HomeMy WebLinkAbout20220555 44 Ruggles Rd. Subdivision Modification Correspondance (6) To: Susan Barden, Principal Planner, Saratoga Springs
MarkTorpey, Chair, Planning6oard
From: Tom Denny, Chair, Open Space Advisory Committee (OSAC)
Re: Mitigation for logging violation in a deed-restricted conservation area
Date: J u ly 29, 2022
You requested that I participate in the July 20, 2022 site visit, which was attended: by the owner,
Geraldine Eberlein, accompanied by John; AI Flick and Susan Barden, City staff; Chuck Marshall, Planning
Board; and myself, OSAC. Here are some thoughts that grew out of that meeting. No other OSAC
members visited the site or reviewed the plans and I did not consult with the committee. Although the
ideas in this letter generally align with the values and the priorities that inform the work of the OSAC,
this letter summarizes my personal perspectives on the project and is not an official advisory opinion
from the OSAC.
1. Tree preservation in general is a far wiser and more beneficial strategy for enhancing the City's
urban forest holdings than any cut-and-replace approach. No matter how many trees might be planted
to replace these downed trees, it will be decades before any short-term mitigation can compensate for
the environmental and ecological loss that the dozen mature hardwood trees at 44 Ruggles Road
represent. (For detailed perspectives on the value of preserving mature trees, see chapter 8 of the
Citv's 2020 Natural Resource Inventory, especially section 8.3, "Mature Trees, includin� Herita�e Trees.")
Recommendation: In this and in all projects, anything that the Planning Board can do to require
and/or incentivize tree preservation will have a large payoff for the city and the environment. See
section 8.3E of the 2020 Natural Resource Inventory for best practices and recommendations.
2. Appropriate mitigation or compensation for tree removal in violation of a Conservation Easement
Area or a No-Cut Zone. I believe that this is relatively new territory for the Planning Board. It is
important that the Planning Board develop protocols and standards for a full range of mitigation
options, including:
a. Payment of a financial compensation by the violator to the City. These funds can be used to
plant compensatory trees elsewhere.
b. Immediate replanting of the conservation area or other areas of the property by the violator to
begin the restoration of the area to its original purpose and function.
c. If valuable mature trees still remain on the site at the time of the violation, expand or adjust the
boundaries of the original conservation area to preserve mature trees that had been slated for
removal. Revised site plans may require moving the planned location of the proposed
structures to preserve the trees in the newly redefined conservation area.
At the beginning of the site visit,the discussion centered on mitigations 2a and 2b. After the owner and
Chuck Marshall left, Susan,AI, and I began to discuss the value of mitigation 2c. Here are some thoughts
on the three options.
2a. Financial compensation. This should definitely be part of the City toolkit and the Planning
Board should move to lay out a clearly defined policy. The July 14, 2022 email from City Arborist
Steve Lashomb offered a good starting point for further Planning Board research and
deliberation. In various urban forestry policies adopted elsewhere, formulas based on DBH
(diameter at breast height) are commonly used. It was not clear why he suggested $100 as an
example, as that is far less than it would cost for purchase and labor to plant a tree.
Recommendation: I would urge the Planning Board to develop a clearly defined formula for
compensation when trees are killed or removed in violation of owner obligations to
preserve them. This should become publicly available. However,the lack of a current
formula should not, in the case of the 44 Ruggles Road violation, prevent the Planning Board
from requiring financial compensation at a level it determines to be appropriate.
2b. Immediate replanting in the violated conservation area. This is the most obvious way to begin
a mitigation plan, although it will take decades to restore the damage. Such planting does have
challenges, however. How can the City ensure that any planted trees get through the first 4-5
challenging years of life and become fully established,thriving specimens?
Recommendation: The applicant should plant a dozen hardwood trees from the City's
approved species list in the area where the logging violation occurred. These should
probably be in the range of 1.5 to 2.0 inch caliper(no reason to plant larger). Ideally,
someone should monitor their survival and they should be replaced if they die in the first
few years. After a few decades, these plantings, coupled with normal forest re-seeding,
should result in a conservation area of the natural quality that existed prior to the logging.
2c. Expand and/or adjust the original boundaries of the conservation area, moving the planned
location of the house and possibly the driveway. Since the logging violation led to a stop work
order before completion of all the preparatory logging, there remain many mature trees that
can be part of the mitigation plan. Since preserving trees is far preferable to cut-and-replace,
this would be the most desirable resolution to the violation. The recommendations below refer
to this map and the photos below. All locations are approximate and should serve as starting
points for discussion.
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Recommendation: The green markings on the map designate three areas that contain
valuable mature trees that can serve as part of the compensation for the logging violation.
Area "A" is a forested high point on the property. Preserving this area will require relocating
the house. Area "B" includes a dramatic oak and a middle-aged maple that would be great
to preserve. This will likely require a minor redesign of the driveway. Area "C" is a forested
area to the south of the driveway entrance. Conserving this will not require any significant
redesign of the built infrastructure. All three areas contain healthy mature oaks and maples.
The purple area suggests a possible new location for the house. The red area,where the
logging violation occurred, is where 12 trees should be replanted. (See two photos below.)
In my view,the solution that would be a win-win—best for the environment and the spirit of the
conservation easement and best for the applicant's wallet—would be a combination of 2b and 2c. In
other words, require replanting of the 12 trees as partial compensation and also require revision of the
plans to conserve areas A, 6, and C as the remaining mitigation for the logging violation. Financial
compensation (mitigation 2a),which would likely be substantial and unpalatable to the applicant,would
also not contribute nearly as powerfully to the City's required protection of the environmental values in
the Conservation Development District.
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Photo 2: Preserve this hardwood grove south of driveway entrance in area C.