The Hyde Park Tree War: the Final (we hope) Chapter

Yesterday, the combined weight of the neighborhoods’ calls, letters and emails to City Council, the leadership of Councilman Lee Leffingwell and the crucial assistance of neighbors Lee Walker and Jennifer Vickers created a resounding victory for trees in Hyde Park and Hancock neighborhoods and all of Austin.

Highlights of what happened at Thursday’s council meeting:

• City Manager Toby Futrell announced an agreement to immediately halt trimming and tagging of trees in Hyde Park and Hancock neighborhoods.
• The proposed five-year term of the Asplundh/Davey tree trimming contract, at the motion of Councilman Lee Leffingwell, was reduced to two years.
• During the term of the contract, Leffingwell’s unanimously adopted motion also prescribed that Austin Energy and its contractors will report on their activities every quarter to both the city Environmental Board and the Urban Forestry Board.
• Cheryl Mele, AE Senior Vice President for Electric Service Delivery, announced clearances for trimming will be cut in half, from 10-13 feet to 4-8 feet.
• Future trimming will be incorporated as an integral part of the neighborhood planning process.
• Hyde Park and Hancock neighborhoods, since they already have comprehensive neighborhood plans in place, will serve as the initial pilot projects in developing tree trimming amendments to their plans.
• All previous plans, notifications, tagging of trees in Hyde Park and Hancock are void, the process to be restarted when real plans are in place and agreed to by the neighbors, through the neighborhood planning process.
• At Lee Walker’s request, all AE’s “death ribbons” (extinct pink and obscene green) are to be removed from tagged trees.

Tree task force members will be meeting with the city manager to iron out details of her recommendations for action on a number of other issues in the Tree Task Force report.