Leschi CC - Tree Trimming

On September 5th, the Leschi Community Council had its monthly meeting with the focus being creating a neighborhood plan. Here's a little history.

After the meeting was called to order, we split into five groups to brainstorm about the needs in the following areas:
- Traffic/Pedestrian Safety
- Land Use
- Parks/Green Space
- Economic Development
- Transportation

In the next few posts, I'll be covering the outcome of these brainstorms.

Traffic/Pedestrian Safety
You can probably guess that I joined this group. We had five recommendations, and I'll cover the first in this post.

1. Increase Tree Trimming -- We discussed that some street lights were blocked by overgrown tree branches, and these should be trimmed by the city or property owners so that community streets are well-lit. Related was that we felt property owners generally didn't know what their responsibilities were with respect to trees, and after some research I can see why.

As far as I can tell, here's the (confusing) deal:

When it comes to trimming, you need a permit from the Arborist's Office. Specifically, Seattle City Ordinance #90047 requires that all persons who prune and/or remove privately maintained trees within the public right-of-way area obtain a street use permit.

I also found evidence, though, that if the tree was planted by the city it is to be maintained by the city.

However, if a tree is near power lines or blocking street lights, it is the responsibility of City Light as found here. Call 386-1663 and they will make a determination if there is indeed a safety issue and they will take care of it.

My recommendations:
- Notify property owners of their rights and responsibilities with respect to trees.
- Understand from Seattle City Light what constitutes a safety risk.
- Do a neighborhood audit and have City Light handle those trees.

Some more interesting facts related to trees on city streets. There are roughly 130,000 trees, 15,000 of which have planted since 1989. In 1994, the City did a study of the health of trees and found these sobering statistics.

Over half dead - 3% - 2,214
1/4 to 1/2 dead - 8% - 6,927
Poor - 31% - 26,211
Good - 34% - 28,860
Great - 25% - 19,704

More info here.

[where: 98122]