Improving the City's Infrastructure

By Rudy Fischer

Providing people with the services they pay for.

We have also done some work in the downtown area - and have even more things planned out - but we also need to do more for our neighborhoods; like even more road work, better crosswalks, undergrounding of utility lines, and making sure that the city's trees and landscaping look nice. This council has already loosened regulations on making improvements to homes, but there is still more we can do to make our policies for both homeowners and businesses "user friendly" while still protecting our historic heritage and look. While we have been moving in the right direction, I feel that we need to keep our forward progress going and want to be a part of that effort.

We also need to look after our natural environment. We live in a beautiful environment which we sometimes take for granted, and because of this we sometimes let things go for too long. I would like to see the City prepare a short term and long term tree planting plan.

Within the City of Pacific Grove we have seen many mature trees taken down, with very few planted to replace them. As a matter of fact, the City should be planting trees in certain location now to provide for a continuation of a tree canopy within parts of the city where we will eventually have to take out mature trees. It is a truism that the best time to plant a mature tree is 20 years ago. We sometimes seem to have a fixation on keeping trees that have been around for a long time, forgetting that trees eventually get old and die or become hazards. Let's use some long-term thinking and identify those trees now so we can plant new ones nearby so that the new trees can grow and replace older trees that must eventually be removed.

In the case of the Monarch Sanctuary, trees are also needed to provide a wind barrier to protect the sanctuary and the Monarch butterflies that use it + but many trees in that area have been taken down with no thought of replacing them. While it takes only a few hours to take down even the largest tree within the city, it takes many years - and sometimes decades - for a tree to grow and provide meaningful benefits.

The City needs to also work on formalizing the actual property lines by the Monarch Sanctuary. As it is the Sanctuary belongs to the city and, though the adjoining property is in private hands, it may not be used for commercial purposes per the easement agreement. The property line as it is now is 12 feet behind the picket fence. As it goes north it expands to between 18 and 20 feet. Since this is a sanctuary with an easement whereby the next door property owner cannot use the land, we should work with the property owners to either purchase it or acquire it via eminent domain.

Then we can work on a tree planting plan for the sanctuary and the surrounding area. The surrounding area includes the Adult School site, and it may be worth trying to get title to at least some of this land and planting tree for the Monarch's of future years. This could also be a good area to plant Euryops, Echium, Buddleia, Bottle Brush, English Ivey and other plants which provide food sources for the Monarchs.

For the sake of safety the City needs to look at cleaning up George Washington Park. Although a certain amount of dead tree material is desirable; too much just serves as fuel in the case of fire. When doing this though, let's make sure we do NOT disturb deer birthing and protection areas.

The time for this planning is now, not some time in the future. That future plan would come much too late. Homeowners in Pacific Grove who wish to remove trees have paid "in lieu fees" for this purpose, and we should account to them how much has been gained in this fashion - as well as through donations to the tree fund. This money needs to be accounted for and used for the planting of trees that will grow and provide a tree canopy and wind barrier within the City.

This extends to the rest of the city also. We have several large city managed parking lots and, in order to improve the aesthetics of those parking lots, I believe we need to provide better tree wells in all of them. There are many opportunities for the planting of trees in the Fountain Avenue parking lot behind the movie theater and the one by Fandango's. These areas have lots of spaces for cars and could surely accommodate more trees. This also has the benefit of "softening" the look of the lots for the neighbors and businesses nearby.

At the same time we need to work on our trees along city streets. In some places we have huge trees which are hazardous, while in others we have 20 year old trees that have been choked of nutrients and room to grow such that they look like 20 year old lollypops. Let's fix up our city!