By Khalida Sarwari
With efforts to renovate Blaney Plaza moving full steam ahead, Saratoga city officials wondered at a recent council meeting whether improvements could also be made to the way the city communicates with its residents about future projects.
The suggestion was offered by Councilman Chuck Page at an Aug. 20 meeting where the council, following a month-and-a-half hiatus, received an update on the Village Improvement Project.
The project caused a bit of controversy this summer when construction crews moved in to pave the asphalt spur road for two additional parking spaces, among a slew of other changes to improve pedestrian access and safety in the area surrounding Blaney Plaza. Concerned residents “took to the streets” near two trees that would be most impacted–an oak and a stone pine–and to their computers to send letters expressing concern to city officials about the impact of the paving on the health of those trees.
Many of those letters were directed to Vice Mayor Howard Miller, who despite stating that he was “very passionate” about the trees and about the plaza, appeared to want to shrug off that responsibility and asked Councilwoman Jill Hunter if she’d be willing to step up as the “point person” on the council for this project, to which Hunter replied tersely, “I’m fine.”
Page suggested that in the future the city do more to notify residents about projects and floated the idea of posting signs around downtown with at least the nuts and bolts of the project.
“I think it’s something we can do to really benefit our community,” Page said. “We get caught up in the fact that we voted on it; we do it and it’s, like, bang we’re on to the next thing … but we lose sight of that communications, and I really think that’s something we should take a step forward in and do a better job of.”
Throughout the construction work, city officials maintained that no harm would be done to the trees, even bringing in two additional arborists to monitor the project and provide mitigation measures, but that didn’t go far in putting residents’ worries about the trees at ease.
Dinah Cotton is one of several residents who wrote impassioned letters to city officials asking for a halt to the project, urging city officials to consider alternative materials for the parking spaces, such as permeable pavers instead of concrete and brick.
She appeared before the council on Aug. 20 to offer her thoughts on the project along with a few suggestions.
“I think this is probably–to me anyway, as a fairly long-term resident here–I think this is the whole essence of Saratoga,” Cotton said. “I was talking to people about it and they said, ‘Oh, I know that tree, I know that tree.’ So I would just be heartbroken if anything happened to that.”
Declaring herself a “’60s tree hugger,” Cotton asked if it was too late to consider using pavers. Public works director John Cherbone’s response was that pavers would require a lot of maintenance and that they are not very durable.
To lessen the impact on the trees as much as possible, Cherbone noted in his report to the council about the status of the project, that crews have been advised to implement specific protections that include tree protective fencing, additional watering during construction, excavation via grinding machine rather than backhoe to protect unseen roots, and designing the parking space surface in a way that would increase water percolation by using sand-based pavers with a drain rock base.
He reiterated that no roots over 2 inches were discovered during excavation of the roadway and that one root measuring approximately 1½ inches was found near the oak tree, but that no roots were found near the stone pine.
The city estimates that decorative concrete work on the first half of the “spur” will be completed in September. The streetscape improvements will be under wraps in November, just in time for the city’s annual tree lighting event.
