cost that we're putting back into the urban service forest? I mean, there's lots of space out there that may be available to create tree farms that people didn't realize that they were in this gray area. and they may be willing to carve out two or three acres for the city to grow trees on. I have no idea how you grow trees other than put an acorn in the ground and it comes up. So just a thought. We've got this resource of all this land around us that may be available if we ask to make our own tree nursery, tree farm, whatever you want to call it. I know growing up in the country, I always saw these signs that said tree farm, certified tree farm, and I didn't know if there's a cost-saving measure that we could reach out to our own community and help offset that. Well, we could look into that, into those parcels that you're mentioning, but I would say we do have a tree nursery. It's very small, but we want to do an expanded tree nursery. It would be in more than one location. So that's something that we're, as we're bringing on the city arborist, we're bringing on an arborist and another arborist technician, that's one of the things in their job description is to manage the city's tree nurseries. So that will be a new endeavor for us as well, and not just for trees, but some of the plants as well. If we find that we can do some of our shrubs or even some of our other types of flowering perennials as well as trees in a cost-effective way by managing it in-house, we're going to look at that opportunity. We have some parcels that could be used. Some of the park land, some of them are greenways. That would be good for that. I'm just thinking, you know, I know Tom Kimmerer. I worked on a project with him a decade ago, saw him every day for about a year and a half, and worked at Bernheim Forest with him on a number of projects. And I was just thinking that we've got this asset that's kind of there that maybe we just need to ask people, say, hey, would you carve out some land, you know, to put a nursery on it, and maybe offset 22,000 trees you're talking about. So thanks. We can talk about that. Thanks. And Councilman Gibbs. Thank you, Chair. I just want to clarify about the Canopy Committee that the Vice Mayor appointed. I didn't say enough about it. I probably confused people a bit. But the Vice Mayor appointed that committee, and there are three council members on it myself. I chair it. Council Member James Brown and Susan Lamb is on the committee. But we have 17 other people on the committee. Some of them are government employees. We have most of the top three experts in the area, Dave Leonard and Mary Arthur from the U.K., Evelyn Risky-Kinney from the U.K., and many others. And we've recently decided, we've been working very hard since November, and don't quote me on any of this, but most likely what we're going to do is this committee will dissolve, and we will form a separate nonprofit corporation, separate from the government, to carry on our work. That's what most cities have been doing, who have been doing this sort of thing. Of course, we'll be coming to the government to ask for money, because estimates are it costs about a million dollars for every percentage point of tree canopy that we're going to increase. So there's going to be now what our nonprofit gets formed, again, this is all conjecture, but more than likely what we'll be doing is raising money to get trees planted on private property and probably some sort of cost share, probably a sliding scale. The worst tree canopy is in the second district. The second worst is in the first district. I would expect a different cost share for Belcourt than I would for a low-income area. So we don't have to raise a million dollars ourselves for every percentage which we can be by this nonprofit we're talking about. But anyway, that's the direction we're heading towards. and when you look at the graphic, Susan and I have worked together on this, and we're thinking that there's going to be a separate nonprofit that will be doing much of this work. I do want to mention another group that's been very active in the community, mostly in the educational role, is the Urban Forest Initiative, which is a U.K. community partnership headed by Mary Arthur, who I already mentioned, and Lynn Risky-Kinney. and they're doing a lot in teaching people about trees and species selection and things like that. I do want to mention once this nonprofit gets up and running, one of the problems with trees is oftentimes they are unsuccessful. They die for various reasons. And we're going to be very careful about species selection. And I thank Dave Leonard and others for this, particularly Dave Leonard's a very strong voice for this. we need to have really good maintenance programs for trees that we're responsible for planting. And so this committee has been working very hard, and we're going to come up with a plan that's going to work. We're going to need money from you guys and a whole bunch of other people, though, so get ready for the ask. But anyway, that's all I have to say. But thank you. You had given comment earlier that she would be back before us in August with some sort of report. Is that what you said? Yes. I'll let Susan talk about it. That's related to tree protection, existing tree protection on construction projects. That's what that topic is. She worked out in agreement with Doug Burton of engineering. Okay. Because there's oftentimes been some problems with engineering projects and tree protection in those projects. So they're coming up with some better language for that. We would look forward to that and working with that, as well as with you and your disappearing group, I guess. I don't know. Very good work. Yeah, well, I'll be going to report to full council probably August, I would think, something like that. I think the more the people know, the more they want to know. So we look forward to all that. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Did you say that you have some new folks or someone who replaced Jim Redman? Yes, well, it's not possible to replace Jim Redman. He might be watching, too. Well done. Well done. Nice to meet you. Yeah. But Kristen Curry has great credentials, and she's right there in the back. She's the new senior environmental planner. Welcome. And she's the main writer on this plan. And we're looking for every opportunity we can to do our work in-house. I think we can do it cheaper, more effective, quicker. And so in this case, this is the perfect plan for her to start on. She just came in and jumped in on day one. And I appreciated in your goals and implementation here an extensive timetable. I mean, we're talking about growing a forest, and it takes quite a while to do that. And you've given a critical path here that runs decades, not years. I think that's very, very important for the thought process and all the outcome things, too. We want to plant it. We want to take care of it. We want to garden it better than ever before. So I appreciate that you look so long-term at it. And then similar to other comments about you and your work with the government, I find you to be a force multiplier. When we get you involved, more gets done, it gets done faster, and it gets better taken care of. So I know from the work we've done in the Quarters Commission and here that you've set up a shop like the plant. You've set up a shop for a long time to move things from start to finish. And certainly one of these pages in here talks about proactive pruning, which is something those terms never went together in this government before. So the fact that we're in a position to take care of things before they look bad or before they're a problem or to make things look better every day, while it may not be giving comment to, people do notice it. And I think it's something that you take to heart. I know you drive by stuff and stop and take care of it or call in right then. And I appreciate all those efforts on all of our behalf. So thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Unless there's anything else here, we did have kind of an abbreviated meeting. and at the end of our last meeting we went through and kind of gardened down our committee referrals pretty successfully probably about the shortest list we've had in a while i really don't intend to run through them i was just going to see if anybody had any comments questions or motions here there weren't any that i had in mind but if anyone had an item that was part of our referral list or wanted to update about it or comment about it or take action of some sort on it this would be a great time to talk about that as we have ample time right now but if there's none That's okay, too. Did you all have a look there? Anything? Then I would ask for a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Thank you very much.