Sunset Wide Sidewalk Update

 Winter King Hawthorn (one of trees to be newly planted on Sunset Street)
Sometimes it seems as all city projects move at a glacial pace. I got a good reminder of that last night when I received an email asking about all the trees on Sunset with X's on them. Did that mean they were going to be removed? I had to answer "yes." That got me thinking, we had approved the wide sidewalk plan a year ago, and the accompanying master tree plan nearly 8 months ago. Many people may not be aware or had forgotten details of those plans. 
 So here is what I replied:

 

Hey Citizen's Name,

Yes those trees with the "x's" will be removed. In some cases they are diseased or poor choices for street trees. Some trees that are healthy  are being removed because we are worried that the construction and new sidewalk location will compromise their roots. The good news is that we have created a master tree plan for all of west side Sunset to replace those removed trees. Besides the twelve trees to be removed there will be an additional 14 trees planted. 16 current trees will remain. This plan was created by Shive Hattery engineers, a landscape architect, and U-Heights residents. The replacement trees were chosen to create a better streetscape and are trees more appropriate for a right of way. The other consideration was to get a greater variety of trees to prevent mass loss from any particular pest or disease.

Here is a link from the U-Heights website to the master plan. This PDF shows trees that are staying, being removed and replacements: 

http://www.university-heights.org/Streets/SunsetSidewalk/TreeMasterPlan082012.pdf

Our city engineer, along with Jim Lane and I from city council, talked to Mahaska Drive property owners. In some cases the property owners were adamant that their particular trees be saved. Where possible we have made adjustments to the sidewalk, where not possible, owners understand that if trees die in the next several years it will be the owner's expense to remove them, not the city's. Trees removed now will be paid as part of the Sunset Wide Sidewalk project.

The entire project is part of a Federal transportation grant that will be funding 80% of the total costs. The good news is that the construction portion bid came in $20K under our projections so we should be able to fund the entire tree plan as part of the project.

With the trees (especially the crab-apples) in full flower right now, it is probably the worst time to remove them from a visual point of view, but I'm confident that at the completion of the entire project, Sunset Street will look even better.

Here is a link to the letter our engineer sent to property owners, and I posted on the City's website for everyone. We will likely have weekly updates as the project continues:

http://www.university-heights.org/Streets/SunsetSidewalk/Update01.pdf

Here is the general link to the city's webpage:

http://www.university-heights.org/

I hope this helps to answer your questions, I'm happy to talk further with you about this, or any other city concerns.

-Mike Haverkamp

 315 Golfview Ave.