Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: CONSENT CALENDAR (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: APPROVAL OF AGREEMENT FOR REMOVAL OF
EUCALYPTUS TREES ON W SIERRA AVENUE
Date: January 14, 2025
Written by: Henry Babits, Engineering Technician
Recommendation
It is recommended the City of Cotati City Council by motion approve a Standard Service Agreement with PJM Landscape to remove the Eucalyptus Trees on West Sierra Avenue between Hillview Drive and Cypress Avenue.
Background
Along the southern shoulder of W Sierra Avenue, between Cypress Avenue and Hillview Drive, there are eleven eucalyptus trees that drop leaves, acorns, bark and other small debris into the roadway and adjacent Cotati Creek.
The trees have been reported by residents who are concerned with the potential for property damage due to falling branches or treefall, increased fire hazard, increased flood risk, and the presence of non-native trees.
In response to these concerns, the City scheduled an arborist to assess the eucalyptus trees.
Given the nature of eucalyptus trees, the arborist recommended removal of the trees. If the trees had to be kept, the arborist recommended removing dead limbs, reducing the weight of the elongated limbs, reducing the heights of the trees and installation of cables to reduce loading at key locations.
Eucalyptus trees are an introduced species that have been found to be moderately invasive with groves studied by the Ecological Society of America doubling or tripling their spread in a period of six decades and supporting fewer native understory plants than oak groves.
Analysis/Discussion
All eucalyptus species are fire-prone due to their abundance of oils and propensity to build up debris. Fire Safe Marin recommends removing dead wood, any limbs within 10 feet of the ground, peeling bark, any other ladder fuel, and all vegetation around the base and canopy of the trees. These recommendations create, along with maintaining a roadway without debris and enough vertical clearance, time-intensive maintenance for our public works crew that complete removal of the trees would eliminate. (https://firesafemarin.org/articles/everything-you-need-toknow-about-eucalyptus-trees/) In addition to removing the fire risk, complete removal of the eucalyptus trees and stumps will allow much of the necessary room for a new sidewalk in accordance with Cotati’s Active Transportation Plan which calls for a sidewalk gap closure on W Sierra Avenue from Hillview Drive to Cypress Avenue in Planned Project #55. Planned Project #54, sidewalk gap closure on W Sierra Avenue from Hillview Drive towards Water Road, was initially included in the City’s Sidewalk Gap Closure Project in 2024 until it was removed from the project due to budget limitations. Currently, the pathway construction is outside the five-year time period of the City’s Capital Improvement Program.
If approved by the City Council, the City will apply for a tree removal permit, which includes public posting and noticing neighbors prior to issuance of the permits.
Regarding maintaining vegetative screening along Cotati Creek, there is vegetation on the far side of the creek, on private property, which would maintain vegetative screening for those properties and provide a natural creek side landscape appearance. Staff considered a planting plan for the City’s right of way side of the creek, however, there is not sufficient room for a future sidewalk and landscaping. A pathway boundary treatment may be considered during pathway design to provide stormwater runoff protection for the creek.
Financial Considerations
No budget amendment is being requested currently as there are identified funding available within the adopted budget for fiscal year 2024/25.
Following receipt of the arborist report, the City reached out to three contractors and received a quote from one contractor for $55,000, which was reviewed and deemed too high. Therefore, the City again requested quotes from three contractors, and received a quote from PJM Landscape.
The quote provides to remove the trees for $2,000 per tree and grind the stumps to surface for $350 per stump, for a total of $25,850 to safely remove the eleven trees while not impacting the creek. City staff reviewed this quote and found it to be reasonable for the requested work.
Other City costs for this project include the tree permit removal mitigation fees and public works staff time for traffic control. Engineering is referring the project to the planning department for tree removal permits. These mitigation fees would be placed in the tree removal fund use in proper tree replacements in the future or other tree programs.
The cost for the replacement fees is expected to be $8,448 estimated as follows:
Each of the 11 trees are over 25 feet tall and would be calculated as needing to be replaced by 6 trees – 11 actual trees *6 replacement trees each = 66 trees) Each tree has a replacement cost of $128.
For a total of $128 * 66 replacement trees = $8,448 mitigation fee For public works staffing of traffic control, the project is expected to require 2 public works staff for three days, totaling 48 hours. Using the Cities current hourly fee, the approximate cost for self-staffing the traffic control is $9,000. Staffing costs do not require any budget adjustment as these staff would just be pulled from other regular operational duties.
City Staff proposes the contract and mitigation fees of $34,298, including a small $152 contingency, to be funded as follows:
Fund GL Account Amount Available
Streets Contract Services 101-19-80188-000000 $4,950 $4,950 CIP: Annual Streetscape Refresh 101-19-80188-000000 $29,500 $30,000 Total $34,450
Environmental Issues
The following emergency projects are exempt from the requirements of CEQA. (b) Emergency repairs to publicly or privately owned service facilities necessary to maintain service essential to the public health, safety or welfare. Emergency repairs include those that require a reasonable amount of planning to address an anticipated emergency. (e) Seismic work on highways and bridges pursuant to Section 180.2 of the Streets and Highways Code, Section 180 et seq.