[0:00] Mason, for a short period of time. These are commonly used at construction sites, outdoor events, or after natural disasters, when permanent power is not available.

[0:13] To install a temporary poll, a permit must be pulled by licensed electrical contractor to ensure that the setup is safe and complies with electrical code requirement.

[0:24] If you have any questions about how to get a tip poll permit, please contact our office.

[5:00] We'll give another 60 seconds.

[5:32] Good afternoon, everyone. Today is September 3rd, 2026, it's 303 PM, and it's the

[5:44] regular schedule of parks and sustainability committee. Today we have some special discussions and

[5:52] Join me in chamber today.

[5:56] We have Councilwoman Betsy Rui.

[5:57] We have Councilwoman Crystal Bass.

[5:59] Nobody on virtual.

[6:01] I am Councilman Khalil Batchon.

[6:03] I'm the chair of this committee.

[6:05] We have a excused absence for my Vice Chair,

[6:09] Councilwoman Paul McCrainie.

[6:11] We will get started with item number one.

[6:14] Special discussion, ID 26-119 Urban Forest Master Plan

[6:21] Overview, and it looks like we have Ms. Cindy Sullivan with trees over here.

[6:26] Please, if you don't mind, come on up and give us your overview, name and title for the record, please.

[6:44] There we go.

[6:45] My name is Cindy Sullivan, and I am the President and CEO of Trees Louisville, and I'm here

[6:51] to talk to you guys today about the Genesis and the process of the Urban Force Master Plan.

[6:58] So the story starts in 2023 in December, the Metro Council dedicated allocated $200,000 to

[7:12] trees Louisville to conduct an urban forest master plan.

[7:17] So what is an urban forest master plan?

[7:19] What is our tree plan?

[7:22] We're looking at it, it's basically, hang on, we'll get my folder.

[7:29] Well, we have that small intermission. We have been joined by the famous councilman, Anthony Piaz

[7:34] team.

[7:40] And you would think that I've done this before, but anyway,

[7:45] it, a urban force master plan

[7:46] is basically a huge community engagement and awareness mission, right? So we spent 19 months

[7:56] And had many, many meetings, and the reason that we were doing this is because we know that

[8:04] we've got a problem here in Louisville with our urban forest.

[8:08] And the urban forest is extremely important to the health and the quality of life of this

[8:15] community.

[8:15] There's impact on public health.

[8:18] We know that Louisville is dealing with heat stress, more frequent in severe storms, droughts

[8:23] floods and more from the changing climate.

[8:27] And we're looking to revitalize our city.

[8:29] Since 2020, we all will admit that Louisville's

[8:34] particularly the center of city needs some work.

[8:39] So for existing residents to stay competitive

[8:41] in the economic realm and to attract new residents

[8:44] and new businesses and to retain that talent.

[8:48] And then there is the sad story from a red lining

[8:51] from the 1930s and we know that Louisville is, we are working always to prioritize and address

[8:57] and remediate historical inequitable practices in marginalized communities.

[9:03] It's a bedrock principle that for Louisville to prosper every single neighborhood needs to thrive.

[9:10] And that's what we're working for.

[9:12] So the Urban Forest Master Plan was a partnership with Metro Parks and obviously Metro Council.

[9:18] And lots of other city agencies, we, again, hired a consulting service, urban canopy

[9:28] works, a female owned business in North Kentucky, Newport Kentucky, and they spent several

[9:34] months doing research and analysis.

[9:36] They looked at tree canopy trends, not just in Louisville, but with our peer cities and

[9:45] management practices in other cities, and we looked at planting strategies, invasives,

[9:53] natives, impact of climate, previous efforts, and review of operations and...

[10:00] And policies. So that took up quite a bit of time. And the map that I'm showing you indicates you're the percent change in canopy from 2012 to 2019. The biggest losses are the darkest burgundy colors and the biggest gains are that dark green. And you can see we didn't gain very much between 2012 and 2019.

[10:23] That's a nice question.

[10:25] So, I'm going to point out the Southwestern part of that map there, like biggest losses.

[10:33] I mean, let's use the very bottom left hand corner there.

[10:39] There's not been that much development in since 2019 to now.

[10:45] How are we losing that much percentage in trees?

[10:49] This was actually 2012 to 2019.

[10:51] And so we were still seeing losses from Emerald Ashfore that took out millions of trees.

[11:03] And it does vary in that area between minus 19 and minus 2, so that's quite a bit of variation.

[11:13] That could also be storms.

[11:14] It could be other disease problems, weather conditions, all those things.

[11:21] It's not necessarily always development.

[11:26] And then the discovery, a period of the Urban Force Master Plan, this is a very busy slide,

[11:31] I know, I don't expect you to go through all of this, but just keep in mind, we were very

[11:35] busy for those 19 months.

[11:37] We had an advisory group of 115 people that met three times for two hour workshops.

[11:42] We had an equity council that was composed of people from West Louisville and Southwest Louisville

[11:49] because we know that those are the areas of lowest canopy. We did a survey. We had one-on-one interviews with agencies and other non-profit organizations.

[12:00] We tabled at events and we met with more than 500 people at various conferences and social and civic meetings.

[12:10] So, it was very involved that we even had a ban or a poster at the Lynn family stadium during soccer games.

[12:20] So, what we found during this process is canopy cover does show significant changes by neighborhood.

[12:29] Some are as low as 13% some are up to 66% so I don't have to tell you probably the 13% canopy is in West Louisville 66 is in East Louisville

[12:40] Our current system is street tree management is not equitable

[12:43] We know that because the system results in less trees and those existing trees to be in poor condition in lower income areas

[12:51] And you can look at the pictures and there's a couple of residential streets

[12:56] But I also want you to pay mind to the top photograph.

[13:00] That's Frankford Avenue.

[13:01] This is one of our biggest economic corridors.

[13:05] And this, because the adjacent property owner

[13:08] is responsible for that tree, maybe they don't know

[13:12] that they're responsible, or maybe they just

[13:13] don't want to do it.

[13:15] But this is not the way we want our economic business

[13:19] corridors to look.

[13:20] So that's, I think, really important to point out.

[13:23] And then there were also lots of people during the meetings that called for more coordinated efforts between agencies.

[13:32] Trees are public infrastructure. They are vital city infrastructure and that's something that we all need to realize.

[13:39] And success looks like being able to walk and bike and take the bus under shade and not be heat stressed when you're moving around the city.

[13:47] And, you know, again, these are some of the conditions that were found street trees not being maintained, results in more storm damage and higher cost and management decisions are made by people that don't have the expertise that urban forest or professional urban foresters do.

[14:12] And if that increases inequity throughout our city and lots of street trees are in poor condition and many residents don't want new trees

[14:20] So improving the canopy is difficult because trees that are high risk or into climb scare people

[14:28] So the goals of the master plan were for it all came down to having access for all so to prioritize every neighborhood having at least 30% canopy

[14:37] There needs to be a mentality change so that we recognize trees as vital city structure

[14:45] infrastructure that they are, people need to be able to walk and bike comfortably in their

[14:50] neighborhoods and to get to and from work.

[14:53] And then we also need to create a long-lived high quality and sustainable urban forest.

[15:00] To ensure that people can get to where they need to be and that it lasts for many generations.

[15:07] So, the plan was led by like Trees Louisville and Metro Parks, but there were lots of other departments within Metro government that participated.

[15:18] You can see that list. Other agencies also were involved in the decision-making process and the findings.

[15:24] And then there were two Council representatives on the advisory group in the advisory group, and that was Councilwoman Betsy Rui and Councilman Andrew Owen.

[15:36] So the path forward. I gave everyone has the handout.

[15:40] Thank you very much.

[15:42] So there were 20 findings, 20 different findings, and there were then 10 strategies developed to work on over time.

[15:53] those strategies. And each strategy has several different

[15:59] action items, and I will tell you that we are very proud of the fact that since

[16:04] last September, we have started and sometimes even completed more than half of those

[16:11] 33 action items. So there are lots of organizations and agencies in the community

[16:18] that are working very hard already on implementing this plan, so we're very excited about

[16:23] that. There's one other thing that I want to mention before I wrap up,

[16:32] given that today is

[16:34] has a heat index of 111 degrees. You have all just announced yesterday the release of an updated

[16:44] Louisville heat mitigation study, Dr. Brian Stone from Georgia Tech University did a study in 2016

[16:51] and then returned this year to do another study, we are the first city in the United States

[16:58] to duplicate those studies and his findings are very significant. He found that we are definitely getting hotter

[17:05] and again there's lots of inequity and he also states that trees and urban tree canopy

[17:13] are the most efficient, economical, and effective means of reducing heat.

[17:18] Just planting 50% of available spaces within neighborhood, for instance, can reduce the heat

[17:28] by seven degrees.

[17:30] And that's from his study that I sent all of you guys a copy of that, the press release

[17:37] so that you can access it should be in your inbox by the time you get back to your offices.

[17:43] And that's all I have.

[17:44] Thank you so much.

[17:47] Real quick, I have been joined by Councilwoman Jennifer Chapel, and also I have to read

[17:53] this meeting is being held percent to care of 61.826 and Councilwoman May we have been joined

[18:00] virtually by Councilwoman May I share Paula McCraeney.

[18:07] Any questions on First Indie?

[18:12] Thank you Mr. Chair, so we discussed this, but I'd just like to reiterate some things

[18:19] that we discussed, you know, I think, discussed privately in a public forum here.

[18:26] You know, I think there's some great stuff here.

[18:28] I really don't have any problem with the plan per se, right?

[18:31] We're going to talk a little bit about, I think the, I think,

[18:40] But this is a resolution, right, essentially what we're saying here and I think I just want to make sure I got your intent.

[18:47] What we're saying here is that, yes, we appreciate the work that was done here.

[18:51] There's a plan behind this work and that we agree with the plan.

[18:56] Doesn't mean we have all the budgets sorted out.

[18:57] Doesn't mean we have the whole plan sorted out.

[18:59] We still need to work on all of that, right?

[19:01] But we're saying that at least from a strategy point of view.

[19:05] We agree with these fundamental principles and action items and you know some of it may be able to get done very quickly

[19:13] Some of it might take longer and that will have to be sorted out through operating budgets and all this stuff

[19:17] I think that's what we're getting at here. Is that that makes sense?

[19:20] That is perfectly correct. Absolutely.

[19:23] Terrific. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

[19:24] Thank you. Thanks for your support.

[19:26] I'm going to ask a question, you know, to that, to kind of piggyback a little bit off

[19:32] of the Councilman Piaugetini's point though, do you've gotten half of this list already

[19:38] completed?

[19:39] No, in progress.

[19:40] In progress.

[19:41] What does, why do we need to move something forward as far as a resolution if you're already

[19:47] doing the work?

[19:50] Well, that's a good question, it's, I think, a show of support to get the other half done

[19:56] Is part of it?

[19:59] Okay.

[19:59] And I-

[20:00] I think, I mean, this is a comprehensive plan that Metro Council requested. And so, and we did a great job getting it done. It was a lot of hard work, and I think there's a lot to be said for that acknowledgement that this is a good plan and that you're behind it.

[20:19] would you like to touch maybe a little bit on on some of the financial barriers that you're going to

[20:26] and roadblocks that you may not have with this current plan and what needs to be done to execute?

[20:33] Well, let me say one thing in regard to financial barriers that when we're the one thing that's really quite important is

[20:41] is a tree's Louisville, we realize that improving canopy is extremely difficult when people

[20:50] have high risk trees or mature trees that look scary and dangerous that are dropping branches.

[20:58] That is a real and serious barrier to canopy improvement.

[21:02] No one wants new trees when they think of trees as being dangerous and shady and causing

[21:09] them a lot of work.

[21:10] So one of the things that trees Louisville, one of the action items that trees Louisville has implemented is implementing is we got we have a grant from a local foundation to help private citizens with trees on their property deal with those trees.

[21:28] So our team of certified arborists will evaluate those trees using the tree risk assessment qualifications that we have from ISA and if the tree needs to come down

[21:39] We will pay for that out of these funds if the tree needs to be pruned we will pay for that out of these funds

[21:45] So that is action item. Let me see if I can find it

[21:53] Because I'm not looking at it. I have to cut my glasses on to do this a point one

[22:04] Just for clarification though when they a homeowner agrees to say taking out a tree through that grant program

[22:10] They have to promise to plant one or two trees in replacement and that's facilitated by

[22:20] trees level and their native species and they're

[22:23] They have a care plan is that correct that is correct. It's not a tree removal initiative

[22:28] It is a tree canopy improvement project, so we will help you if you've got a bad tree, but you have to sign a contract that you're going to maintain the new trees.

[22:44] And then the second part of that grant is also to find ways to repurpose that urban wood to try and help put more funding into our community forest.

[22:54] So there are lots of higher purposes for urban wood than just mulch and animal petting, furniture, lumber, biochar.

[23:04] There's lots of things that you can utilize to, you can use that wood for to a higher purpose and perhaps create a funding stream.

[23:14] Thank you.

[23:15] Councilmember Piazji.

[23:18] Thank you.

[23:20] Cindy, I want to get your thoughts on a hopefully what is considered a minor clarifying

[23:26] amendment for the resolution, but before I make it, and I'm not making a motion, just

[23:31] to be clear.

[23:32] I'm really running a by-you, and I want to see if you have any significant objections

[23:36] to the way I'm wording this, right?

[23:38] Because when I read the, again, we did talk about how I think in the past, my concern as

[23:44] always been that, in some cases, the administration will take resolutions and then start doing things

[23:51] without having a plan, having a budget, having support of council, on tactically how they're doing it,

[23:56] and all of these things. Like for example, in my humble opinion, we need to implement all of this on

[24:01] metro property in a right of way and then we can phase it out to areas of need, right where there's

[24:07] financial aid or disproportionate impact in all of these other things. So we can do this in a very,

[24:12] smart way over a period of time. Section 3 is an example. Focus on Section 2 and Section

[24:19] 3 of your resolution. If you want to pull it up, if you've got it in front of you.

[24:26] I went to the actual resolution. I don't have a copy of that.

[24:31] So the right now reads Section 2. The Council urges that, so Section 1, the Council fully

[24:36] supports the level of tree plant strategies. No question. The, at least for me, no question.

[24:41] The Council urges the necessary measure agencies to move forward with implementation of the

[24:46] Louisville tree plan.

[24:48] I might say something like move forward with planning for the implementation of the Louisville

[24:53] tree plan.

[24:54] And then in section three something like, is it your reads, the Council request the administration

[24:59] followed the Louisville.

[25:00] Tremus, strategies, 100%, but we know there's a financial impact the way I might reward this to say the Council

[25:06] request the administration for all the local tree plan strategies, and it's planning with implementation

[25:10] contingent on future approval through a Metro Council budget or operating plan. Again, I'm the spitballing

[25:17] something that I've come up with. I wanted to hear from you if this still aligns with what your intention

[25:22] here is because I think it's important to communicate to the people that worked on this, that we appreciate

[25:27] this work and we do want to adopt this plan. I know I do. But I also want to be realistic with

[25:33] people about, you know, look, there is a financial impact. This is not going to happen overnight.

[25:38] I think we all realize that. And all of everything in Metro is contingent upon budgeting and all

[25:44] that stuff. Any thoughts about some of the recommended or my idea on amending that section here?

[25:53] those language changes, I think, are absolutely fine with me. You're spitball.

[25:59] Hit right there.

[25:59] Okay, great.

[26:00] I think that's perfect.

[26:01] Because that's the intent.

[26:03] Yeah. And I think so too.

[26:04] And I think it's something that's the only concern I have is that it's

[26:10] it's misconstrued as itself being the authorizing document versus this is the authorization

[26:16] for us to say we are adopting this and we're going to work to implement it,

[26:19] but we still need to go through the regular process to make sure all this is implemented.

[26:22] So, but I appreciate it.

[26:24] We should work on this.

[26:25] You could make those language changes,

[26:28] and then you would also be a sponsor.

[26:30] A co-sponsor.

[26:30] There we go.

[26:31] Thank you very much.

[26:35] Councilwoman Vass.

[26:41] Turnery Mone notes over here.

[26:45] So, part of this plan, I know that, is any of this

[26:51] look to be contracted out in order to get it done?

[26:56] Or is this all going to be done in house?

[26:58] Do you know?

[26:58] Oh, no, sure. There's contractual agreements in place right now, and I think that those

[27:04] are definitely going to continue.

[27:06] So, we are contract.

[27:07] I get it then.

[27:09] That's not to say that on page six, I had wrote down where you all were talking about the

[27:14] dark red areas with the higher percentage of areas.

[27:18] Is there something that shows, like, can we get where it shows, like, exactly what the

[27:24] results of that was how they came up with that, like the decrease in those areas or what

[27:30] the calls was.

[27:31] Yes, definitely.

[27:32] I'm glad you asked that, too, Councilwoman Bass, because you can get all the information

[27:37] from the Urban Forest Master Plan on the website LouisvilleTreePlan.org, so that it will have

[27:46] information on the Urban Tree canopy assessment where these data came from, as well as, you

[27:54] and the research that our team did.

[27:58] LouisvilleTreePlan.org.

[28:00] It will also have a listing of the action items

[28:04] and who actually is working on them and what the progress is being made.

[28:10] And then just to kind of touch off of what Councilman Piaugentini said about

[28:15] our own properties are in dire need of tree canopy work

[28:21] that has been years and years in the making.

[28:25] And some of the examples of pictures of trees you showed

[28:28] in residential areas that we are going

[28:31] after the adjacent property owners for our own properties

[28:34] look like that.

[28:36] So I'm just trying to figure out how do we, as council,

[28:41] pass along to this person that they're responsible for this tree

[28:45] that looks this way, yet our own trees look this way.

[28:48] I think it's a bad practice.

[28:50] I think it don't look good, so I just think we need to figure out our own properties first,

[28:57] then we can educate and help with the others.

[29:02] And I think that that's actually item 1.3, we'll address that over time.

[29:08] I think that it is important for Louisville Metro government to take over the maintenance

[29:13] of right-of-way trees to set a good example for one thing, as you say.

[29:17] And it improves the equity and it also puts that in the hands of professionals, the maintenance and the care of those trees.

[29:29] Yeah.

[29:30] Because I mean, we know it's expensive.

[29:32] We have a lot of big older trees in our area that are, unfortunately, in right ways, in seniors' yards that are on set-in comes that they just don't have the funding.

[29:43] And I think that's a lot of the problem with the, with the tree cannabis in our area that, you know, I mean the last big storm we had

[29:52] Hit my area very, very hard and a lot of it was old big trees that haven't been maintained and maintenance over the years that caught

[30:01] And one of the things that I have preached my entire career is that if you've got trees that you are maintaining regularly, if you can get a tree professional to come in every two or three years to do some maintenance, you will have a tree that will definitely be strong and will live as long as it possibly can, you know, complete its life cycle and give us all of the ecosystem services that trees do provide.

[30:28] I mean, that is so important because it could agree with you more.

[30:32] And I agree, but when you're trying to talk to an 83-year-old that's on a setting

[30:38] come that, you know, some of these tree quotes they're getting are seven to $10,000

[30:44] for these massive trees.

[30:46] So it's a tough pill to swallow.

[30:49] Yeah, and I think I've asked every one of you guys to keep a running list

[30:53] of your constituents that call in.

[30:55] We had to your point a couple of weeks ago, we looked at a 72-inch oak in a neighborhood in District 3, I think.

[31:05] And the estimate to remove it was $30,000 because of where it was and how big it was.

[31:13] Who could afford that?

[31:15] So we need to figure it out.

[31:17] Sure.

[31:18] All right.

[31:18] Thank you.

[31:20] And maybe that's, go ahead.

[31:22] I was going to say maybe that's a good segue and to having parks come up.

[31:27] Councilwoman Berber.

[31:29] Okay.

[31:30] Do you find down those notes on how to change that language?

[31:34] Yeah, I'm very curious.

[31:35] Thank you.

[31:36] Councilman, Pigeon, Tina, for your obvious support of this.

[31:40] And thank you, Cindy and everybody.

[31:42] It's reasonable for all you work on this.

[31:44] And this is really important.

[31:46] And as we're finding from the discussion over here it seems like one of the most important

[31:50] steps here and ultimately probably the most expensive one is taking over street trees and being

[31:57] able to maintain them and keep them healthy because that's also part of changing the mindset

[32:03] because a lot of people they don't want to put a tree in because yeah it comes down to it

[32:07] then how do I pay for taking it out or managing it and so yes we have to have a funding stream

[32:13] I'm just curious, you talk about developing a funding stream with dead tree parts.

[32:23] So, do you, and I know one of the issues that we've got with trees that are street trees

[32:28] and stuff is too many times to get things nailed in them.

[32:32] Do we have the technology available in a saw mill nearby that can detect that so we don't

[32:38] screw up blades?

[32:41] That is a challenge when you're working with Urban Trees, absolutely, and yes, we are working on that.

[32:47] I mean, part of the team at Trees Louisville is going up to Baltimore and D.C. at the end of the month.

[32:54] And we're going to look at the Urban Wood Reuse project that they have there.

[33:00] and they actually sell urban wood to

[33:06] room in board, you know, that they used to make furniture, and that's, you know, a national furniture company.

[33:12] So, it is possible,

[33:18] if it can be done, we can get it done.

[33:22] I would love to see that.

[33:23] Yeah, it's pretty exciting. And I will say too, that, I mean,

[33:30] The Morton Harbor Readam is a bit of a different situation because they're not talking about urban trees,

[33:35] but when they lose trees in the Harbor Readam, they cut slabs and cookies and they've made hundreds of thousands of dollars from those sales.

[33:42] So, fingers crossed we can get something done.

[33:46] Okay, thank you very much and I look forward to the voting else on this.

[33:49] Thank you.

[33:50] Thank you, no further questions.

[33:52] Thank you, Cindy, for your presentation.

[33:54] Up next is item number two.

[33:57] We have ID 26126136 Financial Impact Statement Overview,

[34:04] Michelle King, and Dr. Masuda, a Global Parks and Recs.

[34:16] Good afternoon, everyone.

[34:18] I'm Michelle King, I'm Executive Director of Louisville Parks

[34:21] and Recreation, and I'm here with.

[34:27] I'm Ms. Sudo's director,

[34:29] So let us send Director Oversing Urban Post for the Division at the Liberal Parks and

[34:33] Recreation Department.

[34:35] So we are here today to give a presentation walking through the financial impact study

[34:41] that was prepared at the Council's request and I'll start out with an MS today and I will

[34:49] be kind of transitioning and tag teaming throughout the presentation.

[34:51] But I want to just set the stage for what we're presenting here today, the Financial Impact Study.

[35:01] We're talking about what we are presenting, and what we're not here today doing. First of all, we want to make sure that we are explaining the study that was prepared for your request.

[35:13] We'll identify which of those urban forest master plan actions were included in the request and why that was, as Cindy just informed you all there are 33 actions, and obviously you can see that we're not nearly that many included in the impact study.

[35:30] We'll also describe what are the assumptions and the types of resources that we included in our analysis.

[35:37] And we're hoping that what we can provide for you today gives you some context for your consideration of the plan and its potential future implementation.

[35:47] What we're not here today to do is to represent any specific endorsement of the plan or an implementation strategy for the plan.

[35:57] Often, when departments bring you this kind of information with all of these dollars and figures attached,

[36:02] it's an appropriation discussion or a budget discussion, obviously, that's not why we're here today,

[36:07] so just reminding folks that we're here at your request because you asked us for information,

[36:14] so that you could inform your discussion.

[36:15] And that is our number one goal here today is to make sure that we're providing clear information

[36:20] and making ourselves available to answer your questions about what some potential strategies

[36:27] for implementation would look like.

[36:29] We are not necessarily here to recommend any specific model of adoption, so we've mentioned

[36:34] before, there could be different ways to implement the strategies and actions that are contained

[36:41] in the plan, so we want to talk you through what it looks like when we tried to put some

[36:47] figures to those actions.

[36:52] So, as we mentioned, the financial impact study, we worked with the

[36:58] action items in the plan that one would have responsibilities for low-vomitro government,

[37:05] as Cindy talked through, this is a community-wide canopy plan, a community-wide for a street plan.

[37:11] So, not all of those recommendations are ones that require action by Metro government or even with those that do require action, they don't necessarily all incur a financial impact.

[37:25] So, we went out that down to looking at seven different actions. Six of those are included in the total resources, the dollar figure that we ultimately came to at the end.

[37:39] Those are ones where we know that there would be financial,

[37:43] identifiable financial impacts to Metro government.

[37:46] One of those, we also said, hey, this is a financial impact

[37:50] to little bit of Metro government, but we've already

[37:52] incurred it because it's one of those actions of 17 actions

[37:56] that is already underway.

[37:58] It's already been funded and is nearly complete.

[38:01] We'll talk about that later.

[38:03] So those other 26 out of the 33 actions, they are not included in this

[38:08] financial impact study, they either weren't our responsibility or they wouldn't have

[38:13] quantifiable financial impacts.

[38:18] So just as an overview here, we included some existing resources, so personnel in particular

[38:30] that are already budgeted and part of our operations, local parks and recreation, of course,

[38:36] houses the urban forestry division.

[38:38] We have the charge to care for parks and parkway trees.

[38:43] We also have a team of quarter-culture professionals that care for our natural spaces within

[38:50] our parks, our landscaping beds, and also take care of the thousands of young trees

[38:55] that we have planted across parks in parkways over the last several years.

[39:00] So those 2.1 million dollars is included in the total.

[39:04] We'll spend a lot of time here today talking about what new resources need to be added in order to meet the charge of these six different actions that we were included.

[39:17] So this is just a bit of a summary slide. There will be new costs that recur annually. There will also be new equipment needed to fulfill the charge in particular the street tree maintenance and care in action item 1.3.

[39:34] So those, we've included here, they show up as a total, but they don't necessarily have to be a cost that is incurred all at one time.

[39:43] So just want to make that note as you step through this.

[39:47] And then there is one impact that we said would be periodic, and that was the recommendation for an updated canopy assessment every five to ten years.

[39:56] So it's not a one time cost, but it's also not an annual cost.

[40:02] So, this is just a quick overview slide before we start diving into each of these. These are those action items that we looked at. Action item 1.3 is obviously the one that has the largest financial impact. As we stepped through these, we're going to save that one to the end. As we talk through, just because I think that's probably the one that is the most complex in its analysis and certainly the one with the largest impact.

[40:30] The cost that you'll see on this slide, you'll notice that that doesn't all add up to that 13 million.

[40:35] These are all the new costs that would be incurred.

[40:38] So again, we're really going to highlight those new costs,

[40:41] but we will show you where those existing costs come in.

[40:46] I'm going to turn this over to Masuda now to take us through some of the specifics.

[40:53] Sure. Thank you, Michelle.

[40:57] So, like Michelle mentioned, we are going to start with the easy action items.

[41:04] So, one of them is action 2.1 to add higher level urban forestry to the system.

[41:12] The plan is not necessarily pointing out what the part meant, but the main idea here is to

[41:19] able to have a professional expertise when it's about capital projects or street designs from

[41:30] the beginning of the projects to make sure that trees are included in those projects and

[41:37] for the future, the maintenance plan is also considered.

[41:41] So, one higher level urban forestry is being recommended and we, in the model that we developed, we told an administrator position would be appropriate for that purpose and then we are hoping that, you know, coordination across planning and infrastructure efforts throughout Metro government agencies and connecting to urban forestry plan with the implementation and the partners.

[42:10] would be also a task of this position to perform.

[42:16] And that is the cost of $130,000 to Metro.

[42:21] I just have this is the annual cost operating cost.

[42:27] Action. 3.1 is calling for a code enforcement capacity increase.

[42:34] So,

[42:37] the project that in Arborist would perform this kind of task, and again, the purpose here is to

[42:48] add a field inspection component to existing codes and regulations for development plan implementation.

[42:57] So, the plan is understanding their occurrences.

[43:00] There are staff members to review the plans, the development plans, but not necessarily do

[43:07] have staff members to follow up with the implementation and make sure the plan is being implemented

[43:15] correct at the way that it was developed.

[43:21] I'll just add at that point because we are talking about development plan review with that position

[43:27] that was a cost that was incurred, but there were a number of action items included in the

[43:31] strategy that talked about code reviews.

[43:34] So those weren't included in the fiscal impact,

[43:36] because that wasn't something that we could identify.

[43:40] But that position that looks at the implementation

[43:43] of development plans and ensures compliance

[43:47] with the development plans that are approved

[43:50] is part of a larger discussion in the forced master plan

[43:54] around codes and the lane development code, particularly.

[43:59] Correct, thank you, Michelle.

[44:02] Action 5.1 is calling for a workforce development program.

[44:10] We were back and forth with this action item.

[44:13] It doesn't have to be Metro government implementing this action item.

[44:18] It can be Metro government or partners or combination of Metro government and partners working together.

[44:24] So we have a great experience with this kind of program. Currently we are managing our leafy grant.

[44:34] As you may remember, we received $15 million in 2024 and workforce development program was a part of that grant.

[44:44] So, this is a Turk here. We are in that program and the program is running two sessions in a year with 60-10 people in each session and we kind of took that model.

[45:00] And put that into our proposed, well, our model here, and the cost annually is going to be somewhere

[45:08] on $550,000 with two sessions between people total in that program.

[45:17] So, action 6.2 is canopy assessment. We so far, we have done two of them, as I mentioned earlier.

[45:26] The first one was it just like tracking the canopy differences between 2004, 2008 and 2012.

[45:38] And then the second study was to see the difference between 2012 and 2019.

[45:45] And current the trees level is also conducting the third one to track the differences between 2019 and on.

[45:54] So, the $150,000 cost estimate here is based on the first assessment done in 2015, because

[46:04] was $150,000 to Metro government.

[46:07] But we also do understand that the technology is improving, and the cost might be much

[46:14] than what is mentioned here.

[46:22] 6.3 is tree inventory, which is not included on the slide.

[46:31] As we speak, we are conducting our metro's first-ever tree inventory digital smart inventory.

[46:40] that inventory is being done, they will resource group and we are very proud of using high

[46:47] technology and that inventory is going to be wrapped up within a few months but it's

[46:54] very nice to know how much work we have so far it was reported that they already

[47:08] possible is 70,000 more trees to be skinned.

[47:14] So we will see somewhere on 150,160,000 trees in our system,

[47:22] both parks and streets.

[47:26] Action 8.1 is suggesting a systems fund for private properties.

[47:35] We put $100,000 in the model that we developed.

[47:42] This number is again a study number.

[47:46] In 2020, Metro Council budgeted $200,000 for public tree assistance.

[47:58] So currently, unfortunately, we have run out of that fund.

[48:02] But between 2021 and 2021 and 2006, we were able to help 50 residents somewhere for the

[48:14] factories to be removed and all of those trees to be removed also had replacements and we

[48:22] is some streaming work,

[48:26] so based on what we experienced,

[48:28] we estimated $4,000 average per assistance per person,

[48:34] which is very modest, yes.

[48:40] But we told, maybe, with $100,000,

[48:43] we could help 25 residents with that kind of average cost.

[48:49] Obviously, as we heard from the conference,

[48:52] Obviously, we heard from the conversation earlier that range, that cost can range quite a bit.

[48:57] So this is just, I guess, based on previous experience with that, we'll also point out as Cindy mentioned.

[49:05] Trees' lovel has a grant. They are doing this kind of work. So this is another one of those actions that an implementation could be a Metro government led action.

[49:14] It could be a community organization and partner led action or some partnership between those two.

[49:22] So, I'm going to start with this one and then hand the numbers over to Musute A. So, actually

[49:29] 1.3 is obviously the big ticket item here. And I just wanted to make sure to review what

[49:37] we're talking about here. This is going from our current responsibility, where a street tree,

[49:44] according to the plan, is, as it's defined, is the responsibility of the Jason property owner.

[49:50] I just wanted to point out the plan refers to street trees, but in its discussion it is clear that the plan street tree is the equivalent to what our...

[50:00] Metro code of ordinances refers to as a public tree. So that is a tree with a base wholly or in part situated on

[50:08] Louisville Metro government owned or controlled land or in public rights of way controlled by Louisville Metro,

[50:13] excluding parks and parkways that are under the jurisdiction of Louisville Metro parks. So I just wanted to make sure that

[50:20] we understood that when we say street trees in the context of the master plan discussion, that is the equivalent of what

[50:26] our ordinances refer to as public trees.

[50:29] So according to action 1.3, the responsibility

[50:32] of the street tree care and maintenance

[50:34] would shift from that adjacent property owner

[50:37] as it is now and to Louisville Metro government.

[50:41] So obviously there's a lot of different ways to look at that.

[50:45] And so Masude and her team put together a plan

[50:48] that would implement that and we'll step through that

[50:51] in a couple of different ways and then we'll talk

[50:53] about the potential ways that may be considered for implementation.

[51:00] Michelle, do you mind on showing that slide with the division of the areas so that we have some kind of idea what we're talking about when we put it in there?

[51:10] Let me go back up. Sorry. Sorry.

[51:12] So the plan, the model we studied is based on three different management zones, regions,

[51:32] sub-everybody named them.

[51:34] This is almost like public works model.

[51:38] And the team and I just really took our time to project what is needed to implement the care and management of street trees.

[51:54] So as a site note, currently in Parks and Parkways tree inventory, which was done years ago as we work on those trees, we developed our own inventory,

[52:05] But it is limited to parks and parkways only, we do have 35,000 trees in the system, just parks and parkways.

[52:15] So as I mentioned earlier, we will be looking into having the responsibility of 152,100,000 trees, combination parkways and street trees.

[52:30] So, the model we developed is basically calling for three different districts for street management and expansion of parks and parkways in each district for streets, only having two teams and each team consists of three arborists, one supervisor, and then one manager.

[52:59] So, when you multiply it with three different regions, we will have with the administrator managing

[53:07] the entire program, there will be a sum of around two-to-one positions.

[53:12] I just want to point out that all of those details that Masuda is going through right now,

[53:17] including this map and these data points and more are all in the spreadsheet that was attached

[53:24] to the memo that you received from internal audit.

[53:27] So all of the details about the positions that would be included in those teams,

[53:33] the districts that were identified, basically it's how this model was built out to quantify costs.

[53:41] So I'm correct. So we can go back to that slide.

[53:44] We shall if you don't mind.

[53:57] With the entire program,

[54:01] with streets,

[54:02] street trees and parks and park race trees and horticultural program,

[54:07] The new recurring annual operations is going to be $4.8 million.

[54:15] And again, this includes Street 3 Maintenance Personal Cost, Contractor Planting, and

[54:22] 3-year Establishment Work, and Expanded Parks, Parkways, and Horde Cultural Operations.

[54:31] So, for this model, the new initial equipment is going to cost 5.44 million.

[54:40] And again, we have divided it between current park park resource cultural operation and street operation as well.

[54:50] So basically, action 1.3 total new cost with recurring expenses.

[55:00] And initial equipment expenses, it's going to be total into 10.3 million.

[55:07] So what it means, this means is recurring, you know, new recurring expense being 4.8 million.

[55:17] And when we add our current recurring 2.1 million at the top of it, we're talking about 6.9 million

[55:25] other recurring expense to be able to run both parks, park-free source

[55:31] cultural creation and street-trial creation.

[55:34] Did you say $9 million reoccurring?

[55:38] $6.97.

[55:41] On an annual basis.

[55:43] In the project?

[55:45] That would be the total personnel contractor work for an entire urban forest

[55:52] division that includes all three trees plus that expansion of parkways, parks, and horticulture.

[55:59] When we specifically look at the only street tree maintenance operation, it's going to be

[56:09] the new recurring cost annual cost is going to be 3.83 million, again, including personnel

[56:17] and contractor to replanting and establishment work.

[56:22] Just for that section, on the street tree maintenance,

[56:25] the new initial street equipment is going to be

[56:28] a 4.3 million totaling $7.96 million,

[56:33] somewhere around $8 million.

[56:35] Again, just when we take out extension of parks and parkways

[56:40] and how the horticultural operation,

[56:42] only focusing on developing a street tree program,

[56:45] basic the metro government taking over the care and management of those trees is going to

[56:50] close somewhere on eight million dollar.

[56:56] So as we talked about, there's a lot of different ways

[57:00] that we could achieve those goals. So we wanted to put some ideas here for discussion.

[57:07] These aren't, this is by no means of implementation plan and we aren't advocating any of these

[57:14] specific ways to prioritize or to implement,

[57:17] but we wanted to give you all some ways to look at this

[57:20] to think about that large number

[57:23] and how you might get there from where we are here today,

[57:27] which is a urban forestry team covering parks and parkways

[57:31] and horticulture and parks that is $2.1 million a year.

[57:38] So some ways that we could phase this in

[57:42] or prioritize as it may be.

[57:44] There may be what service area is chosen to begin in.

[57:49] That might be, for example, you could start with,

[57:53] maybe, business districts, those kind of things.

[57:56] You might start with what kind of tree service

[57:58] is taken on by city removals versus the regular pruning

[58:05] and things that we know may help add to longevity of those street trees.

[58:13] You also might just pace this out.

[58:16] This gives you a dollar figure as if this was all going to drop in one year and that is

[58:21] not necessarily a feasible implementation plan.

[58:24] So it might be a gradual implementation.

[58:28] How this is done could also look different.

[58:30] This is contemplates a lot of in-house work.

[58:32] There could be more contractors.

[58:33] there's some combination thereof. We also can look at prioritizing areas. We saw in the urban forest

[58:42] master plan that there are some parts of town that have greater canopy need, greater risk, due to heat,

[58:48] and those health impacts you could also prioritize it due to available funding. And then you can also just take a

[58:55] look at what our existing operations are and how those might face to grow to meet more of these different

[59:02] needs or you may look into the current leafy grant implementation model that $12 million is

[59:13] being spent on tree maintenance in DV areas. So far, we are in the third year implementing

[59:23] that grant and 1,400 trees removed from public properties when we say removed on those trees

[59:32] dead or declining trees that we definitely helped so many people and then somewhere

[59:38] on 1,400, 150 stems have been removed and then we had 2,700 trees stream so it's a lot of work

[59:49] But that leafy area is representing only 23% of the entire material area.

[59:58] It can be a good model to feed.

[1:00:02] Thank you. I have a question and I'm going to turn it to my colleagues.

[1:00:08] Can you give me an estimate

[1:00:13] a total of what do we have currently in deferred maintenance that we need to address

[1:00:24] in urban

[1:00:29] The question, email ash borer has been issue for our department for that.

[1:00:37] Email ash borer is the insect basically, you know, attacking our trees and then killing

[1:00:44] all of the ash trees. So there is a big backlog of those ash trees still gradually declining

[1:00:52] or dying that we have a huge workload to catch up with and then so I don't have quantified

[1:01:00] numbers with the storm damages but we do experience pretty often storm damages that

[1:01:05] may take us from one week to even six months to work on those damages to be cleaned up

[1:01:12] and taking care of like for example 2007 I storm took us six months to clear all of those

[1:01:18] damages that was created, and then we do receive some around 200 metro calls monthly.

[1:01:29] These are requests coming from our partners, government agencies, residents, to asking some type of work to be performed by urban forestry.

[1:01:40] So, all of them together, I would assume this would be our deferred maintenance.

[1:01:45] in the perfect world, and it's the last thing I'll end it with, in the perfect world, if we were to fully fund this today, and with your deferred maintenance that you already are in a backlog is too cruising enough.

[1:02:03] Two crews per district. So total of six crews for Street 3 maintenance. We will

[1:02:12] mirror the same program for our Parks Park Resort Pration as well. Currently, we have only 11

[1:02:21] personnel in our forestry parks forestry. So is it enough? Well, I think, I don't know how to answer that question.

[1:02:31] I wish in an ideal word we would absolutely need more resources, but we also understand the difficulties.

[1:02:41] In your own analysis, I think you told me how many passes, how frequently a tree would be made by those.

[1:02:49] Yes, the plan is urban forestry master plan is suggesting that we need to have proactive maintenance with a 15 to 20 year rotation.

[1:03:01] The model we developed is basically, hopefully, going to be

[1:03:09] proactive in managing street trees every 10 years.

[1:03:14] So, each team will have 2,000 trees in a year to maintain.

[1:03:22] I hope it's going to give you an idea.

[1:03:25] So, a team of four people, three workers and one supervisor will be

[1:03:31] conducting maintenance program with two thousand trees for their own, you know, areas.

[1:03:38] So the idea is that every tree within each of these three zones, districts, whatever

[1:03:43] you would call it, of the city would, that tree would be visited once every 10 years for proactive

[1:03:49] maintenance.

[1:03:50] And then, of course, on top of that, there would be the reactive.

[1:03:53] And this is based on 120,000 trees, street trees.

[1:03:59] Thank you.

[1:04:01] Councilman Piaziting.

[1:04:02] Thank you.

[1:04:04] If you can go to slide nine, please.

[1:04:08] So first of all, I mean, like 90% of this cost is wrapped up in one recommendation in all of these recommendations, which is 1.3.

[1:04:18] The even in 1.3, and again, coming to my point earlier, I think there's an important line here,

[1:04:26] the very bottom, these figures describe one possible operating model, not a requested appropriation.

[1:04:31] We know it's not a requested appropriation, but it's also one possible operating model,

[1:04:35] which is like all in right now in this one idea that they've come up with.

[1:04:40] I think this is my point about, you know, particularly modifying the section three of the resolution just to be clear on this,

[1:04:47] like, you know, I think in an ideal world,

[1:04:50] I think it is reasonable, we say,

[1:04:52] hey, we can manage these trees.

[1:04:54] It's just not gonna happen tomorrow.

[1:04:56] I mean, we're not gonna have this money tomorrow,

[1:04:59] but they're all-

[1:05:00] Our parts of this, I mean, just to, you know, you've said it, but we're already spending 2.1 million, right?

[1:05:08] We already have some infrastructure for this, right? We're already doing some of this. We're not everything that's outlined here, not the full modi.

[1:05:16] But the point is, I'm sure, as we think through this more, as we, you know, we're going to have to get creative because we're not going to have that much money sitting in the budget this next year.

[1:05:27] Like, as we start to get creative about this, there might be, for example, the new initial equipment.

[1:05:32] I know we're spending a lot in the parks department generally on new equipment.

[1:05:36] How much overlap is there where we can leverage some of that to work with what we're trying to do here, right?

[1:05:43] Are there areas where there's real need and problem where we can, you know, do some short-term work, right?

[1:05:51] Where, yes, it's not city-wide.

[1:05:52] So I appreciate that we've come up with and first of all, I appreciate you clarifying what the financial impact statement actually says because I think in other areas, you know, there's either no impact or, you know, minimal impact and comparison with the whole budget.

[1:06:12] This is one section which it's a lot of money and it's one way of doing it.

[1:06:16] But I think we can all acknowledge that this is not going to be,

[1:06:20] nobody is coming here today saying,

[1:06:23] we need to spend nine to ten million dollars in this next fiscal cycle

[1:06:27] to get all this equipment and all of these people and all this stuff.

[1:06:31] But it is a, look, it's a good knowledge meant

[1:06:34] if we were to do everything, including 1.3 immediately,

[1:06:38] this is what it would cost. So, which is again my point about,

[1:06:43] I think we need to get creative, right?

[1:06:45] And I think there is progress.

[1:06:48] We can make toward this.

[1:06:50] And I don't know if one program that we've done,

[1:06:53] I'm going to pick on sidewalks, as an example.

[1:06:55] We took over what sidewalks used to be managed

[1:06:57] by the adjacent property owner.

[1:06:58] We took that over years ago.

[1:07:00] Well, we had absolutely no plan.

[1:07:02] No idea when it was going to cost.

[1:07:03] We kind of did it.

[1:07:05] And then we're like 10 plus years into it.

[1:07:07] And we're still figuring out how to catch up

[1:07:10] and budget for it and all this stuff.

[1:07:12] But we have made progress. Things have gotten better because we started moving in that direction.

[1:07:22] So I appreciate the work that's been done here.

[1:07:27] But I just wanted to highlight particularly for my colleagues.

[1:07:30] This is the big number on this particular slide of this whole presentation.

[1:07:35] But there's a major, major caveat here that I don't think can be understated enough about

[1:07:42] how important it is.

[1:07:43] But I do think there's latitude for progress and improvement, but this will all need to

[1:07:49] be budgeted, right?

[1:07:50] And as we have budget, we make priorities, which we do every one to cycle, you know, we

[1:07:55] will say, okay, how does this work into the next set of priorities and how can we continue

[1:07:59] to make progress?

[1:08:00] So I think we can make progress on this, I think, because we're not going to get all

[1:08:04] money right up front. I think everybody's going to be very creative and I'm looking forward

[1:08:08] to the creativity that everybody's going to bring to how can we make even more impact

[1:08:12] and not just assume that $10 million is going to be appropriate tomorrow. Because I think

[1:08:17] that will also have impact on what we're talking about here and how much we can do in the

[1:08:21] immediate term. So again, I think that's why I was recommending the amendment earlier to

[1:08:27] acknowledge that there are great things in this plan. We want to adopt many of these great things,

[1:08:32] But we're also going to acknowledge the reality that this is not going to happen tomorrow, yet we should be striving for a better management of this piece of public infrastructure.

[1:08:44] Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[1:08:45] Thank you. Councilwoman Ruby.

[1:08:51] Thank you very much. So I've got three questions.

[1:08:55] easy one actually probably was not easy to count, but how on earth did you determine a number of trees in a forestal area?

[1:09:05] The inventory is not going to be including those natural areas.

[1:09:08] It's only the trees that we either planted or they do have some kind of historical aesthetic value,

[1:09:15] or those are the trees around some targeted amenities.

[1:09:20] So that when you're talking we do may perform regular maintenance on those trees, not natural areas.

[1:09:28] Yes, so when you're talking about parks, you're talking about the trees out in the open.

[1:09:32] Correct.

[1:09:32] Okay.

[1:09:33] That's fine.

[1:09:34] Okay.

[1:09:37] Next question, newly planted trees.

[1:09:40] I've heard it said that the most important thing that you can do after you plant a tree

[1:09:45] and get it to survive the first couple of years is to go back and give it good pruning.

[1:09:50] in the first 10 years, I believe, and that after that it keeps the tree

[1:09:55] will be much healthier.

[1:09:57] So, full-pucks and parkways, we do-

[1:10:00] You have a three year establishment period, up to three years, we go back and order those

[1:10:06] trees and attend other third year. We do prune them, and the three year pruning cycle goes on

[1:10:13] until they are 10 years old, depending on the species and height, then forestry operation

[1:10:18] take them over for mature tree maintenance. So, but street trees, we don't have such a program.

[1:10:24] It's only urban forestry's position is only in coordination position, just to be able to inspect

[1:10:32] those trees that we receive calls on and provide permit to adjacent homeowners.

[1:10:40] Okay, so that proactive purring would be part of the street tree point, and then we're

[1:10:45] inactive.

[1:10:46] Correct.

[1:10:47] Okay, next one doesn't have anything to do with planting trees per se, but I couldn't help

[1:10:53] notice on one of the fairly newly planted trees on Southern Parkway about a month ago, there's

[1:10:59] a lovely oak tree with about that big around and it just fell over and went upon inspection

[1:11:05] of what I found was a scar from a lawnmower hit probably. There's right at ground level. Is

[1:11:13] any training being done to ensure that these investments are cared for by our mowing and other

[1:11:22] Yes, it is, though, also a constant refresher need and those accidents do happen, but when we hear about them, they are helpful examples for our next training.

[1:11:34] I'll be happy to come to patients because I took them.

[1:11:36] It is unfortunate that that does occasionally happen.

[1:11:40] I know in our tree planting efforts we do try to create space around those trees because it is really hard to get through all of that mobile area.

[1:11:49] if there isn't a buffer around that newly planted tree.

[1:11:53] So sometimes those buffer strategies do fail,

[1:11:56] sometimes moors do get a little too close,

[1:11:59] but we absolutely have training and a policy

[1:12:03] to not modell our newly planted tree.

[1:12:06] Okay, so as representative for Southern Parkway,

[1:12:09] I will be happy to work with you on initiative

[1:12:11] to get mulch rings around those trees.

[1:12:16] Sure.

[1:12:17] Those screen wells that you see around new plant trees are helping to prevent physical damages.

[1:12:24] So we used to use those water bags, screen bags.

[1:12:28] They're great, but they are not keeping the movers out.

[1:12:31] So this is a new implementation that we adopted two, three years ago.

[1:12:35] We're putting those screen wells.

[1:12:37] As long as they are put well, they are supposed to protect those trees

[1:12:42] plus keeping the water within the root system.

[1:12:45] Yes, so I would be happy to help you accomplish that. Thank you.

[1:12:52] Councilwoman Bass.

[1:12:56] You kind of teeter-totted it around this a little bit, but I didn't quite get the answer. I think I was looking for.

[1:13:02] So, the current workload that we have with the amount of people that we currently have.

[1:13:10] Do you feel like we are making a dent in what we have or are we just sustaining what's there?

[1:13:16] So, our current system in urban forestry, that's represented by that 2.1 million in personnel

[1:13:25] costs, that covers care and maintenance of our park trees of parkways that we have responsibility

[1:13:32] for.

[1:13:33] So, you think of those only said parkways are a pretty good example, there are a handful of others.

[1:13:39] And then the care and maintenance of those newly planted trees falls to our political

[1:13:43] team along with our landscape beds.

[1:13:48] As with I think most any resource we could do more with more,

[1:13:53] but the team does have a incredible system of planning and prioritization to get to the needs that they do see.

[1:14:02] What you see in the fully built out fiscal impact study does include and in that spreadsheet you can see

[1:14:12] what are new positions and what division they would go to. It does include some enhancement

[1:14:17] to the existing parks and parkway team as and the horticulture team with the idea that in order

[1:14:23] to meet all of the goals of that urban forest master plan, we would need to have more resources

[1:14:28] in those areas as well as adding completely new resources for street trees. I hope that answers your question.

[1:14:35] Um, no, let me reword maybe, um, currently not, not this, but the

[1:14:44] quarantine with people have in the amount of backlog that we have of deferred

[1:14:49] maintenance, and current tree maintenance. Do you all feel we're making a

[1:14:55] in anything currently or we're just sustaining.

[1:15:00] We are in a position that we have to prioritize the work. That would be my answer. I can't say that we are responding every single call immediately.

[1:15:15] The system is currently operating on inspecting trees and then making work orders based on the prior to ranking and schedule and those request and our own inspections.

[1:15:33] The only exception to this is Parkways.

[1:15:38] Just because this is an old model that we developed and we really implemented well.

[1:15:45] Every year, in winter, in four months, we do inspect all of the parkway trees.

[1:15:51] We again prioritize what is high risk.

[1:15:55] And then try to make sure that we do maintain all of those parkway trees just because of the high risk.

[1:16:03] public because of the flow of traffic. In parks, we don't have that regular inspection system.

[1:16:12] The operation is based on the cost system and prioritization. And at the top of this, we

[1:16:22] are following our three planting and young tree maintenance program. Like I mentioned, every

[1:16:29] six, nine years, they go through a pruning cycle, and then when you put all of this together,

[1:16:36] we do understand the importance of prioritization.

[1:16:41] Okay, because I feel like history is showing us that we are reactive and not proactive.

[1:16:50] So I think I'm just not convinced that we can sustain financially or with personnel

[1:16:57] this plan as it's being presented today. But as we've said,

[1:17:05] Dasec, didn't pull it in a part, making tiny steps toward the right direction. I just

[1:17:11] know firsthand being new to council and new to my district. I see years and years of

[1:17:19] issues that still have not been addressed. And so that's kind of where I was going with

[1:17:25] current workload. So thank you for that. And yes, to clarify, the current workload that we

[1:17:31] talk about does not include any of that proactive street tree work. Our leafy grant has enabled

[1:17:37] us to do street tree work that we would not otherwise be funded to do. And leafy workforce

[1:17:45] added five personnel to work on that only 23% of the metro area, five additional people,

[1:17:54] just focused on inspecting plus working with the contractor they were able to do

[1:18:00] maintenance on thousands of trees and those costs are not included in the current

[1:18:06] Discussion that at that 2.1 that doesn't include the grant funded positions because those wouldn't continue beyond the grant

[1:18:14] Thank you. Council on the chapel. We are add for 16

[1:18:19] I understand the person that has a name tag that says the law racks right now

[1:18:24] You're probably scared it's going to be some long-winded remarks, but I'll save those.

[1:18:28] But I do have a request of urban forestry as well as the chair.

[1:18:31] I think Councilwoman Bass has some good questions.

[1:18:36] And as a member of the Tree Advisory Commission, we were recently given a presentation

[1:18:43] by Kate Carl with the Division of Urban Forestry about the amazing work that you all do.

[1:18:48] And so I would make a request that whether or not this passes today and I really, really hope that it does that in a future meeting we can have that same presentation given to this body because I think that it will help us understand more of the work that you do and address some of those questions that obviously Council members have so hopefully that can be something that we can set on the agenda in the future.

[1:19:13] Yeah, we would be very happy to do so.

[1:19:16] That's it? Thank you.

[1:19:18] You're welcome.

[1:19:19] All right.

[1:19:19] So that's moving on.

[1:19:20] We have a held legislation item number three.

[1:19:26] We are going to go to resolution R142-25 resolution.

[1:19:32] Urging the implementation of the urban forestry master plan strategies actions to ensure

[1:19:37] local Jefferson County Metro government tree canopy is resilient, protected, and sustainable.

[1:19:43] I'm sorry.

[1:19:45] Sorry.

[1:19:45] This is Sonio Harwood.

[1:19:46] The clerk.

[1:19:47] I'm sorry.

[1:19:47] I don't have my camera on.

[1:19:48] I'm getting ready to walk out.

[1:19:49] I thought that we were going to have P.

[1:19:52] Argentina was going to work on getting some amendments made for this.

[1:19:57] Yes.

[1:19:59] For some reason.

[1:20:00] We'll be waiting here in Thursday or do you want to go ahead and pass it out and make the amendments by Thursday?

[1:20:07] He has the amendments available at the moment.

[1:20:10] Okay, that's all. Thank you.

[1:20:13] Thank you.

[1:20:16] Do we need to...

[1:20:33] I need a motion to return to the table.

[1:20:38] And motion moves.

[1:20:40] We are available, of course, work, please, all of favor, and we are back on the table.

[1:20:49] So we have Anthony Piagitini and I thank you.

[1:20:55] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[1:20:57] Again, I think the conversation or the special discussion sort of highlighted this that

[1:21:02] there's, I think the vast, certainly vast majority, whether or not everybody agrees with

[1:21:07] even actually 1.3, but the rest of these actions, I heard zero people complain about or say

[1:21:12] that there's some problem here. And even action 1.3, I don't hear people saying they disagree

[1:21:18] with it. It's concerned about implementation. It's concerned about paying for it. So what we

[1:21:23] have here is a resolution that is saying we're going to adopt this and try to get this done. It

[1:21:33] does not say it will happen overnight. It does not say we are budgeting for this overnight. And

[1:21:37] So I think it's just fair that we amend it.

[1:21:39] I'm just going to amend section three after reviewing section two.

[1:21:42] I don't think there's a reason to amend it because section two really doesn't say anything

[1:21:48] that's, that I think gives that wrong impression.

[1:21:51] But section three, what I'd like to amend to, so I'm going to strike the existing section

[1:21:56] three and substitute with the following language.

[1:21:59] It will read section three, it will be quote section three, and just for the clerk in the

[1:22:04] attorney, I'll get you this language after the meeting, so you don't have to write it down.

[1:22:10] The Council requests the administration follow the level tree plan strategies in its planning

[1:22:15] comma with implementation contingent on future approval through a Metro Council budget

[1:22:21] or operating plan, period, and quote, keep the rest of the resolution as is.

[1:22:26] I think it's fair to that this then communicates to the public to the administration that

[1:22:32] certainly want to continue moving forward on all these strategies, but we also expect them

[1:22:38] to come to Council with budgeting, with implementation plan, with hopefully more creative

[1:22:43] ideas to get some of this done, and not just one idea, so I'd like to make that in

[1:22:49] the forum motion.

[1:22:50] Thank you.

[1:22:51] And we have Emotion and Second.

[1:22:54] All in favor say aye.

[1:22:59] Aye.

[1:23:00] Now do we need to,

[1:23:05] now we need to make a voice vote on the resolution, all in favor to say,

[1:23:10] aye.

[1:23:12] Anybody opposed?

[1:23:14] And the resolution moves.

[1:23:15] This will go to old business because we have an amendment on it.

[1:23:19] Thank you all.

[1:23:19] Have a great day for 20.

[1:23:22] We're done.

[1:23:31] Then invested in Parkland for more than 25 years in building housing for the

Parks and Sustainability Committee - THIS MEETING IS BEING HELD VIA VIDEO TELECONFERENCE

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