Comments - City Council Mtg 9/17/24
Item #12a
Honorable Mayor and Members of the Council;
I had planned on expressing the following comments at Tuesday’s meeting but unfortunately I was unable to join via Zoom as I had intended, (technical di fficulty?). I hope you will have the
time to read through them after-the-fact and consider my request(s). Thank you all.
My name is Kathy Sharum and I live at St in Santa Maria.
I thank you for this opportunity to speak.
I’d like to comment on the approval of the sale of surplus land downtown.
I applaud that vacant spaces within the city have the potential to become much needed a
ffordable housing and I fully support that endeavor, but I am hoping that you and the developers seriously consider the importance of green, open spaces and all of the trees that currently occupy some of these spaces.
Last year it was my honor to be part of the Urban Forest Management Plan Advisory Committee as I have always been a huge advocate for trees and native plants. In my former career as a wildlife biologist the benefits of trees and plants to wildlife were indisputable but as a city dweller, I see how those benefits aren’t always clear to residents. Many residents may see trees as being messy, we see maintenance as a chore or an expense, and for a developer I think maybe they’re just in the way.
But-we forget that there are huge benefits that we as humans get from trees:
- they absorb and filter pollutants that are in our air
- they capture rainwater and help to recharge our water basin - they help clean the storm water before it reaches the ocean - they provide cooling for the city - meaning there is less of a need for air-conditioning - they are beautiful and we like to be around them-studies show they improve mental health and encourage us to be outdoors
- street trees help to slow traffic and make our neighborhoods safer and more enjoyable - they provide habitat for birds and other animals
- some of them like citrus and avocado provide food
All too many times in our city I’ve seen mature trees removed to make way for some development only to see young, and often trees that are inappropriate for the space, put in to replace them. Why? I know that it’s possible to build around existing trees but they are often bulldozed with little to no thought at how long the trees have been there and what bene fits
they’ve provided over the years, many years in some cases.
The Urban Forest Management Plan provided the data to show that our city has a huge deficit of trees. It also provided data to show that many of our trees are very young and still have a number of years ahead of them before they can provide the maximum amount of benefit to the city and its residents. As more development and growth occurs, it’s important to plant new trees to accompany those developments but it’s just as important to save, not remove, the older existing trees, (such as those beautiful sycamore trees at Perlman Park). I am asking that these existing trees be saved. We can improve the downtown while also holding on to the beauty and history that these trees represent. In addition I also ask that you as well as the city sta
ff, use the Urban Forest Management Plan as guidance for future developments so our urban forest can grow and thrive.
Thank you for your time and consideration.