Jan. 15: Cleveland Urban Forestry Commission
Covered by Documenter Mildred Seward (notes)
Cleveland’s Urban Forestry Commission heard an update Jan. 14 on efforts to help the city avoid damaging trees on tree lawns.
Jennifer Kipp, the city’s Urban Forestry manager, explained that the anchor roots of trees are sometimes damaged when sidewalks are replaced. This destabilizes the trees. Currently, the city pursues two options to avoid damaging trees: Reduce the sidewalk width to 48 inches or ask the owner of the adjacent property to agree to an easement, so that the new sidewalk can overlap that property and bend around the tree roots.
But the Public Right of Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG) offer other options. The PROWAG guidelines were approved last year by The Access Board, an independent federal agency that advances accessibility. PROWAG allows for sidewalks as narrow as 36 inches to spare tree roots from the chainsaw.
Kipp said she is working with the commission’s Policy Committee on a draft of a new policy for Cleveland. Once approved, that draft will be sent to Cleveland’s Parks and Recreation Director Alex Nichols and to James DeRosa, director of the Mayor’s Office of Capital Projects, for their input. The goal is to adopt the new policy before sidewalk construction season begins in mid- to late March.
City Council Member Jenny Spencer said that the city often has trouble reaching property owners to ask for easements and doesn’t want to see 36-inch sidewalks become common as a result.
New rules for meeting notices
The commission decided on new policies for committee meeting notices. The commission has committees focused on budget, policy and tree maintenance. Meetings will be announced at least seven days in advance on the city’s announcements page, the Urban Forestry page on the Sustainable Cleveland website, and on Sustainable Cleveland’s social media channels.
New youth commissioner and vacancies
The commission welcomed its newest and youngest member, Jinan Berard, a junior at Hathaway Brown School. Berard fills the long-vacant commission seat reserved for a Cleveland resident between the ages of 11 and 17.
As of this meeting, the commission had received 23 applications for five other vacancies. Those seats are supposed to go to a certified arborist, a developer, someone from a non-profit and from an electric company, and a resident.
