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Home My WebLink AboutREVISED RESIDENTIAL STREET TREE PETITION PROCESS - TRANSFER Council/Agency Meeting Held: 12S O Deferred/Continued to: XADnroved ❑ Conditionally Approved ❑ Denied 'C.4 City fts gnatur Council Meeting Date: 2/5/2007 Department ID Number: 07-001 CITY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION SUBMITTED TO: HONORABLE MAY—OR AND CI Y UNCIL MEMBERS SUBMITTED BY: PE LOPE U BRETH-GRAFT, P I ADMINIST TOR P PREPARED BY: ROBERT F. BEARDSLEY, PE, DIRECTOR O PUBLIC W RKS SUBJECT: Approve Revised Residential Street Tree Petition Process IEmeEssue,Funding Source,Recommended Action,Alternative Action(s),Analysis,Environmental Status,Attachment(s) Statement of Issue: At its meeting on August 7, 2006, the City Council directed Public Works staff to review the existing Tree Petition process with the Beautification, Landscape and Tree (BLT) Council Sub-committee, to develop a comprehensive, amended process. Funding Source: Approximately $35,000 from salaries for three vacant positions in the Maintenance Operations Division to Tree Maintenance, Other Professional Services, 10085621.69365, to hire a consultant for street evaluations. Recommended Action: Motion to: 1. Approve the revised Residential Street Tree Petition Process recommended by the BLT Council Sub-committee, the Public Works Commission and Public Works staff; and 2. Add $35,000 in Tree Maintenance to the list of Professional Services for Fiscal Year 2006-07. Alternative Action(s): 1. Direct staff to make specific changes to the Residential Street Tree Petition Process. 2. Deny the recommended action and retain the existing Residential Street Tree Petition Process. REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION MEETING DATE: 2/5/2007 DEPARTMENT ID NUMBER: 07-001 Analysis: Immediate funding is not available to repair all concrete damage caused by residential street trees throughout the City. The Residential Street Tree Petition process was developed to provide a means for residents to request the City remove and replace parkway trees and correct associated sidewalk, pavement, curb and gutter damage on its streets. Typically, the Public Works Department receives petition requests from residents whose streets have large trees with extensive root structures that are damaging the surrounding areas. Damage includes displaced sidewalks, broken street pavement and standing water. The current average repair cost for each lot on a street is approximately $8,500. Severe subgrade settlement and drainage issues that require engineering redesign will add to the cost. The current petition process is resident-initiated. The residents obtain signatures from at least 75% of the affected property owners on the street. Public Works staff confirms the owners using current property tax rolls and places confirmed streets on the petition list in the order received. Reconstruction is scheduled as funding is available. The current list contains 84 streets which, based on historical funding allocations, will take an estimated 10 to 15 years to complete. This backlog represents only those streets where the residents have requested work; a substantial amount of residential tree and concrete maintenance work is not on any inventory. On August 7, 2006, the City Council directed Public Works staff and the BLT to review the existing Residential Street Tree Petition process to ensure that the department's limited resources are distributed to the streets most in need of reconstruction, and to ensure that impacted residents are aware of the process and its effects. Council also imposed a moratorium on accepting new petitions for six months during the review process. Direction to the BLT and staff was to develop a comprehensive amended process that would meet three specific goals: 1. Equitably deal with those streets on the established petition list. 2. Ensure that new streets added to this, or a similar list, are ranked according to relative need. 3. Ensure that the rules of the revised process are clearly enumerated to minimize misunderstanding of the process or the city's responsibilities. The BLT enlisted the assistance of the Public Works Commission, and Commission Chairman Mason, Vice Chair Siersema and Commissioner Harlow participated with the BLT to accomplish the assigned task. After several meetings, field reviews, and comprehensive discussions, a revised Residential Street Tree Petition process, intended to meet the program goals, was approved by the BLT and the Public Works Commission as follows: -2- 1/22/2007 2:56 PM REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION MEETING DATE: 2/5/2007 DEPARTMENT ID NUMBER: 07-001 I. Beginning with City Council approval of the amended Residential Street Tree Petition process, two lists will be maintained. The first list (List #1) will consist of the existing list that will be frozen with the current 84 streets. Once all of the streets on List #1 have been addressed, List #1 will be discontinued. II. The second list (List #2) will include all of the streets from List #1, as well as any new street petitions that are confirmed and accepted after adoption of the amended procedure. List #2 will be ranked according to relative need using a new evaluation and scoring method (Attachment 1). Streets on List #1 will be scored using the new evaluation method and placed in their appropriate ranking order on List #2. New petition streets accepted after adoption of this revised process will be scored and placed in the appropriate ranking order among the streets on List #2. Every five years, each street on List #2 will be reevaluated and prioritized according to its revised condition ranking. III. The evaluation and scoring of streets is based on the cumulative average score after individually evaluating each lot on the street using five specified criteria: 1. Parkway tree specie 2. Condition of parkway tree 3. Condition of sidewalk 4. Condition of curb and gutter 5. Presence/severity of standing water A copy of the proposed evaluation form is provided as Attachment 1. The evaluation provides a numerical ranking of individual criterion, which allows staff to derive a total score for the lot and a cumulative average score for the street. The cumulative score determines the street's priority ranking order on List #2. IV. Residents may continue to petition for tree removal and street reconstruction. A copy of the proposed amended Residential Street Tree Petition process is provided as Attachment 2. As suggested by City Council at the January 16 Study Session, the BLT will review the updated petition forms prior to implementation to ensure that the form clearly enumerates the process to all signing participants. New petition streets will be scored and ranked on List #2. With the change to a numeric score based on the actual condition of the trees and infrastructure, the revised petition process is more equitable in assessing the degree of need for repair. The revised process clearly describes the procedure to minimize misunderstanding of the City's or the petitioner's responsibilities by establishing several guidelines, including: • Ensure valid participants are the property owners • Notify all owners that the petition has been accepted Advise the owners of proposed action well in advance of contract award • Establish guidelines for removal from list, and counter-petitions -3- 1/22/2007 2:56 PM REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION MEETING DATE: 2/5/2007 DEPARTMENT ID NUMBER: 07-001 The committee determined that the best means to ensure equity for the community would be to split future allocated funding evenly between the two lists. The new process would direct half of the annual funding to List #1 (until all streets are addressed), and half to List #2. Inspection and evaluation of the streets on List #1, and three pending petitions will require approximately four months. Public Works does not have resources available to complete this task in the necessary time frame. Salary savings from vacant positions in the Maintenance Division are available to retain a consultant to complete the evaluations and expedite the formation of List #2. Efforts will be made to inform the community of the street tree removal petition process through the City website and other public communications tools. The petition lists will be updated annually and posted on the website. Environmental Status: Not applicable. Public Works Commission Action: The Public Works Commission reviewed and approved this action on November 15, 2006 by a vote of 5-0-2 (Hart, Scheid absent). Attachment(s): NumberCity Clerk's Page . Description Evaluation Form 2 Residential Street Tree Petition Process 3 PowerPoint Presentation dated January 16, 2007 -4- 1/22/2007 2:56 PM ATTACHMENT # 1 TREE MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT PETITION RATING PROCESS—Individual Lot Evaluation Form Date: / / Address: RD: Petition Street: Proposed planting species: Legal room: YES_ NO_ #of Lots on block: ree Spec Check box of appropriate species(Large#is the point value,multiply point value by#of trees,for this lot,in its group. Add all points together for the sum) F-1❑ 0 No Tree F-1❑2 Palms F-I 114 Crape Myrtle Fire Wheel F-1❑6 Oak Tipu F-1 118 Pepper Magnolia F-1 1110 Ficus F-2❑ F-2❑ F-2❑ Purple Leaf Plum Chitalpa F-2❑ Bottlebrush Olive F-2❑ Liquid Amber F-2❑ Pines S-1❑ S-1❑ S-1❑ A.Willow Pink Trumpet S-1❑ Jacaranda Metro S-1❑ Carrotwood S-1❑ Eucalyptus S-2❑ S-2❑ S-2❑ Spafodia Raphiolepis S-2❑ Tristania Potocarpus S-2❑ Mellaluca S-2❑ Oleander Chinese Flame Chinese Elm Camphor Sycamore Chinese Fringe Tababua Peppermint Tree Malberry Sum: -2=TOTAL: Tree Conditio Check box for visual condition of tree(s)(Large#is the point value,multiply point value by#of trees,for this lot,in its group. Add all points together for the sum) F-1❑ 0 Producing New Growth F-1 111 1/8—1/4 in decline F-1 113 '/4-%2 in decline F-1❑ 5 %2-3/G in decline F-2❑ F-2❑ F-2❑ F-2❑ S-1❑ S-1❑ S-1❑ S-1❑ S-2❑ S-2❑ S-2❑ S-2❑ Sum: -2=TOTAL: Sidewalk Conditio Check boxes for visual inspection results and#of occurrences(Large#is the point value. Add all points together for the sum then divide sum by#of defects) 1111❑110 '/z"or less of Displacement ❑❑❑❑ 1 'h"-1"Disp.(1 POINT) ❑❑❑❑ 3 1"-2"Disp. 1111❑115 2"or greater Disp. Lift/Ramping/Faulting Gaps/Settlement/Lift/Ramping Gaps/Settlement/Lift/Ramping Sum: — =TOTAL: Curb/Gutter Evaluatio Check boxes for visual inspection results and#of occurrences(Large#is the point value.Add all points together for the sum then divide sum by#of defects) ❑1111110 'h"or less of Displacement ❑❑❑❑ 1 ''/z"-1"Disp. 110003 1"-2"Disp. 111111❑ 5 2"or greater Disp. Lift/Ramping/Faulting Lift/Ramping/Faulting Gaps/Settlement/Kickers/Ramping Sum: — =TOTAL: Standin Water Check boxes for visual inspection results and#of occurrences(Large#is the point value.Add all points together for the sum,the divide sum by#of areas of ponding) ❑❑11110 ''/2"or less,standing water ❑❑❑❑ 1 %"—1"standing water 111111113 1"—2"standing water 111111115 2"or greater standing water Sum: — TOTAL: NOTES: NOTES: Add total of each category to set Lot Score. When all lots on block have been evaluated,add all Lot Scores for Block Score total. Divide Block Score by number of lots on the street to get the Petition Rating Score. Rating Score is the Lot Average per block. A higher Block Score equates to a higher ranking of the street on the Petition List. Lot Score: (Total of categories) Revised 10/23/2006 ATTACHMENT #2 Residential Street Tree Petition Process PETITIONS The following steps describe the process by which City of Huntington Beach residential property owners on a street may petition the City for removal of parkway trees and repair of damaged infrastructure on their street. 1. Residential property owner (Petitioner) requests a tree petition from Public Works. 2. Public Works furnishes Petitioner with a Residential Street Tree Petition Packet that includes Petition Forms, maps with affected lots highlighted, and a copy of this process. 3. Petitioner collects signatures from affected property owners on the street. Only affected property owners' signatures obtained on the City's Petition Form will be accepted. a. A minimum of 75% of all affected property owners must sign for a petition to be accepted by the City. b. Valid signatures are of owners per current property tax rolls. Only property owners may participate. 4. Petitioner submits petition form(s) to Public Works, and staff verifies owners using current property tax roll ownership data. 5. Once owners are verified and a minimum 75% consensus is established, Public Works sends a letter of acceptance to all property owners on the street, whether or not the property owner signed the petition. The acceptance letter includes an explanation of the scoring and prioritization process, and an explanation of counter-petition process. 6. Staff will evaluate and score each affected lot on the petition street to obtain the evaluation score, which determines the priority rank on the Residential Street Tree Petition List (List). All petitions include a date of acceptance, to be used in event of a tie in the numeric evaluation. Priority rank of petition streets having both the same numeric score and same date of acceptance will be ranked alphabetically. 7. Staff will reevaluate and score listed streets once every five years to ensure that the condition of all listed streets is reassessed regularly. 8. Listed streets will be scheduled for repair as funding becomes available. - 1 - 9. Approximately one to three years prior to anticipated funding for listed streets, Public Works will provide advance notice to property owners by mail of their pending status. Advance notification will include a return-mail response form requesting confirmation that the project is still desired. a. If polling results in a 75% or greater negative response from all affected property owners, the street will be removed from the List. b. Streets removed from List via polling will be allowed to re-petition in the future. 10. Once funding is appropriated for listed street(s), no counter-petitions will be accepted and there will be no further options for removal from List. COUNTER-PETITIONS The following steps describe the process by which City of Huntington Beach residential property owners whose street is included on the Residential Street Tree Petition List (List) can remove their street from the List. The City reserves the right to proceed with repairs to any street, alley, or public right-of-way and with removal of any city-owned tree(s) in the interest of public health, safety, and welfare, regardless of Counter-petition status. 1. Property owner (Counter-petitioner) requests Counter-petition packet from Public Works. No counter-petitions will be allowed for streets for which funding is currently appropriated. 2. If eligible for Counter-petition, Public Works furnishes Counter-petitioner with Counter-petition forms, maps with affected lots highlighted, and a copy of this process. Only affected property owners' signatures obtained on the City's Counter-petition Form will be accepted. 3. Counter-petitioner collects signatures from affected property owners on his/her street. a. A minimum of 75% of all affected property owners must sign for counter-petition to be accepted by the City. b. Valid signatures are property owners per current property tax rolls. Only property owners may participate. 4. Counter-petitioner submits counter-petition form(s) to Public Works, and staff verifies owners through current property tax roll ownership data. 5. Once owners are verified and a minimum 75% consensus is established, Public Works sends a letter notifying all affected property owners on the street of the street's removal from List. The letter includes an explanation of the counter-petition process. - 2 - Residential Street Tree Petition Process Residential property owner(Petitioner) requests a tree petition from Public Works. Packet includes Public Works furnishes Petitioner with a Residential Petition Forms, maps Street Tree Petition Packet. with affected lots highlighted, and a copy of this process. Petitioner collects signatures from affected property owners on the street on the City's Petition Form. A minimum of 75% of all affected property owners must sign for petition to be accepted by the City. Petitioner submits forms to Public Works and staff verifies owners using current property tax roll data. Once owners are verified and a minimum 75% Acceptance letter consensus established, Public Works sends a letter includes an explanation of acceptance to all affected property owners on of the scoring and street. prioritization process, and an explanation of counter-petition process. Staff evaluates and scores each affected lot on the petition street to obtain the evaluation score, which Public Works reevaluates listed determines the priority rank on the Residential Street streets once every five years to Tree Petition List. ensure that the condition is assessed regularly. Public Works provides notice by mail to property Mailing includes response formfor property owner to return to owners of their pending reconstruction status approx. Public Works, confirming that one to three years prior to anticipated funding. the project is still desired. If a 75% or greater negative response is received from all affected property owners, the street is removed from the List. Once funding is appropriated, listed streets are Counter-petitions will not be scheduled for repair. accepted for streets for which funding is appropriated. ATTACHMENT #3 City of Huntington Beach Public Works Department Residential Street Tree Petition Process Proposed Revisions January 16, 2007 1 Why Revise the Process? Requested by City Council in August 2006 to: • Equitably deal with streets on the established petition list • Ensure streets added to the petition list are ranked according to relative need • Ensure the revised process and the city's responsibilities are clearly stated 2 Existing Tree Petition Process • Allows property owners to request parkway tree removal & repairs to damaged infrastructure • Streets ranked in order received • Reconstruction scheduled as funding becomes available • Current list contains 84 streets 3 Revised Tree Petition Process • List #1 • Retains the existing ranking by date received • Limited to the current 84 streets • List #2 • Streets will be scored and ranked by degree of need • Existing 84 streets will be incorporated • Numerical scores based on: 1. Tree specie 2. Tree condition 3. Sidewalk damage 4. Curb and gutter damage 5. Presence/severity of standing water 4 2 Proposed Funding Process • Available budget will be split evenly between the two lists • Funding split balances the date received list and newly listed streets with the greatest need • Establishes process to notify owners in advance of funding, to confirm the project is still wanted 5 Proposed Tree Petition Process • Residents may continue to petition for tree removal and street reconstruction. • The proposed changes include: ■ Only property owners may sign petition ■ Each affected property owner will be notified of petition acceptance ■ Advance notification and confirmation prior to commencement of work ■ A counter-petition process to remove street from list 6 3 RCA ROUTING SHEET INITIATING DEPARTMENT: Public Works SUBJECT: Approve Revised Residential Street Tree Petition Process COUNCIL MEETING DATE: February 5, 2007 RCA ATTACHMENTS STATUS Ordinance (w/exhibits & legislative draft if applicable) Attached ❑ Not Applicable Resolution (w/exhibits & legislative draft if applicable) Attached ❑ Not Applicable Tract Map, Location Map and/or other Exhibits Attached Not Applicable ❑ Contract/Agreement (w/exhibits if applicable) Attached ❑ (Signed in full by the City Attorney) Not Applicable Subleases, Third Party Agreements, etc. Attached ❑ (Approved as to form by City Attorney) Not Applicable Certificates of Insurance (Approved by the City Attorney) Attached ❑ Not Applicable Fiscal Impact Statement (Unbudgeted, over $5,000) Attached ❑ Not Applicable Bonds (If applicable) Attached ❑ Not Applicable Staff Report (If applicable) Attached Not Applicable Commission, Board or Committee Report (If applicable) Attached ❑ Not Applicable Findings/Conditions for Approval and/or Denial Attached ❑ Not Applicable EXPLANATION FOR MISSING ATTACHMENTS REVIEWED RETURNED FORWARDED Administrative Staff ( ) ( Assistant City Administrator Initial ) ( Qs City Administrator (Initial) ) City Clerk ( ) EXPLANATION FOR RETURN zOF ITEM: (Below - • RCA Author: Jones/Jubinsky:jg