By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
The Salisbury Tree Board, responsible for protecting and planting trees on city-owned properties and along public rights of way, hopes to plant some 200 new trees this spring.
In reviewing the past year, Tree Board Chairman John Burke told Salisbury City Council Tuesday that 2008 saw 53 neighborhood trees lost to weather, decay and disease while only 27 replacement trees were planted.
But a couple hundred new trees and irrigation bags are on order for this year.
The Tree Board, Elizabeth Holmes Hurley Park Advisory Board and Zoning Board of Adjustment presented their 2008 highlights and goals for 2009-2010 Tuesday as a prelude to the council’s annual retreat, which will be held Feb. 12-13.
The Tree Board will ask the city to provide $7,500 in matching funds for a state grant it received last year for tree plantings connected with a proposed pocket park at South Church and West Fisher streets.
It also looks to receive $7,500 toward neighborhood tree planting projects.
This fall, for $2,000, the Tree Board wants to sponsor a Conference on Urban Forestry in partnership with the State Urban Forestry Council.
Burke said his board also will continue efforts at educational training for tree trimmers and the general public by purchasing classified ads, promoting newspaper articles, putting handouts in utility bills and utilizing Time Warner Cable’s ACCESS 16.
Those efforts also would cost $2,000.
Councilman Mark Lewis said he has noticed that many businesses are drastically cutting back large crape myrtle trees so their businesses won’t be obscured by the foliage. It’s adversely affecting the city’s tree canopy, he said.
“It just started happening about six months ago,” Lewis added.
Burke said it was happening even before then. He said he was embarrassed to say that his own church does it.
The city’s landscape operations manager, Mark Martin, said it’s a problem that can be addressed with a little communication. Crape myrtles come in many different sizes, he noted.
Some will only grow knee-high or head-high, for example, while others can become upwards of 60 feet tall, Martin said.
The Tree Board will continue to participate in Arbor Day and Tree City USA programs, assist the Jersey City neighborhood with a tree-planting program, look to develop the Brown-Wiseman boxwood property, seek grants for urban forestry programming, try to develop a clear-cutting ordinance and use City Green software to identify the economic benefits behind tree preservation policies.
In 2008, Hurley Park received a grant from the Woodson Foundation to replace the annex bridge.
The park held its annual Spring Celebration and Arbor Day tree planting and a summer lecture and plant giveaway. The park was host for 10 weddings and an employee appreciation lunch.
Laura Thompson, representing the park board, said the park needs $2,000 toward continuing its spring celebration and summer lecture. It also seeks $5,000 toward new and replacement plantings.
Meanwhile, the park will continue to update its Web site and photograph documentation of the park. It also looks to create a walking brochure for the park.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment held four meetings in 2008. Of those, two requests for variances were denied and one was granted. In an administrative review, Zoning Administrator David Phillips’ opinion was upheld by a 4-1 vote.
But Zoning Board of Adjustment Chairman Randy Reamer noted APAC, which came out on the short end of the review, has appealed the decision to Superior Court. The case is pending.
APAC wanted to modify its existing asphalt facility at 1831 Jake Alexander Blvd., but was denied.
The two variances denied prohibited a new directional sign for Rowan Regional Medical Center at Confederate and Mocksville avenues and a front porch on a house at 3100 Arabian Lane that did not meet the minimum depth required.
The variance allowed involved the placement of a Dumpster at the Rowan County Health Services/ Department of Social Services building at 811 E. Innes St.
Goals for zoning board members in 2009 include continued study of the new Land Development Ordinance. The Zoning Board of Adjustment is the appeals board for most actions, ranging from zoning permits to construction drawings.