Item No.
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
BY: MATTHEW BAUMGARDNER, P.E., DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC
WORKS/CITY ENGINEER
DATE: MARCH 25, 2025
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON THE CITY’S URBAN FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City has taken a number of actions over the last five years to maintain and develop its Citywide tree canopy. These steps include securing grants to develop an Urban Forest Management Plan and Street Tree Master Plan, which have resulted in standards for the types of trees planted, maintenance protocols, and goals for adding 30,000 new public and private trees over the next 25 years (by 2050). The current inventory of street and park trees owned and maintained by City staff and contractors is approximately 20,000.
Staff has taken steps to reach this goal by planting street and park trees and distributing trees to Downey residents. Special projects in 2019 through 2021 have also been completed with TreePeople and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps that added over 3,300 street trees and 100 park trees. Staff is also evaluating tree wells that exist in major corridors and adding new trees where empty wells exist. This effort has focused on Firestone Boulevard, Lakewood Boulevard, Downey Avenue, and Florence Avenue in Fiscal Year 2024-2025. Approximately 60 new street trees will be added to empty tree wells during this fiscal year. Next fiscal year will focus on Imperial Highway and Paramount Boulevard. Finally, staff is working to update an existing GIS inventory to reflect all of the additions to the Citywide tree canopy and to allow staff to more accurately reflect the planting of new trees and maintenance of existing trees by both staff and contractors.
RECOMMENDATION
That the City Council
Receive and file an informational update on the City’s Urban Forest Management Plan.
BACKGROUND
The Public Works Department manages and maintains over 20,000 urban trees located within street parkways, parks, medians, and at various City-owned facilities. Each tree requires a different level of maintenance depending on size, maturity, and species.
Moreover, street parkway trees generally require replacement every 30 to 40 years. Trees
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2 may need to be replaced for a variety of reasons including exposure to disease or infestation; damage to infrastructure; creating safety concerns; or are located in restricted or confined growing spaces such as narrow parkways or small tree wells.
In July 2017, the City applied for and was subsequently awarded a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL-FIRE) grant in the amount of $379,750 for the development and preparation of an Urban Forest Management Plan (UFMP). During the process of developing the UFMP, the City received comments from CAL-FIRE to also develop a Street Tree Master Plan (STMP) as part of the UFMP document.
In March 2021, the City Council adopted the UFMP and STMP. These documents provide the vision, goals, and strategies for the City to effectively work towards managing, maintaining, and growing a sustainable urban forest over the next 25 years (2050). The UFMP is the guiding document used by staff to review and update the inventory of existing trees in the City; review and update the City’s tree maintenance policies and tree planting standards; identify tree care and maintenance best management practices; establish regular tree trimming cycles and pest control; and develop a list of recommended tree species for planting throughout the City.
The STMP provides guidelines for a more consistent and uniform tree canopy in the City, helping mitigate the spread of tree-related diseases or infestations; improving efficiencies for tree selection; and planting and establishing tree trimming cycles based on tree species rather than rotating grids. These guidelines help the City to reduce long-term maintenance costs; increase the urban forest canopy; improve the overall appearance and health of trees in the City; and provides a standard community tree palette in residential, commercial, industrial, and open space areas of the City.
Both Plans include the following guiding goals and strategies:
• Increase the City's tree canopy over the next 25 years (by 2050). • Plant 30,000 new public and private trees in the City over the next 25 years. • Continue celebrating Arbor Day and holding volunteer tree planting events. • Maintain recognition as Tree City USA on an annual basis. • Make trees a part of the initial project review process for all development and redevelopment projects.
• Develop a free residential yard tree program that distributes 500 trees a year to City residents.
• Prioritize tree planting efforts in neighborhoods that are most vulnerable to pollution hazards and other environmental impacts.
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3 • Annually fund the urban forest program at a level that grows and maintains a sustainable and resilient urban forest.
• Plant new trees in residential, commercial, industrial and open space areas as recommended in the STMP.
Further, one of the recommendations of the UFMP and STMP documents was for staff to review and update the existing street tree ordinance to align with the goals and strategies of the UFMP and STMP. In April 2022, the City Council adopted an ordinance repealing Chapter 6 of Article VII of the Downey Municipal Code and replaced it in its entirety with a new Chapter 6 titled “Street Tree Preservation and Protection” added to Article VII, “Streets and Public Works” of the Downey Municipal Code. During this effort, staff reviewed the existing City ordinance along with those of the cities of Carson, Pasadena, and San Marino and developed an updated ordinance that allowed the City to more effectively preserve and protect street and median trees that are of aesthetic, economic, and environmental importance to the City’s urban forest.
Notable updates to the Ordinance included:
• Criteria for allowable trees
• Tree planting/staking standards and specifications
• Maintenance/pruning guidelines and cycles – City-owned threes are trimmed every 24 to 30 months on a regular schedule
• Updated street, sidewalk and utility clearance guidelines • Tree removal guidelines that limit removal under the following circumstances:
o Tree is dead, seriously diseased, or dying
o Tree’s root system is compromising sewer or water system and root pruning is not possible
o Tree’s limbs are growing into power lines, cannot be safely trimmed, and are deemed to be causing immediate hazard condition
o Tree’s roots are causing major damage to sidewalks, curb and gutter, streets, parkways, and cannot be pruned without causing damage to tree or creating a falling hazard in heavy wind conditions
o Trees that are leaning in an unsafe condition
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4 o Trees that are blocking traffic control devices and that cannot be trimmed without causing damage to tree or creating a hazard
o Any trees that present a hazard to the general public or cause a liability to the City
• Protective measures for trees during development/construction
ANALYSIS
The City expands the urban forest by planting trees each year through service requests from the community; the annual Arbor Day celebration; as part of conditions of approval on development projects; and tree giveaways. It is estimated that approximately 600 trees are added to the urban forest each year through these efforts.
In the past, staff has also added trees through grants and collaboration with local organizations such as TreePeople and the California Conservation Corps. In 2019, as part of the Interstate 5 Consortium JPA project with TreePeople, approximately 2,800 street trees were planted throughout the City at an approximate cost of $800,000. An additional 100 trees were planted in City parks. In 2021, as part of the development grant the City secured for the UFMP, the City hired the Los Angeles Conservation Corps to plant 540 street trees throughout the City at an approximate cost of $193,000.
Considering the ability to add a significant number of trees through these efforts, staff will continue to pursue grants with agencies like CalFire and collaborate with agencies like TreePeople and the California Conservation Corps to work toward its goal of reaching 30,000 new trees in the City within the next 25 years.
Street Tree Wells
Over the past several months, City maintenance staff have worked on identifying empty tree well locations along major City roads. Once empty tree wells were identified, staff evaluated whether the empty wells needed to be permanently filled in with concrete or whether to plant a replacement tree. If an empty well presented a safety issue due to poor vehicle driver visibility, interference with in-ground utility boxes, fire hydrants or utility lines, it was permanently filled in. In cases where tree wells have been permanently filled in with concrete, staff is currently evaluating whether it is feasible to plant a replacement tree within close proximity in an alternate location.
The following major City corridors have been assessed in Fiscal Year 2024-2025:
• Firestone Boulevard (across the City Limit) - 6 empty tree wells were permanently filled in with concrete and 11 empty tree wells were filled with newly planted trees.
There is a total of 187 tree wells along Firestone Boulevard and no empty tree wells.
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5 • Lakewood Boulevard (across the City Limit) - 23 empty tree wells were all filled in with newly planted trees. There is a total of 143 tree wells along Lakewood Boulevard and no empty tree wells.
• Downey Avenue and Florence Avenue tree wells are currently being assessed and are expected to be completed by the end of the fiscal year. It is anticipated that an additional 25 trees will be added to these two streets.
The focus for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 will be Paramount Boulevard and Imperial Highway.
Tree Inventory
City staff have been working with its current tree contractor on updating its tree inventory of City-owned trees. This effort will allow the City to more accurately identify and maintain our tree inventory within the Public Works Geographic Information System (GIS) database to identify trees by geolocation, species type, maintenance history, and trimming cycle. City-owned street trees in medians and parkways are trimmed by a contractor every 24 to 30 months on a regular schedule. Over the next few months, staff will be working with the City arborist to develop an RFP for Citywide tree inventory services and hire a firm to complete a robust and comprehensive tree inventory to incorporate into the City GIS database that City staff can use to update with new tree locations as well as track all maintenance efforts on the Citywide tree canopy.
CITY COUNCIL PRIORITIES
Quality of Life, Infrastructure and Parks
FISCAL IMPACT:
None.
ATTACHMENTS :
None.