OTTUMWA —
The city is headed back to the drawing boards regarding planting in the right-of-way after a proposed ordinance was shot down.
The City Council did not pass the amended city right-of-way ordinance on a 2-3 vote at its meeting Tuesday night. Councilmen Jeremy Weller, Brian Morgan and Bob Meyers voted against it, while Councilmen Mitch Niner and J.R. Richards voted in favor of the ordinance.
Since 2003, Public Works Director Larry Seals said the cost of tree removal has totaled more than $390,000 — 1.59 percent of the total cost of construction thus far.
Ottumwan Brenda Case said a committee needs to be formed to discuss planting in the right-of-way and tree replacement as opposed to banning all future trees from being planted in the right-of-way.
Because of the current sewer separation project, she said, the sewers should not have to be dug up and replaced for another 100 years or so.
“So you would have a lot of time to enjoy the new trees,” Case said. “The important thing to remember is we can know what a tree will look like in 15 to 20 years.”
If the city “plants intelligently,” she said, the tree roots can avoid sewer lines.
“My hope is that this ordinance you’re considering is abandoned and the focus is shifted to making guidelines to replant,” Case said. “I would like to coordinate a volunteer team of local horticulturists, arborists, master gardeners and researchers to create guidelines.”
Jordan Scupien, GIS (geographic information systems) coordinator for the county, showed examples on Albany, Ash and Jefferson streets where rights-of-way are not simply confined to the parking between a sidewalk and the road.
“My concern is saying you don’t want to plant anything in any part of the right-of-way is kind of a broad stroke, and not necessarily a stroke that will hit every property owner evenly,” Scupien said.
In Scupien’s example on Ash Street, property owners on the east side would be able to plant trees up to the sidewalk, while those on the west side would not be able to plant any trees in their front yards since the right-of-way goes up to their front doors.
“It’s a burden that won’t be shared equally between neighbors, across streets or even on the same side of the street between neighbors,” Scupien said.
Meyers said he has changed his mind after seeing how the right-of-way is not always confined to the parking in front of a house. At a previous work session, Meyers supported the ordinance prohibiting planting in all city rights-of-way.
“The fact of the matter is, we’ve already agreed that if we stay with the 2006 ordinance, we need to make some amendments,” Meyers said.
Niner said he was “sticking to his guns,” that planting should be prohibited in all city rights-of-way.
“If we revert to the old ordinance [the current ordinance] where citizens have to get approval from the public works director, and he says no they can’t plant, the buck won’t necessarily stop with him,” Niner said. “The citizen could then petition the council and three out of five councilmen could give permission.”
Niner was concerned that the council’s decision to allow one citizen to plant versus another could come down to playing favorites.
City Attorney Joni Keith said the ordinance, as it stands, “has no teeth to it” since people still plant trees in the right-of-way without getting permission from Seals.
Seals said when original discussions were done, their concern was line of sight, particularly with overgrown bushes that sometimes block a driver’s view of oncoming traffic.
Morgan said he hopes the committee organizes and identifies what types of trees can be planted in the rights-of-way, look at line of sight issues and project what the area of consideration will look like years down the line.
The council also approved the purchase of upgrades for the camera system used in council chambers.
The approximately $7,700 purchase from ECS Electronic Communications Systems, of Davenport, would replace existing 17-year-old cameras.
The council chambers will be outfitted with two remotely operated Sony video cameras, which will resemble those used by the Ottumwa Police Department downtown. One will be wall-mounted on the rear wall of the council chambers; the other will be pole-mounted on the front television cart.
The city’s current character generator that makes the graphics and title screens for broadcast and the document camera are not being replaced and will be incorporated into the new system.
Funding will come from the Capital Improvement Program for City Hall.
City public information officer Tom Rodgers said the cameras should be able to provide live streaming of council meetings.
“We should be able to incorporate streaming at a later time with very few hiccups,” Rodgers said.
Local News
August 22, 2012
City right-of-way ordinance shot down, 2-3
Proposed committee to look at planting trees in right-of-way, tree replacement programs
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