Twelfth Street E. will be widened and the sidewalk will be placed directly beside the street. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Neighbourhood backlash

Council hears from upset residents following tree felling

Sep 11, 2020 | 4:44 PM

Residents upset with the removal of over 100 trees from their street as part of a major infrastructure project have taken their concerns to city council.

A delegation of three Midtown residents presented to the city’s politicians at Tuesday night’s executive meeting. Aside from anger over the clear cutting of 12^th St. E., they criticized the lack of consultation from the City during the process, and voiced concerns other parts of the project would take away from the character of the historic neighbourhood.

“When I tell out of town friends that over 100 trees were cut down on my street with virtually no notice… they react in disbelief,” Allison Attree told councillors.

She explained she found out the trees would be removed on a Tuesday morning in an email from a neighbour. That afternoon the City stuck a notice with information on the project in her door. Work began the following Monday morning.

“The 12^th Street residents received three working days notice about the massive tree cutting,” Jean Maksymiuk told council. “That was effective to prevent us from having any input or from organizing any kind of a challenge.”

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A third resident, Guy Lavigne, explained while residents appreciated the replacement of the water main and numerous lead service connections, they had concerns about above-ground changes.

Widening the road would lead to more traffic, said Lavigne. Removing the boulevard and placing a rolled curb and sidewalk directly beside the street would change the look of their historic street.

“We believe that we can still make changes to the existing plan for 12^th Street to maintain some of what we’re losing,” he said.

“We don’t want our old neighbourhood to look like a new subdivision.”

Councillors largely empathized with the residents concerns. In particular, several noted a need for improved communication.

Mayor Greg Dionne suggested perhaps changing the policy to require a minimum of 30 days notice for such projects.

“It sounds like we went in there with a SWAT team and hacked all the trees down and ‘too late to complain.’ Well I don’t like that,” Dionne said.

Administration explains

Meanwhile Director of Public Works Wes Hicks said the felling of the trees was necessary due to the complexity of the project.

“We never cut down trees just helter skelter, we always look at alternatives to save trees. That’s always been our mandate,” Hicks said, adding during the replacement of 53 blocks of watermain in eight years he could only think of one other time they had had to cut down all the trees on a street.

Hicks said there are several utility trunk mains running below 12^th Street E. Finding space for the new watermain means placing it under where the curb presently sits.

“If we don’t widen the roadway, you’ll end up putting the curb back over the water main and then the trees right beside over top of the water main,” Hicks continued. “Which would make it guaranteed that the first water main break we have in the future, we’ll be digging up the curb, the gutter and possibly some trees.”

The fact nearly every second house on street has a lead service connection to be replaced was further reason the trees needed to be removed, he said

Curb concession

After an hour and a half of discussion at the council meeting, councillors agreed to a small concession on the plan for 12^th Street E., mandating vertical, as opposed to rolled curbs.

The change had no financial impact on the project. Council stopped short of recreating a boulevard which would have cost around $40,000 per block.

Further discussion on future tree removals as part of infrastructure projects is expected at the next council meeting.

Speaking to paNOW after the meeting Attree said she appreciated hearing a more fulsome explanation of the City’s reasoning for the felling, although she still had some lingering questions. Ultimately, she said she feels like she’d done all she can do.

“On a scale of one to 10, ten being very annoyed, I was a 10 before,” she said. “I guess I’m like an 8 now.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom