The Common Council met 10/16/2024. One of the items separated out for an individual vote was the asphalt reconstruction design for Bellaire Court. The proposed design of the reconstruction which is scheduled to take place in 2026, would result in the loss of 18 trees that were either ash trees or in poor condition. 6 trees would however be able to be saved by the narrowing of the street.
The Council voted 12-0 to approve the item.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
The asphalt reconstruction of Bellaire Court resulted in a lot of feedback during the public hearing that was held 09/23/2024. It was also the subject of some discussion during the 10/07/2024 Municipal Services Committee meeting, and it prompted several emails to Alderperson Vered Meltzer, the alderperson for District 2 where the neighborhood is located, as well as the creation of a Change.org petition focused on saving the trees. [The petition is a little confusing because it seems to be focused on saving the 6 trees that staff had already indicated back in September they were going to try to save.]
Residents were concerned about the loss of trees and were interested in possibly turning the street into a one-way street in the hopes that that would allow the street to be narrower than normal, thus facilitating the saving of more trees. Unfortunately for the residents, changing the street to one-way traffic would result in the street being able to be any narrower than proposed because the Appleton Fire Code requires streets to be a minimum of 26’ in width to allow appropriate access for emergency vehicles even on streets with one-way traffic.
City staff talked with residents and prepared a memo answering their questions about the reconstruction design and explaining the various considerations that were factored into the design of the street and the decision to remove trees.
Alderperson Meltzer had voted against approval of the item during the 10/07/2024 Municipal Services Committee meeting but voted in favor of it during the Council meeting, saying, “I just want to express my gratitude and the neighbors’ gratitude for being heard and for finding a solution to the problem. Certainly, you know, a lot of trees can’t be saved due to this project, and due to the condition that the trees are in—ash trees—and that’s going to be a devastating loss to the neighborhood. So being able to save the trees that are able to be saved and really making sure to save every last one that possibly can be saved has been very, very important. And just again, so much gratitude to city staff for helping to work that out.”
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) commented, “I just want to make sure everyone understands that this city has a vested interest in saving trees in these in these designs and in these reconstructions, and it’s baked into the process. So, I just felt like with the petition we received from the neighborhood and everything, that wasn’t quite clear, and I want to make sure that they understand that this is not, you know, having to push staff to save the trees. We want to save as many trees as possible for our own sake, our budget’s sake, and storm water mitigation.”
Alderperson Meltzer thought the history of some of the older districts in the city might play into their feelings about how the city handles reconstruction projects, but hoped this recent experience would help change some of those feelings. “[T]here have been very traumatic incidents where very old parts of the city had significant tree loss in a way that, especially for a lot of older homeowners in that area, that trauma is still carried with them. So, to have an experience like they did with this sort of a generational revolving of when streets come up to be addressed, to have an experience like they did this time around, I think, goes a long way to healing that trauma so that the next time this comes up, residents will be able to look back to more recent memory and experience to say ‘Ah, city staff is who can help us solve this problem.’”
The Council voted 12-0 to approve the asphalt reconstruction design for Bellaire Court.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1213521&GUID=A5313A45-DFAA-48DE-B2CC-FE146922F184
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