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The San Ramon City Council is set to talk Tuesday about how best to handle tree and turf problems in city planting strips in Dougherty Valley neighborhoods, including possibly contracting with a landscape consultant to develop a master plan and creating a citizens’ committee to provide community input during the process.
The problems — many stemming from trees being planted too close together or too close to utilities and infrastructure — have included damage to irrigation systems, roots lifting sidewalks and roots damaging water meters, according to city officials.
The city already developed a project to begin removing troublesome trees that had or were likely to cause damage and replacing with alternative tree types where appropriate, city operations division manager Jeff Gault said in his staff report to the council.
To date, more than 600 trees have been removed, with 100-plus other resident tree-removal requests pending, and damage to private property has resulted in dozens of property damage claims, Gault said. About 400 new trees have been planted as replacements thus far.
But city staff estimated just over a year ago needing to remove 3,000 troublesome trees and replace them with 2,000 size-appropriate varieties, as well as taking out up to 2.8 million square feet in grass turf in planting strips in favor of drought-friendlier mulch or plants.
Gault said city officials now recommend the council pay up to $49,920 to California Tree and Landscape Consultants, Inc. (CalTLC) to create a new Dougherty Valley tree and turf strip action plan and form a citizens’ committee to take part in the master plan process.
CalTLC’s work would include an inspection of the site conditions; review of maintenance history, inventory data and budgets; summary of findings; strategies for short-term problems; and options for future community design, existing site re-design and long-term management, Gault said.
All that would lead up to the firm drafting the master plan, Gault added. There would be additional costs for environmental review and preparation of associated documents, so the council would need to consider a separate agreement in the future for an environmental consultant.
As for the proposed committee, city officials recommend the council appoint staff, the consultant and selected resident members of Dougherty Valley neighborhoods to serve, Gault said.
“The focus of the committee would be to provide input representing the concerns, opinions and desired outcomes of the community, as they relate to the trees, turf strips, infrastructure, maintenance and sustainability,” he added.
City officials encourage the council to endorse their consultant-and-committee concept. Until the plan is finalized, individual trees would only be removed as damage occurs or where an imminent threat exists and no replacements would be planted, Gault said.
The Dougherty Valley tree debate is among the leading items for Tuesday’s regular council meeting, set to begin at 7 p.m. inside the council chamber at San Ramon City Hall, 7000 Bollinger Canyon Road.
In other business
* The council will discuss the appointment of a city manager while meeting in closed session after the public meeting Tuesday night.
Police chief Joe Gorton has served as interim city manager since July 1, with the council appointing him as a temporary replacement for retiring city manager Greg Rogers.
City Council members at the time indicated they wanted to wait until after the Nov. 8 city election to decide how to proceed with the hiring process for a new permanent city manager.
* As part of the open meeting, the council will consider approving the city’s 2015-16 financial audit, prepared by Maze & Associates.
City revenues available for expenditures were $900,000 more than the final budget, “reflecting better than anticipated property tax, sales tax, property transfer tax, transient occupancy tax, licenses and permits, intergovernmental revenue, fines and forfeitures, and miscellaneous revenue,” Candace Daniels, city finance division manager, said in a staff report.
Expenditures were kept within spending limits by $2.6 million, and the general fund ended the year with a balance of $13.1 million — $3.2 million stronger than the estimated final budget due to savings from vacant positions and a continued effort by management to carefully control spending, Daniels said.
* The council will discuss appointing one of its members to serve as mayor pro tempore (vice mayor) for the year ahead. Councilman Scott Perkins sat as vice mayor for 2016.
* Council members will also consider approving their liaison appointments to local and regional committees and other groups.
* They will hear the annual report from the city’s Library Advisory Committee.
* The council will also discuss appointing several local residents to city committees.
City staff recommends naming Lan Liu to serve on the Arts Advisory Committee. Liu was the only applicant to file when the city announced three vacancies on the committee — one regular term and two alternate positions.
For the Transportation Demand Management Advisory Committee, the city received seven applications from local business representatives for four open seats on the committee.
The Planning Commission interviewed applicants and recommends the council appoint Yolanda Serrato (San Ramon Marriott Hotel) and Williams Ejuwa (The UPS Store) to terms running through January 2019 and Jeff Sugimura (Residence Inn by Marriott) and Tim Traver (San Ramon Regional Medical Center) to alternate positions.
* Before the regular meeting, the council will gather for a special meeting 6:30 p.m. at City Hall to interview applicants Anna Fehrenbach and Christy Torkildson and appoint one of the women as a city representative to the Contra Costa County Advisory Council on Aging for a term to expire in September 2019.
This is what happens when you plant the wrong tree in the wrong place! I see this all over San Ramon. Do they not consider how big the tree will become in 20 years? Or the root system? They could have opened any Sunset book and gotten this information. Morons.
I was under the assumption that there were city paid arborist and landscape professionals?
Danville, London, Palo Alto, Valencia — all have Sycamores. There is going to be a cost associated with having these majestic trees and maintaining them. It is far cheaper to cut roots, move pipes and fix sidewalks then having the City pay a contractor $ 10 to $ 30 million up front to replace these trees while destroying our property values and the homes of our wildlife. They approved a budget of $785K to remove trees as part of a Capital Improvement Project (illegally without a CEQA study.) Only they want to continue to circumvent CEQA while they pay a contractor to figure out a new Master Plan that involves full replacement of our trees which is estimated to cost $30 million dollars (it will keep growing like the library costs did.)
There is no reason to come up with a new plan. We need to simply use the $785K already budgeted as part of the CIP to pay claims and fix sidewalks and roots as they arise, no need to pony up $30 million today. We’ve had these trees for 20 years and sustained only $40K in claims (not the half a million they will tell us at the meeting which includes the costs for their illegal removal of 600 trees.)
Please come to the meeting Tuesday at 7 City Hall, we really need your help.
Dougherty Valley was and still is a Contra Costa project. They did all of the planning and approvals. Only when a portion is complete does San Ramon incorporate it. The bad design is on the developers and the county.
In virtually every case, public space tree plantings (medians, etc.) are planted way too close together. It may look nice in the first couple of years, but (duh!) trees grow.
Rule number 1 when dealing with landscape contractors and/or landscape designers (when not independent, and part of the overall contract) is this:
– They ALWAYS design in way too many trees and shrubs, planted way too close together. Because (again, duh!) this makes them more money!
How is it that something that is obvious to every homeowner who ever had landscaping done, somehow escapes the city and county planners? Does no one ever review the proposals from the landscaping contractors? Or is the relationship a bit “too cozy”? Just asking the obvious questions. Because this isn’t rocket science, and is entirely predictable/preventable….
For a big portion of Dougherty Valley send the bill to Toll Brothers; their crap up.