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Old 06-02-2012, 03:24 PM
 
625 posts, read 1,131,876 times
Reputation: 250

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Environment Petition: We the people vote for trees. | Change.org
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Old 06-02-2012, 03:38 PM
 
Location: Central Texas
20,958 posts, read 45,298,124 times
Reputation: 24739
I'd sign the petition, but it's Change.org and I closed my account there a while back because to sign a petition, you have to create an account and then they spam you mercilessly for every stupid cause under the sun. Yes, spam is spam, even if they're using good causes to encourage you to allow them to spam you.
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Old 06-02-2012, 04:25 PM
 
625 posts, read 1,131,876 times
Reputation: 250
more notes regarding...

Rally to save the heritage trees will be held Saturday, June 2, at 12pm noon gathering at City Hall.

From Austin Heritage Tree Foundation:

Will our generation’s legacy be that we allowed all of the heritage trees to be removed in high density developments because developers said that they couldn’t accommodate them in the design and made a deal with the City?

A week ago, City Council approved a waiver from the heritage tree ordinance (HTO), as part of the sale contract, to allow Trammel Crow to remove 6 healthy heritage trees. The HTO provides flexibility and does not stop development, but the City’s process was not followed by the City. The City Arborist Office was not involved, the applicant did not submit a tree removal permit, and the City Arborist Office did not approve the removal of these trees. All the decisions were made by the Economic Growth Redevelopment Services Office and the City Manager's Office for Development, who negotiated the deal, bypassing a process that the City itself has required over 2000 developers and about 800 homeowners to follow since the HT was approved.

These 2 City offices also negotiated mitigation. City Council explained that Trammel Crow will be in full compliance of the mitigation portion of the HTO, and that the only part missing from the HTO was the procedural part. But, the procedural part is the heart of the ordinance, it is the requirement to have oversight by a qualified City Arborist and a public process, and that a standard, agreed upon and approved process be followed by all citizens alike.

The goal of the HTO is to preserve heritage trees. The community and all city council members including the Mayor supported the HTO 2 years ago because we all recognized that there is already an unbalance between preservation and mitigation. As a result of two decades of trading heritage trees for planting new young mitigation trees, only 5% of all trees in Austin are heritage trees, but a healthy forest is supposed to have at least 10%. It’s crucial to preserve heritage trees because they are rare and are the workhorses of the urban forest, not to mention that everyone loves to sit under an old tree that provides shade.

Mitigation should only be considered after all efforts have been made to preserve the heritage trees on site by integrating into the design, or if that can’t be done, by transplanting them. These 6 heritage trees and the protected tree at Green can be integrated into the design with some flexibility from Trammel Crow and the City. All of these trees are healthy and are transplantable. There are some concerns with a few of the trees not being as easy to transplant as others due to potential underground utilities, or in one case, 2 trees being too close, but all of these are concerns that need to be investigated further. Trammel Crow and the 2 city offices that negotiated the deal said that they have tried to design around the trees, but they have not shown any designs to City council, the City arborist or the public. These 2 city offices have even mitigated for 2 heritage trees in the Right Of Way (the tree are right next to the sidewalk) because the current Trammel Crow sketch/design requires them to build a driveway right there where the trees are. Why can’t the driveway be moved a few feet away to save the trees?

I remember that Margret Hoffman started her quest to get the Protected Tree ordinance approved in the ‘70s for a similar reason. She asked city council’ “Do you mean to tell me that we can’t figure out how to save this heritage tree from a parking lot?”

The City, the Mayor and City council see these irreplaceable historical heritage trees as expendable and easy to remove. City council bypasses the law by granting a waiver, developer pays a minimum mitigation, and the trees are removed without even trying to save them. But, City council believes that the community will accept this because only the “procedural part” of the HTO was missing and there is mitigation, and we will get brand new trees. Please, let them know that we want the trees to be saved!

It’s hard to grow heritage trees. I don’t know if we are going to be able to grow a new generation of heritage trees. Climate has changed, there is a continuous drought, trees from nurseries are weaker and come with girdling roots, and the places to plant new trees have poor compacted soils and low soil volume. Many of these young new trees die. The average life span of a young tree planted in the sidewalks is 10 years for downtown and 15 years anywhere else. In addition, in average it takes a live oak 75 years to grow to be 24 inches in diameter. We won’t be around to see the young mitigation trees provide a decent amount of shade.

Please, help the trees at Green!

Thanks so much!
Michael Fossum
Executive Director
Austin Heritage Tree Foundation
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Old 06-02-2012, 04:28 PM
 
Location: Central Texas
20,958 posts, read 45,298,124 times
Reputation: 24739
Time to get an entirely new City Council, one that actually cares more about the City of Austin than it does about developers, it seems.
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Old 06-02-2012, 05:02 PM
 
Location: central Austin
7,228 posts, read 16,064,895 times
Reputation: 3915
Quote:
Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady View Post
I'd sign the petition, but it's Change.org and I closed my account there a while back because to sign a petition, you have to create an account and then they spam you mercilessly for every stupid cause under the sun. Yes, spam is spam, even if they're using good causes to encourage you to allow them to spam you.
Maybe they changed their policy because I signed the petition, did not have to open an account or give them any information and I haven't been spammed at all!!

Edited to add, I signed a week ago -- no spam yet! And those trees are on the very edge of the lot, should be EASY to design around if Trammel Crow had any wits about them!
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Old 06-02-2012, 08:24 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
2,357 posts, read 7,885,231 times
Reputation: 1013
Quote:
Originally Posted by centralaustinite View Post
Maybe they changed their policy because I signed the petition, did not have to open an account or give them any information and I haven't been spammed at all!!

Edited to add, I signed a week ago -- no spam yet! And those trees are on the very edge of the lot, should be EASY to design around if Trammel Crow had any wits about them!
I signed it and didn't need to create an account either. I did need to fill in my address - which I'm not crazy about.
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Old 06-02-2012, 09:55 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX/London, UK
709 posts, read 1,398,411 times
Reputation: 488
Signed. I am quite disappointed in Trammel Crow for their current plans for this lot. It isn't horrible, but since the recession it is not close to what many had hoped for. And changes like this is part of that. =(

There were other bids from other developers who lost that were much better than this revised plans of Trammel Crow. And some of those would have kept the trees and even added some more.

I also wish that people would get as up in arms over all the thousands of trees that are destroyed all the time out in the suburbs to make way for the endless sprawl that Austin forces outside of the city by its refusal to plan properly and allow more housing in the city. I mean you see so many people get so upset over a few trees in this lot, or the one tree over on the Shoal Walk office tower site. I find that very admirable. But when it comes to protecting anything outside of the downtown all those people seem to care less. It is a real shame.
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Old 06-13-2012, 10:00 AM
 
Location: Gulf Texas & Irvine CA
13 posts, read 40,449 times
Reputation: 28
Quote:
Originally Posted by mayfair44 View Post
Please, help the trees at Green!
Instead of appropriating the guns to government to force others to use their property how YOU want, why don't you buy those trees so you can do with them as you please?
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Old 06-13-2012, 11:05 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX/London, UK
709 posts, read 1,398,411 times
Reputation: 488
There are some new images for this development. They are pretty awesome! Very much reminds me of London.

The project is going to be very short, but very dense. Looks like it will have a great vibe. Given the new plans they have put out, I can easily understand why they can't keep the trees. The entire thing is going to be massive. Perhaps if they were building taller then they could have some open space by moving that sq footage vertically, but since they are building shorter that sq footage takes up pretty much all of the blocks.

It looks like it will feel much like a downtown of a city, which well honestly it is going to be in the downtown. They will be extending Second Street through the Green Site over the creek, past the new City Library to the new Seaholm development with its new office building, apartment building and Trader Joe's.

Here are some of the new images: (thanks to KevinFromTexas on SSP forum)

Plaza View From Hotel

http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/8...4E75FA53F3.pdf

View West Down 2nd Street

http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/8...4E75FA53F3.pdf

View East Down 2nd Street

http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/8...4E75FA53F3.pdf

View East Down Cesar Chavez

http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/8...4E75FA53F3.pdf


http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/8...4E75FA53F3.pdf


http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/8...4E75FA53F3.pdf


http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/8...4E75FA53F3.pdf


http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/8...4E75FA53F3.pdf
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Old 06-13-2012, 11:18 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX
1,283 posts, read 2,731,636 times
Reputation: 1040
I am not going to sign the petition. Austin already one of the strictest, toughest tree-protection ordinances in the nation (just passed in 2010). The reason why Trammel Crow needs the exemption is because a couple of the planned buildings would not be built if the developers were forced to avoid the tree, its root system, and the 30-foot radius no build root zone. One of the future Whole Foods buildings was nearly canceled because of a heritage-tree sat just shy of buildings footprint and the new ordinance barred any development within 30 feet - even though the city arborist testified the tree is slowly dying.

I'm sorry - if have to choose between the economic vitality of downtown Austin and meeting the density benchmarks ratified by the Imagine Austin comprehensive plan vs. removing (and likely transplanting a heritage tree). I'll going to make sure the tree has a happy life somewhere else!
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