thank
oh
and how
how do we hi dave
your life
hey
dave are you muted
can you start video i
am can you hear me susan yes we can hear
you great
how about ellen in okay good
okay
okay are we ready then elena
okay
okay let us call the january 19th 2022
meeting of the bexley tree and public
gardens commission to order and call the
roll vice chair larry hillman
dave wakeman
david can you unmute yourself yeah stay
here sorry here
thank you celeste williams
jim wilson
linda
here chair susan quintin's here
alternate barb giller
ex officio ellen bowden
i see that her she's in the medium but
she's muted muted can you unmute
yourself please ellen
up in the right corner ellen
i'm here okay
okay thank you molly o'donnell
molly can you unmute please
okay i'm here
okay thanks so much okay city staff
mayor ben kessler
present thank you city council liaison
and
uh an initiate in the tree and public
gardens commission aura here lori ann
fibal here
staff consultant elena andrews here
urban forester grant archer
administrative assistant jordan
caballero
thank you thank you can all here
can all on zoom here
yes yes
okay just reminding the people on zoom
that
um
the ex official members can not engage
in discussion or voting
the um
dave wakeman as a remember you can
engage in
discussion but no voting is is that
correct mayor
that that is correct just to
qualify that the ex fiscal members are
welcome to discuss as much as you want
them to the only time that that's not
appropriate is if it's a decision like a
hearing right so if you're hearing
a plan being presented by an applicant
and that that
this you would not but otherwise
but otherwise right that sort of thing
and i i think everyone knows that so
um we would not need to appoint an
alternate we do have a quorum
so we can go on and uh vote on our
minutes
we have two months and minutes november
17 2021 and december 15 2021. let's take
the november 17th minutes first
i'm looking for a motion for approval i
move their approval is there a second
okay
is there any discussion
it was made and seconded that we
approved the minutes of november 17 2021
as
emailed all those in favor say aye aye
all those who close signs motion carries
now december 15th 2021 i'll take a
motion for approval
i hope their approval a second is there
any discussion
a motion has been made in second that we
approve the minutes of december 15 2021
as emailed all those in favor say aye
aye all those opposed same sign okay
so
we always want to do better and look at
running meetings that are consistent and
more efficient and at our pre-meeting
uh with
larry grant the mayor and alana we
talked again about how to
um
how to work through the applications
when we have a person here or a
landscape architect and all of us and
larry had suggested which was wise as
we'd expect of him that we follow the
same procedure that arb has
and um that seemed appropriate and so
larry do you want to just kind of
iterate the flow of that of that
discussion
uh
yes the
typically we hear from
staff first because staff is then the
most current about the current status of
the application and what the last
conversations have been and so forth
then there are questions of staff
stat okay
just kind of quick questions of staff
then the applicant comes forward and
then the applicant presents
whatever issues are remaining and so
forth to talk about sometimes the staff
report can be complete enough that the
applicant says no i think i think
staff's handled all those things and i
have nothing further to add sometimes
that happens um but then the staff then
the applicant uh presentation questions
that of the applicant
uh and then whatever
conditions there are or changes
uh are then
a matter of finding a fact
and then that finding of fact is then
uh when it's time for a motion the
finding of fact is read
and then the applicant do you agree with
finding a fact referred to yes i do then
you're available for vote
and that's kind of the
if you will the structurally legal
process now you know for for a maybe a
tree replacement or something maybe we
don't have to be quite that formal uh
but when it's an actual case uh that
just seems to be a nice orderly way to
to do things and how do commission
members feel about that
you like that flow
okay so
okay we will tr we'll test that out this
afternoon and then see how we do always
looking to do better are there any
additions to the agenda
and within the the agenda stance as is
announcements and small victories and
comments uh this is the point in the
agenda delorean where we talk about some
of the great things that we're doing and
some of the plans that we have so
um
uh ellen bowden first you want to just
give us an update on the 2021 trees
bexley campaign
um sure
our for the trees for bexley 2021
campaign we brought in 33 300 with 117
donors
in comparison to
uh 2019 and 2020 for
i was curious maybe you're curious too
uh in 2019 we brought in 29
400 with 111 donors and in 2020 our
biggest year ever we brought in 37 three
hundred dollars with a hundred and
twenty eight owners so i was very
pleased obviously um
this year the thirty thousand thirty
three thousand three hundred dollars
comes between
the last two years
and um
anyway i thought that was a good number
because the
community foundation also did a year-end
solicitation
um so um all in all is we have
three hundred dollars to go towards uh
design and plan
for uh jeffrey mansion
for this coming year
thank you thank you good work um
thanks and
i'm sure we'll use all that money
i'm sure
yeah every day we've had our second
arbor day meeting uh as you might
remember we're celebrating arbor all
april long we have a tremendous
tremendous
um committee
and everybody has taken a topic and then
we'll work on themselves and then we
come back together so it's been a really
uh really terrific start
i want to go to the photos if we can of
the middle tier hedge on the west
terrace at jeffrey mansion
okay so
you might remember that when the bexley
bloomers started working this year this
uh this terrace was privet that was
untameable and it had a tremendous
amount of invasives in the ground cover
and with the grant from the
community foundation for twelve thousand
dollars the privet was eradicated we
hopefully the
uh invasive ground cover was eradicated
and the new um texas hedge was installed
the end of december
so i think that's there it is on a snowy
day that could have been monday
yes yeah so that's a plus great
improvement okay um
now if we can
elena i'd like to go to the hugsie
website
so it's ww dot
got it okay
now if you can scroll down
okay
you can stop stop there
compare cities which city has more urban
green space than austin texas
if you can click on that it should take
you
select a city let's take bexley ohio
bexley ohio is live
right there bexley ohio who do we want
it who do we want to compare ourselves
to
boston
okay
so who who wins here
we do we do
yeah okay now let's go up and do it
against uh not charlotte but let's see
let's change the city chicago to chicago
if they're the answer so you already
know the answer i'm looking at okay yeah
yeah but i won't tell it
okay look at that bexley
255.49 143. massive extended you know
the whole emerald necklace right
big green park so there you go
cool yeah so that i think there are 66
cities and the greenest city is bexley
so you can just play with us all day
long i was so excited it came live over
the weekend
and
i haven't had
enough
time to go through it all but there are
many things that this table
can
can help you with and compare
so you see average health of the
vegetation i mean they're just lots of
kind of things
and thanks to grant giving
the um
paying for this
involvement with husqvarna
cities all over the world will be able
to look at bexley versus their city and
see who's winning the great race
so
yeah anything else under announcements
and small victories
if not i wanted to go to the mayor we've
kind of moved things around because he
has a conflict at five o'clock
and uh
his reports are always important to not
only city bexley but the work that we do
so mayor
i don't know why we're taking this
picture but we are
okay
hi mr markham um
elena would you mind refresh it just hit
the refresh up yeah that's the one
because i added some attention i call on
you to make some comments
[Music]
oh my god
i thought you were going to give us a
professor
moment factoid i thought you're going to
give us a factoid that was we we kind of
got not to put any pressure on our hand
but i mean you know those little
factoids were great but bananas and
that's great
and currently
oh my
landscape
they are the best
so lori ann um with mr markham's
background we did ask him for a tutorial
at every tree commission meeting uh some
fact he could share with us about trees
or you know photosynthesis or
yeah i have a serious green thumb i
really yes you do yes you do what
ever my new love is orchids but
okay okay well we could make a market in
those yeah
well we've been worried about bananas
ever since because
yeah the bananas are not going to be
with us how much longer 10 years
of course yeah that's right okay
yeah so let's let's hear what the
mayor's been up to bananas or not
exactly well first off i want to
congratulate
mr markham who is your new council
president so president markham
welcome
i think you should insist on a factoid
and i want to congratulate lauren who's
no longer the council president
so uh just a couple couple things to
cover today um first off we have a
livingston avenue uh workshop tomorrow
at 6 30 pm
live and in person at the jccc
but also there's a zoom option so people
who are not feeling like congregating
too much will have that option
um so at the at that one we're going to
see the draft final plan for livingston
avenue and it will you'll see a lot of
what you've already seen and we've been
keeping you kind of up to date on some
of that so in terms of the road diet
and narrowing of in larger tree lawns
and multi-use paths and that sort of
thing what's going to be added this
presentation is additional streetscape
conversation
both short and long term
and there's some kind of interesting
short-term concepts for
how to
try to address some of the aesthetic
possibilities of the corridor shall we
say
um and also some zoning
policy discussions um
nothing that you won't be surprised to
see kind of new urbanist sort of
concepts of buildings built up to the
front and parking behind and circulation
streets in lieu of curb cuts everywhere
that sort of thing so that will be
presented at the workshop looking for
public feedback there will be
a
you know classic sort of boards up there
with post-it notes um
but also an online version of that for
survey and we'll have the boards here in
our lobby for a week so people can add
their own
post-its if they weren't able to
physically go to the workshop so um that
is happening um we have also uh as you
know
are about to embark on a police chief
search process
larry reinhardt retired
on january 7th after serving 14 years in
our community
just today actually we engaged a firm
called ralph anderson
an associates that does a lot of chief
searching throughout the country they
recently did columbus's chief search
they've done work for
upper arlington and other other cities
in the area
so
they will begin
helping us create a profile for a
candidate and then part of that will
involve meeting with all sorts of
community groups having a community
survey
meeting with all of our officers just
getting a feel for internal climate and
community climate and
and
helping to come up with the ideal
candidate for the city
i don't have the in the the entire
community engagement piece is going to
be robust but it's not even near final
so we're we're just getting off the
ground planning that um hopefully we
have a new chief in at least selected by
april
um
it's not a short process so it's going
to be you know a process that we take
deliberately and take and consider
carefully
uh
any questions about that actually acting
chases acting chief is uh deputy chief
goff
has been with our agency for many many
years
um
also sorry he has two titles captain or
deputy chief so
you might know him by either one of
those titles
and he's you know his his role he's been
our deputy chief for many years um
his role is
very hands-on all the time so it's it's
a pretty natural transition for him to
be interim chief right now
um the new okay
new mexico staff we have added two
positions to our uh to our staff roster
this year one is a part-time but a
robust part-time sustainability
programs coordinator
is the title and basically that position
is going to be taking all of the
different things that we're doing within
sustainability whether it's
composting initiatives recycling
initiatives the
electrical aggregation we're working on
single-use plastic
roll-out to businesses bad ban
or hopefully be working on universal
recycling this year so all those
programs interfacing with morpsey that
sort of thing and having a professional
staff contact who can help forward all
those things
that is a huge relief to me it's been
something that i've been trying to move
forward within
basically my own domain and elizabeth
allman from the esac has been very
helpful as a volunteer in doing that and
she was hired to professionally help the
city with that so she's going to be
doing that as a representative of the
city
her scope will therefore kind of change
a little bit it'll be focused more on
some of our specific goals and then the
esec
chair position is open so we're
looking for that as well in our
community
um a litter
coordinator is it's
it's not the title but that's okay it's
a an individual we're hiring someone out
of our
refuse fund to focus on additional uh
trash and litter mitigation so that
includes uh more frequent street
sweeping uh throughout the community
right now street sweeping's kind of done
as we're able to do it based upon
the availability of an employee and also
the equipment working so we have a new
street sweeper and with it physically we
have a new street sweeper as of last
year and now we will have a new person
sort of a little more dedicated to
street suite but also
we've heard from a lot of businesses um
about
litter pickup in general in the
community and
it's inconsistency so some of our
business owners are better than others
at picking up litter i think we know
this
but also littered lives in the public
domain the public right of way
and pickup of that is inconsistent so
the the litter
this person within the refuse fund will
help
not only empty receptacles but also uh
pick up litter in places and as they
observe it refer to code enforcement to
try to get a more consistent uh code
enforcement interface with with litter
in general
and then beyond main street um helping
with uh supplementing our own efforts as
we have litter control built into our
highway our
on-ramp maintenance contract for next
year helping with that and other
gateways places where litters wheelers
gathering
grant was just out there helping a young
uh scout
uh get some litter pickup supplies for a
litter cleanup on saturday that could be
something that our litter coordinator
would help with
that's not the name of the title but
what is it what is the test
it's an eq one or eq it's it it's a
it's a service employee category that
will be focused on this okay so it's
called whatever you want okay litters
are letters are
will this person also be looking at like
alleys and dumpsters
um
i mean to the extent that we're trying
to improve the main street area yes i
think in word i have been made
very rightfully so aware of mission
creep which is like this started off as
talking about
really raising the bar on main street
and raising the bar with the street
sweeping in general and with some of our
gateway areas that tend to accumulate
litter we've seen a difference in i know
you guys have seen it as well and i
don't know it's what's happening
culturally but
people are more and more just throwing
trash out their window of their car it's
kind of insane
watching it happen
and um so i think it's important for us
to address that from a cleanup
perspective on a regional basis i'm
active with comma and with morpc
and um
with morphs i'm actually chairing
warpsy's sustainability committee now so
i'm going to be that's going to be one
of my top priorities is regionally
raising the profile of litter pickup and
oh thanks appreciate that
litter pickup and how we're addressing
that between odot
mayor ginther and others
i i have a question mayor has the litter
also been a problem of congesting the
drainage off the streets
is that how bad it is is it that or is
it mostly a visual piece
i haven't heard a whole lot about that
okay i believe i i mean
we have um
maybe 100 trash cans out on city right
away that need changed every other day
kind of thing the street sweeping does
help with
litter control and the storm drains and
stuff but that's also you know leaf and
other litter that gets picked up with
that
so that's basically what his focus will
be on yeah okay i appreciate that thank
you yeah
so mayor i just
my follow-up question would then be that
for the moment it doesn't seem like the
eq one person will be looking at alleys
and inappropriate dumpsters or dumpsters
that are not
closed or or inc
or which i say looking like they've been
codified
no i wouldn't say that i mean i think um
are you talking about like within the
business area sounds like well i just
yeah i mean just going down the back of
mainstream i mean i think any
my experience is the property owners who
are not keeping up on top of litter are
also
that's true in the front and in the back
so i feel like you know if it's referred
onto code enforcement
and followed up with code enforcement
and this will be kind of a regular touch
as opposed to
one of us gets grumpy and code
enforcement right yeah so i think
getting that kind of routine eyes on it
i
i don't know i would yes i'm not telling
you they wouldn't go in the alley and be
looking at that i think that the key is
they're not responsible for cleaning up
private property they're gonna be
responsible for keeping an eye on it and
making sure that we're pushing the right
buttons to get private property cleaned
up and that'll
also include the alleyway and dumpster
intervention thank you thank you for
experimenting we have yet to see a
property where the dumpster is a mess
and then everywhere else is just
immaculate yes i think yes i think
you've drawn a good conclusion
possibly um actually i thought of one
just now so
city hall
yeah
that's awesome uh drexel uh drexel
avenue um so we actually have a workshop
at five o'clock today for with residents
of drexel and i apologize about the
overlap of this meeting we were having a
really hard time finding a time
um
but the
three kind of options that we're looking
at
elena is pulling up on the screen and
they're on the agenda
actually if you could go to the one
that's a screenshot it's
next one
oh man that didn't
come up right okay
so this is an image that's not opening
properly on the screen um can you in
your mind just compress that so it
doesn't look as catawampus as that so
this is just a cross section it's just
it's the way that our system shows these
maybe ellen if you download it see that
little download button next to the
printer icon
and then
open it
oh it's saved as an act
no it's not gonna probably work but you
could try see what happens
nope that didn't help
okay well
that's good
anyway that's really bad but you you get
you get the picture it's squeezed it's
squeezed that way
um the the first option so that let me
start with the goals the goals of the
draft drexel study have been to calm
traffic
um hopefully to bring down the speed of
the street to 25 in order to do that we
need to warrant it so it needs to
actually show the drivers are driving
slower
to create safer pedestrian crossings and
to provide for some beautification so
it's kind of hard this exhibit is not
showing it in a great way but um what
you can see here are some gray bump outs
they just
they essentially
suggest bump outs where you could put in
your mind that there's grass in that
area or tree there's already a tree lawn
in that area but that's an expanded tree
lawn
that would provide sheltered parking so
the parking kind of happens where ellen
is putting the arrow and it's similar
it's a similar look
albeit less urban
to
what they've done to short north
recently where in the short north they
took those outside lanes and they
created dedicated parking
drexel's wide enough that it also has
room for
medians in select areas um
this isn't a great example of that
because that's just a little dinky thing
but um
as you scroll along drexel there are
areas where there aren't a whole lot of
driveways
and where some green space can be placed
in the middle further
further sort of differentiating between
the lanes and creating the tunnel
narrowing effect that helps to slow down
the traffic
but a big advantage is in many areas
that there could be a median concept
that plays into a crosswalk so you have
a semi-protected crosswalk so not only
does the pedestrian get out
much more visible to traffic in those
bump outs but then when crossing there's
kind of a landing pad in the middle in
the you know
if if need be
so
really great enhancement for pedestrian
safety
additional tree lawn space to work with
you can't tell from this particular
exhibit but most every intersection has
the ability for these bump outs some of
them have
much well you're gonna get a feel right
here actually this isn't the same
exhibit but if you look at brighton
there on the on the west side so up that
side you can see how long that bump out
is because in that instance you have a
house that has
on-street parking on brighton so they're
not losing their own street parking by
having the bump out
um
so we're not taking away anybody's you
know parking right in front of their
home just in certain areas
and it allows for a long long bump out
which you know narrows the street and
provides great um green space
this is a bike lane concept
it's the preferred bike lane concept if
there were to be a bike lane
drexel is not wide enough for um
true like the medians that you see on
bryden that you could do or bexley park
or fair where you can do a
u-turn
it's just not wide enough you need a lot
more width in order to accommodate that
motion
so it's also not wide enough for
bike lanes and parking on both sides of
the street
but it is
so this
concept and the other one that's a
little bit like it
has would have
bike lanes but parking only on one side
and this in this illustration it's
showing parking on the
west side of drexel
the same concept could happen with
parking on the east side of drexel
this would show this would have bike
lanes that are
you know four and a half feet wide which
is
an appropriate width which a little with
a little bit of additional buffer
between them and traveling traffic
so this is the other concept and i would
expect
talking to the tree commission about
this and the fact that there's more tree
lawn on the first concept that that
would probably be a preference of the
tree commission but i don't know that
um but those are those are and this
third star this third option shows
bike lanes that would travel in separate
directions same concept
would need to have parking only on one
side of the street
i think that from a
from a like best practices perspective
the
what's called a cycle track where
they're together going different
directions is a better
design but this is a another alternate
so these are going to be presented
the the purpose today is to speak with
residents on drexel avenue
i want to bring this to council and talk
to council about it too because i have a
feeling this is going to be a decision
that is not an easy one
um and just get more feedback on it
before we finalize our plans for this
summer's project
does anybody have any
questions mayor about the
either
one of the three concepts i have a
question would would you ever do the
bump outs
with the parking and the mediums and not
do the bike lane or are they
if you have one you're doing the other
so bump outs
on both sides
would not allow for viper
you could do what's called a share row
where all that is is really a pavement
marking that says their bikes around um
and
that's it's a i mean in some ways it's a
better biking condition because in
theory you've brought down the speed of
the traffic and the road feels a little
narrower so
in some ways that's better
in other ways it's actually worse for
cyclists than the current setup because
currently there are large swaths of
drexel where people don't often park
and so a cyclist can get off to the
shoulder a lot and have more room away
from traffic than they would if they're
navigating bump outs in addition to
street
so that is a little bit of a conundrum
with the bump out concept
drexel is unique
because
it
provides such a great
connection between main street obviously
and commonwealth and jeffrey park
it's direct from maine to broad
when you get north abroad there are all
sorts of great cycling routes that
wouldn't need infrastructure
but drexel has been identified through a
bike plan and through resident studies
that it's it's a priority for bike lanes
that's one of the reasons we're looking
at mr wilson
um i'm sure the mayor is going to be
shocked by my questions
it's a two-parter and it has to do with
the csg end of drexel would the bike
lanes
proceed in that block and if so why
wouldn't the black bike lane be on the
west side where there's not existing
parking
most of the time other than school drop
off as opposed to
the school losing all the parking on the
other side of the street
and secondly i think when the previous
hearing i'd raised whether any part of
the plan has some physical structure to
keep
folks from making left-hand turns on a
drexel circle which is it does i think
is a big problem so i can answer number
two really easily yes uh there has been
built into the plan a physical
uh
barrier essentially it's just the the
curb changes a little bit on that circle
and then also there's there's a
potential depending on how this all gets
built out for a
median that would further block it so
there are two controls to help assist
with that
no no what is it no left turn
so you rejected my large steel spike
idea no no we didn't that's i just can't
talk about it publicly that wouldn't be
appropriate the first one actually it's
interesting because i've been driving
drexel a lot with this in mind for the
past i mean i've been cycling drexel a
lot for the past week or two with this
in mind and i totally agree with you
the premise was um
because of the bus staging and and
knowing that there are buses there and
not wanting to compromise that that
wouldn't be the right place for the lane
but the more i looked at it and thought
about it i agree that that'll just have
to be a situation that says during the
time when buses are staged here
you know
use the sidewalk i guess or it's shared
it's a shared location for bus staging
and bikes
um i think that
you know that's a that's a small window
of time most of time so it's not really
a huge impact and you're right it's not
parked so it makes perfect sense also
main street parking tends to stack more
on the east side at night than on the
west side so i think
that's another argument that if that
were the case so that's why i made a
point to say
it could be on either side and that's
part of the feedback is which side
makes most sense for whom so
organizational stakeholders are
incredibly institutional and really
important
also residents hearing from them i don't
imagine that residents are going to be
excited about losing parking on one side
of the street
um
and
as much as that's true
it's also true that to get this sort of
infrastructure in requires those sorts
of
often
requires those sorts of compromises
uh bike bike traffic is much safer when
there aren't door zones so there are
there are actually good policy reasons
not to have it uh co-mixed with parking
miss bible
it's in the entirety of
humane and
uh so
the design when you get to the last
block
south of sherwood would have to be
finalized because i think that
that
area it might sort of
it might sort of point people towards
sherwood as a bike boulevard
or bryden um and then going but yeah i
think the anticipation would be that it
would go all the way up to brad street
and be able to cross then over to drexel
yeah
and send their kids to school
with mr wilson
some of those things
i think they're interesting and i think
that the one side of the street
something maybe we're going to have to
speak about it especially
if we can't slow
traffic because
i know
our house
has been hit at least twice
backing out of their driveway and i will
also add that we moved off of drexel
because we had i don't know kids that
were going to be starting to learn to
drive
and because they couldn't back out of
the driveway without getting hit it
would have been you know they would have
had to have parked
on the streets they would have had to
use yeah so so both of these plans
regardless of the bike lane have
a much better condition for people
backing out of their out of their
driveway because of the way that you're
striping the street and that people are
using the lanes
and the visibility that you experience
with the way that the bump ads are
structured so there's some real
enhancements with that but for sure i
mean it's not
it's you know there are going to be
stakeholder groups that love
both either one differently
other questions mr hellman yeah uh
uh three things uh um
obviously when you get close to drexel
brian you know speaking to your point um
i think more parking is on the west side
because of the restaurant and the
theater
so
uh and you know i don't know whether
alternatives for the bikeway because you
know you have all these parallel long
north south streets
nearby uh columbia for example
and if the bikeway doesn't end up any
place when it goes to the end of maine
you know there's no
where to where do we go from here at
least on a bike lane as opposed to
joining uh um a traffic lane or being on
the sidewalk neither of which are great
on on main street um so
i i don't know and then
the the second comment would be um
the bump outs
sometimes if you're for example a pal
travel the street all the time if you're
on powell and you're making your left
turn to go
south on drexel
uh the csg parking
is such that you can't see beyond the
cars when you make that left turn that
left turn is a tough one to do because
the now i know the cars will
theoretically go slower
so
if the bump outs also
get the parking further away from the
intersection so your view line is better
then that's a that's a big time
improvement
and my last comment would be and i don't
know how to resolve this one but the
um
sometimes the traffic diets
take what is a busy residential street
and they make it look like a really
visually busy urban
street with all the striping and the
lines and the stuff on it and so forth
and it tends to take the residentiality
if you will kind of off the street a
little bit
so
from
the design quality
of the end result
uh should be
in there somewhere to say all right what
visually will look the best uh obviously
white lines versus yellow lines i mean
some some simple kinds of things um but
where there's a true sense of design so
at the end of the day
uh it it's it's not made look like a
major arterial uh that got reduced down
and and it's got all this busyness about
it that in some cases makes it
takes away from some of its
effectiveness certainly from the visual
quality so i appreciate that and
actually we've asked the traffic
engineers to
double check what they're telling us
which is because it's a state route
double yellow lines are required some of
the other stuff we're pushing back on
that
because my opinion is that a double
yellow line actually encourages people
to feel
like they're on the sort of street where
they can elevate their speed so there's
you know we're we're trying to push the
boundaries and understand what it is we
can and can't do relative to the state
route designation
other questions linda i thought two
things um how many residents are there
that
uh are on the street and how many have
you heard responses from
so the workshop is this evening with
actual proposal um
i don't know
we sent mail i could get you the number
of residents i don't have it on top of
my head okay i mean are there like 10
i don't know there are many on drexel
yeah no i mean how many have responded
to show up oh they don't respond do they
just show up yeah yeah they would show
up we had pretty low turnout last time
but this time with actual
uh plans in hand i think we'll get more
feedback well plus zoom and in person
yeah yeah it's awesome
what's your time frame for the
the the project is this summer okay um
and we're you know we our engineer wants
us to go to bed ascp
we just kind of got these concepts
sort of narrowed down in the past month
or two so i don't want to rush it i
think that um we have opwc funding that
somewhat constrains our timeline but we
need to get it right so
i think that the um
as as these two options have emerged
it's going to be really important to me
that we have
uh council weighing in
um other questions
so as the
decision is made and the streetscape
becomes a little bit more
tangible
it would be my hope that you might bring
that back for our comments i think we
could be here yeah yeah i think we could
be helpful one time
okay
i'll let it go um
you know the livingston cross section
uh to take a four down to two and i know
that's not exactly our goal here kind of
is that middle lane as the turn lane and
then the two side so it's and then
with that as an option on drexel
you could do a different surface
so it's not a median median
because it still could be be turned on
but it has a differentiation within the
pavement
uh that suggest you know maybe it's
slightly mounded in some way and it's
painted in a different way or something
so it reads like a median and then it
becomes a two-lane median street but it
doesn't uh it doesn't deter uh the left
turns because obviously we got a lot of
driveways up and down the road right so
just from a physical perspective the
median can only be five feet with the
bump outs
and
the there's eight feet on each side for
the parking lanes and then the tent and
it's it's a narrower street than that it
can't accommodate a true turn lane
um it'd be a trade-off
right so you'd have to lose parking on
one side in order to have a turn line
right so that's a there's always that
you know as wide as it seems
you know it turns out there's lots of
sacrifices that have to be made every
time you're looking at these different
options
other questions i'd love to i mean we
can hash it out i can show you all the
the cross-section and what you can and
can't do with the outlets
that illustrates it pretty well right
there
anything else for the mayor mayor were
there other things you added to your
report i'm sure there were but
unfortunately i have to actually leave
right now okay all right well our
timing's everything and i mean you guys
just saw this i'll
all have a better
thank you troy i'll have a better
exhibit to show you of the median
concept i have a huge file here so it's
not easy to put up on the screen because
it freezes my computer half the time
when i look at it
so i'll we'll circulate that and it's
not like the you know this is the one
opportunity for feedback this is gonna
this is gonna be a bigger conversation
lorianne won't well let me just put bike
lanes on well i only know from my work
on the tree commission that the asphalt
plants generally close in november
for the year so it's always good to
to know where the material is that's a
good point calendar cycle good point
thank you guys okay thank you okay
all right so um
we had asked uh elena asked mr tabbett
to come in um
about five o'clock and i don't see him
here yet eleanor so why don't you go on
with your staff report on a couple of
the projects that that you've approved
okay
so um one of the things just to let you
all know um is i have had a couple
preliminary meetings with dick o'donnell
molly's husband to help
do the final the reviews of the final
installs for some of the projects
so um
and uh so he's gonna be helping in terms
of just going to the site making sure
that is it installed for plan and then
we can kind of check it out check it off
our list just so we have that closed
back that closed loop it is something
that has been
not
that i've had the time to do so i am
very grateful to um dick helping with
that he is a landscape architect he is
trained in it and so he's going to
definitely be able to you can read plans
and he knows plants and so he will have
a good view as um to make a decision if
there are six plants instead of seven
that we don't have to freak out if as
long as the design intent is there
the other thing um just to kind of let
you guys know there have been a handful
of projects that have been given to us
for
a staff review
and basically the staff review is
something that when it comes up that it
might be a small issue that is either
immediately adjacent to a right of way
that we don't necessarily think that um
the tree commission needs to be involved
but we just want to let you guys know
that this is going on the first one to
talk about is um
2813 pal avenue
so this is i don't know why everything
is so kind of warped this is um on the
corner of pal and merkel and they had a
um a landscape plan that they're doing
where they wanted to have a new stone
wall
that is just outside of the right-of-way
so they're not doing anything in the
right-of-way so technically the tree
commission doesn't need to see it but
because they were also adding a wood
fence and that wall that kathy gave it
over to me for me to review
so um
that is the project just to give you
some information on it see
and just go through and open all of
these
easier
so this is the um existing site plan
that was given to us
um they are working with um
[Music]
mark schieber a landscape architect so i
have been working with him and they have
been actually very helpful in terms of
understanding
some of the comments that we had the
landscape plan that they have you can
see is pretty robust
and so it is a very nice landscape plan
one of the things that
we call that initially they had um the
wall
immediately adjacent to the concrete
sidewalk we asked them to push it back
and have a six-inch gravel strip just so
people aren't kind of hitting you know
the the sidewalk immediately right there
they also originally had um a landscape
the bed come all the way up to the
sidewalk as well i let them know that
based on the last few landscape reviews
that we've had with the tree commission
that we have asked for them to have at
least a minimum of a one foot grass mow
strip so we don't have plant material
and mulch and everything getting onto
the sidewalk and so you can see they
added an 18 inch lawn strip um
along um merkel here that kind of lines
up with the wall and then they increased
it to two feet beyond here for the lawn
then they have um a bed of pachysandra
and they have new kind of landscape
throughout all the landscape plant
material is appropriate for the site i
think it'll be a beautiful improvement
along the fence here we asked for them
to um include they had only about one or
two
climbing hydrangea vines along that
fence we asked them to include that just
so we would have a little bit more of
coverage along the
fence there and they generously agreed
to do that as well
so here are just some um examples of
other conditions within bexley that they
were using in terms of that having
having a wall and then a fence
just as you know just for reference
and then this was just my comments that
i had had to him asking about having you
know the minimum lawn and all of that
there are going to be protecting um
trees as well as then having that one uh
that six inch gravel strip there so that
was again so that was something that has
been going on so if you see the
construction that's happening and you're
wondering
why haven't we seen that you guys we
have seen it
and it has been in the
works
the next project is um
the cracked claw or crack claw
restaurant um on main street and i
apologize that i don't have drawings for
this i just have kind of a sketch that
i'm happy to show you afterwards but
this is um
right at 28 let's see
2800 i think south main street
so it is where the old freshie was that
kind of close there was that restaurant
that kept kind of cycling through and
cycling through so it's going to be a
new cajun seafood restaurant
last fall they started to do
some
recommendations in terms of they're
going to be doing improvements to it we
asked them to add some pots out front on
either side of the door that they have
done and then they've recently repaved
the asphalt parking lot there and then
we have asked them to remove the
concrete signposts that are still there
they've agreed to do that and we've also
asked them to replace the shrubs that
are in just horrible condition there as
well as on the side
of the street there to add a couple of
trees and just improve the plants
they've agreed to that they're going to
be doing that sometime in the spring so
again it was something that we had an
opportunity to work with the property
owners to say hey could you just spruce
this up a little bit and they've done
that
and will these will these be in front of
the tree commission when the plans are
done or what what are or is this just
information or what's the
this is just this is just information
but we can certainly bring it forward i
mean if you guys would like to see it we
can certainly ask them to
bring the landscape plan forward
we kind of do i think as a matter of
course on within the main street
guidelines and
uh and i'd have the same question on the
in reverse for the power and uh we're
reviewing that because of
the height of the i'm not exactly sure
we we weren't reviewing it it there was
so usually for when there is a fence
kathy will ask to make sure if it's on
you know sort of a residential property
to make sure that it has screening in
front of it and so that's usually just a
staff review do you have landscape
so that then kicked to me and then there
was the issue of the retaining wall in
the front it wasn't in the right of way
but they asked that i just look at it
and as a matter of course i just you
know took an opportunity since they were
redoing a tremendous a lot of the area
they weren't going into the right-of-way
with any of the structures that i asked
them to just go ahead and tweak it so it
wasn't necessarily in our
scope but
they were nice enough to accommodate
some of her so that's one that we're not
going to we're not going to be reviewing
that no information purpose yeah yeah
but i'll reach out to the property
owners for the cajun seafood restaurant
and ask them to provide us a landscape
plan
good okay
any questions
well i even googled cracked claw because
i didn't know if it had a cracked or it
was just crack but it seems this is the
way it's spelled in minneapolis
it's spell from what so i'm not sure so
the way that they've sent it to me it's
spelled k-r-a-c-k-l-a-w
crack law and it's one word so it's not
cracked
claw which
english seems to make sense
so i need to confirm you know the
spelling of that but that's i'm pretty
sure it's with the k okay and they'll
keep the outdoor dining space on the
yes i believe so yeah any questions on
either of those
i was thinking when you mentioned pots
that i'm wondering if we should have
some sort of guideline for pots i go
past the new
day care center on north casting
north cassidy where sheriffs was and
they put pots out there that seem to be
inconsequential in size and look for it
and i'm wondering if it would be helpful
if we called out something
uh some some sort of profile that
might have writing within it that could
be chosen i think that would be very
helpful we can work on that okay can you
do that okay thanks any other questions
okay all right mr archer
you have been diligently waiting your
child is healthy you have a chance to be
here yeah we're so glad you are to talk
to us about plans for 2022 i mean it's
40 degrees today it's right now in the
corner right we were out grinding stumps
were you how many oh i don't know
the gift that keeps on giving right yeah
uh so um
spring planting we don't typically do a
city tree planting project in spring but
we do
um
we do have some projects that we will
plant in the spring which is the del mar
stanwood site which is the new service
garage area
um
probably do some planting on the new uh
allen creek hiking path from maine to
livingston i don't know if you guys have
had a chance to look at that how many
people have walked that
jim have you run down there yeah not yet
yeah it is
well it's a little it's uncamped yet but
it will get there
um so yeah it's
a walk through the woods so um winter
projects you know we're still grinding
stumps um
the tree
our might the two tree guys are out
doing pruning this year we did contract
out removals so we would have time to
focus on tree healthcare
so they are out doing that
we did talk about a timeline for the
tree commission to do
the
walk through the city again
so you can give me your feedback on the
trees that you recommended being planted
last year and if you feel it was
infilled correctly or how you feel about
it and if you feel that there should be
extra trees planted and some streets
how long will it take you to give us a
tutorial using the ipads
i mean i mean i mean
15 minutes yeah 15 minutes
okay so maybe we need to schedule 15
minutes before our say our april meeting
um
to
to be
schooled i guess would be the best
yeah so uh lorien last spring and summer
and on to the fall
the tree commission members
individually walked every street in
bexley i mean
to look at areas that could benefit from
having another tree planted or a few
trees planted and then grants
you know grant's crew came in and
verified that and then went on to have
the trees installed
but there may be additional places that
we find this year now that one tree has
already been put in
so that's why if you want to participate
with this tutorial i would love it okay
and if you all have suggestions i did
take a tree out of my front yard
oh yeah you you've come to the land of
suggestions although the two of us have
i think i think i've decided and he said
yes it would do well here
yes
okay well you let us know when you've
decided okay all right i'm sorry grant
please
go ahead uh
winter lights uh typically you know
we're probably gonna start taking those
down to first of february oh really
well the main street i have to drive
that street every day and
replug those lights in so ideally
first of february would be nice if we
could get those out of there um boxwood
on drexel circle usually we pull first
of february as well
that that project has i'm going to jump
in really quick we're having a technical
error with youtube