Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Trees and Planning Commission

I'm just throwing crap together here (intentionally, this time), so excuse the unrelated info in this post.

First, the Planning Commission meets tonight to discuss the Downtown Parking Plan. Based on the item description this appears to be a presentation of a plan that was previously approved by the Vehicle Parking District Commission in October. I have another commitment at the exact same time, so I can't make it. If anyone wants to head on down, the meeting starts in the Council Chambers at 7PM.

Now for trees........I see a lot of demands coming from the city that residents should plant 36 inch box trees, but I've also heard that planting 15 gallon trees is more prudent, since the smaller tree will recover from the transplant faster, and that the two trees may be almost indistinguishable in just a few years. Given the 15 gallon tree is cheaper and easier to plant, can some tree people step in to offer their opinion on this? Maybe Andrew could do a post, because I'm curious about the best option. Is the city placing a substantial financial burden on residents for very little gain? Thanks for any help that you can provide.

Btw for all you tree huggers out there............at the upcoming 4/22 Planning Commission meeting, the Fairplex will present a request to relocate 6 oak trees and remove 3 others. I do believe that required a $500 oak tree permit. I hope it wasn't $500 for each oak tree.

That's all "Chainsaw" has for you today.

Brief addition: Check out these "words of wisdom" from the bloggers at the Pomona Public Library.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.5min.com/Video/large-container-trees-40666806

John

Andrew said...

done

Andrew said...

36" Box Tree v. 15 Gallon Tree.

and that link that John Anon sent is a good one too.
large-container-trees

Birdi said...

I feel a growing desire to repeat a past karma yoga, and this is to collect acorns to sprout in pots and give away to the people of Pomona. I especially like that oaks are now a protected species in this town. I shall be happy to do my small part to create the urban forest of the future. Oaks, by the way, do poorly when grown large in containers. They do best when planted young and allowed to develop a deep tap root. Oaks also do poorly when transplanted as mature trees. Perhaps you scholars can find some of the transplantation of oak tree studies done in southern California in the past two decades. Some of my fellow tree advocates of old were involved in such research projects. Does anyone know which oaks at the Fairplex are in jeopardy? There are some very fine specimens of cork oak in the south parking lot and lining McKinley.

Gilman said...

Just a thought..why don't you folks consider forming a special assessment district to maintain and increase the planting of "historic" trees within Pomona? I have heard several references to the beautiful trees in Claremont, well they have such an assessment district.
Every owner in the Historic Districts could pay an annual assessment of let's say $300.00 that would be used to pay for moving, planting, trimming, etc. of the trees within the District.
What do you think?

John Clifford said...

Don't know what Claremont has, but it would seem that it would only work for parks and public areas. There is a similar assessment area in Phillips Ranch for the hillsides and roadways. However, our historic district trees are mostly on private property and I'm not sure how you would assess for that without forming a special board/HOA, etc.

But an interesting idea.

gilman said...

Mr. Clifford,
Claremont is probably somewhat unique in that many of the trees covered are actually located in the front yard areas of people's homes - the city, I believe, has something akin to an easement and retains "ownership" of these trees.
Maybe something like Irvine where all of the homes could be designated as part of a "planned" community with the City having easements to the trees might work. Or the City could form something like the Historic Districts and call it a Tree preservation district and everyone would contribute for maintenance which would be performed via the City or City designated contractor.

Unknown said...

Such an intersting blog. I lived in Pomona until I was about 8 years old. (Went to Madison Elementary) My Dad used to take my Brother and I to that huge minature golf place right off of the highway. Heh heh.

I have such vivid memories about California and it crushed me to have to move away to Colorado.

I hate the cold, and someday I'll get back!!

Great Blog!!