Memorandum 16-164 Vegetation in Road Right-of-Ways

Memorandum 16-164

To:                       Katie Koester, City Manager

From:                  Dan Gardner, PW Superintendent

Date:                   September 23, 2016

Subject:             Vegetation in Road Right-of-Ways

The city is charged with clearing vegetation within the right-of-way (ROW) in order to deal with sight distance issues, maintain drainages, and to prevent damage to equipment.  Over the years, ROW creep has occurred where branches from large spruce and alders have reached into the ROW.  This can create problems where snow laden branches fall to a point where snow removal equipment cannot operate without the cab being slapped by the branches.  This is a safety matter and also a matter of protecting equipment.  Some of the ROW creep prevents periodic ditching efforts to maintain drainages due to alders growing into the drainage ditch and backslope areas. 

As many of the alders have grown over the years to significant heights, it is becoming increasingly more hazardous to attempt to “trim” the sides of the alders vertically as the heights often reach higher than our equipment can reach.  And, it’s not the safest operation to be trimming vertically at those heights with the brush cutter.

It is our intention to begin the task of manually cutting vegetation to the limits of the ROW to reclaim the ROW and then attempt to keep the vegetation mowed to ground elevation with the brush cutter.  This will take years to accomplish as time permits.  The proposed vegetation ordinance is intended to put existing standards and law into a city ordinance.  As we work through areas where clearing will take place, reasonable efforts will be made to notify property owners of any trimming that will take place of branches on trees that are located on private property where branches are encroaching into the ROW.  No work will take place on private property unless approval is obtained from the property owner.