City Council Quick Story: Residents Will Split Cost of Replacing Parkway Trees

Yes, it's late and it's dark, but you might want to tiptoe outside right now to see if one of your parkway trees out front is an ash.

And if it is, you'll probably want to start saving up—because $150 is likely to come out of your pocket to pay for a new tree.

The City Council voted 9-0 Monday for a citywide 50/50 tree replacement program. What that means is, if a tree dies in the parkway area in front of a resident's home, the resident will split with the city the cost of replacing the tree.

Prior to Monday, the city picked up the full tab. Director of Streets and Fleets Steve LeMaire told the council that most municipalities in the area have had 50/50 programs in place for a number of years.

For a 2 1/2- to 3-inch-wide tree—which is the city's standard—the cost is $300, LeMaire said.

Generally speaking, the parkway is the area between the sidewalk and the curb. If you don't have a sidewalk in front of your house, you have to contact the city to determine if a tree officially is in the parkway or is on your property.

The property owner pays 100 percent, of course, for replacement of any tree on his or her land.

"The safe approach is to call Public Works, and we'll measure to determine whether it's a private or public tree," LeMaire said.

The council also voted to reallocate $300,000 to hire a contractor—Winkler Tree Service—to help expedite the removal of dead ash trees in Geneva parkways.

At the Committee of the Whole meeting last week, LeMaire told council members that the Emerald Ash Borer is killing Geneva's parkway trees faster than the city can remove them. There are about 2,100 ash trees in city parkways, and city staffers, working at peak speed, can remove about 500 a year.

City staff and elected officials are concerned that the dying trees will be a safety hazard unless the trees can be quickly taken down.

The service will include removal of dangerous trees first. Winkler will take down trees and remove the wood, but it will not be responsible for grinding the stumps.

The $300,000 for ash-tree removal includes $60,000 from the Tree Nusery Fund, $95,000 in interest revenue from the Debt Service Fund and $145,000 in budgeted capital funds.

That $145,000 includes $100,000 earmarked for the Manchester Alley Project and $45,000 savings from the Street Program due to receiving proposals under budget projections.

In other business, the council voted 8-1 to make no changes in the "owner consent provisions" for Historic District landmark applications. This was a hot topic several weeks ago, when members of the public asked that the city require a property owner's approval to designate a site as a historic landmark.

As far as anyone can remember, landmark status without the owner's consent has happened just once in city history—when the city named the Riverbank Laboratories property at 1512 Batavia Ave. as a historic site. That move prevented the owners from tearing down the buildings that were once part of the estate of Col. George Fabyan, where a team of top minds decoded and deciphered enemy messages during World War I.

Third Ward Alderman Dawn Vogelsberg cast the dissenting vote Monday, saying she felt a property owner should at least have a say.

"I’m going to vote no," she said. "I don’t like to put that much restriction on private property without (the owner's) consent."

Second Ward Alderman Richard Marks said he felt a two-thirds majority of council members should be required to designate a site as a Geneva landmark. But Marks said he could live with the wording as is.

Fifth Ward Alderman Craig Maladra chaired the meeting in the absence of Mayor Kevin Burns. 

"What it comes back to, to me, is how many times do we need to use it?" Maladra said. "It’s a really big gun, and I’m not sure it’s time to use that big gun."

At the end of the meeting, Maladra and City Administrator Mary McKittrick announced that Union Pacific is moving forward with repair work to the rail crossing at Western Avenue. The work will start Wednesday (Sept. 21) and should take seven to 10 days to complete, McKittrick said. An e-mail from School District 304 earlier in the day had suggested the work would take 14 days to complete.