April 18, 2022
Una Glass
City of Sebastopol
I'm writing in advance of the City Council's possible discussion of the Woodmark Development Tuesday night.
We have notified the Sebastopol Planning Department in conversation with their contract planner that The Pacific Companies, Eagle, ID, attempting to develop the 84 unit Woodmark Apartment complex on Bodega Avenue under SB - 35 has:
1. Not marked correctly or identified all of the trees on neighboring properties.
2. Borderline neighboring property trees are not in many cases correctly measured.
3. Drawings of tree canopies from developer are incorrect & often deceptively small.
Their last arborist report from the developer was written 23 months ago, June 4, 2020. It was inaccurate then (their contract arborist improved the condition of some trees from his prior report in 2019). With changing tree health it is even more incorrect now.
Protecting trees of particular sizes and varieties is an objective standard for the city of Sebastopol. The proposed plan from The Pacific Companies regarding trees has to be verified by an arborist hired by the city and not hired by the developer. The Planning Department needs to verify the tree distances to retaining walls & identify missing and property line trees before acceptance.
Sincerely,
Marcia Lavine