Tough decisions for tree removal
Lodi City Council holds off on approving work along Lockeford Street
With only three members in attendance, the Lodi City Council tabled action on whether or not to allow the removal of trees at Lawrence Park for the Lockeford Street Improvement Project during a special meeting Tuesday morning.
The decision came after Lodi Public Works senior civil engineer Sean Nathan presented the council with an overview of the project, which has been in the works for 12 years and spans from the railroad crossing between Sacramento and Main streets to Cherokee Lane.
Plans call for creating a gradual curve at Main Street, removing humps at the cross-street tracks and removing the traffic signal at Stockton and Lockeford streets.
Limitations for the project include existing street easements, property owned by the railroad along the corridor, commercial buildings and utilities, driveways and fences along the corridor.
Commercial buildings line the south side of Lockeford Street while London plane trees at Lawrence Park line the north side. The proposed plan will include two travel lanes, a two-way left turn lane, bike lines and parking.
In order to execute the proposed plan for the project, 14 London plane trees will need to be removed, Nathan said. However, there are 13 valley oak trees on the north side of the walk, seven of which were planted by the city in 2010 in anticipation of the project. Nathan said the London planes are stunting the growth of the valley oaks because they are blocking them from sun- light. He informed council that the World War I memorial tree on the north side of the pathway would not be affected by the proposed plan, which is consistent with the 2012 Bike Master Plan.
Nathan said the city has looked at an alternative plan for the project that would leave the London planes intact. The alternate plan would include two travel lanes, a two-way left turn lane, parking on both sides and a detached bike/ pedestrian path. The alternate plan would move the bike path between the London planes and the valley oaks.
Under the alternate plan, bikes traveling eastbound would have to cross traffic two times. If the council decided to go with the alternative plan, the city would need to discuss what to do about the valley oaks, Nathan said.
Nathan recommended that council go with the proposed plan instead of the alternate plan.
Councilwoman JoAnne Mounce was not in favor of removing the trees, recommending the alternative plan.
“I suspect if we actually move forward with taking those trees down we’re going to get a lot of calls, a lot of attention, and people are going to start looking at that section of town and wondering what the heck we’re trying to accomplish,” Mounce said. “It makes no sense to take these trees down and do what we’re proposing to do from Cherokee (Lane) all the way to the railroad tracks. I get that we need to make some changes from Stockton ( Street) all the way to Church Street, but from Calaveras to Cherokee, there’s nothing wrong with that part of the road.”
Councilman Doug Kuehne was in favor of the original plans.
“If we did the proposed layout I would be okay with that,” he said. “Yeah, we’re going to lose some trees, but you’ve took some measures to plant some trees in preparation of this. I’m not a big fan of cut- ting down trees, but it looks like we’ve done some mitigation.”
Steve Dutra, former Lodi Parks superintendent and a Tree Lodi board member, encouraged the city to contact the Urban Wood Rescue program if the trees are going to be removed so they can recycle or take advantage of the material in a productive way.