More on the changes to the street scape

So, as I was saying, a nice crowd showed up at City Hall last night to hear about the street scape changes. It was stressed more than once that it is a work in progress and changes can be made at this point. The project will consist of two phases. Phase one will be the City/Grove owned streets, which is basically everything in the Center Grove except for the County owned streets which are Grand Avenue, Main Highway and McFarlane Road, those will be Phase Two of the project. Lighting is part of the projects, as well, so it's hardscape and landscape improvements.

Florida Avenue, shown above (click on it for larger view), will be one of the first streets worked on. Lighting will be the first project. The first phase will start in late summer, this year.

Fuller Street, shown above (please click for larger view) is one of the problematic streets. The small sidewalks are not ADA compliant (American Disabilities Act compliant) and they need to be made wider to allow better access. Plus all the trees on Fuller seem to be diseased or have root problems and all will be replaced.

Half of this project will be underground, dealing with the planting and root systems of the trees. The health of all trees in the Center Grove, 109 in all, will be determined and those that are not in very good shape will be replaced. If the tree is deemed as being unsafe or in decline or the root or trunk is rotten, they will be replaced. In some cases, it is a technical issue that will have the trees removed or replaced such as making the sidewalk ADA compliant or moving them to allow better access.

The tree canopy will be renewed but it may take a few years after the new plantings. The best and largest trees at the time of planting will be used in each case. But of course, the trees will not provide the same shady canopy for years to come. But after Hurricane Andrew everyone felt that the canopies would never be the same and now it is as if nothing ever happened. So it's just a matter of time before the canopies will be back.

The current pavers/bricks, which are a major problem now, are too thin, and there is a lot of sand under them, causing problems. The bricks are about half an inch in depth and the sand is about three to four inches in depth, this makes it unsafe and unlevel at times. The new pavers will be much thicker and heavier (more than double the size in depth) and they will interlock with notches, also the have beveled edges. There are many colors to choose from and that is still to be determined.

Some people have suggested putting regular cement sidewalks in, but other than the pretty aesthetics the brick pavers provide, brick pavers are better because they allow air and water to get down into the tree's roots, making them more environmentally sound.

There is no irrigation system in place, so the plan is to get the heartiest trees with the lowest maintenance, trees that will last and not require much water. Ida Curtis from Curtis + Rogers, a Grove architectural landscape company, who was one of the planners and presenters last night, said that the root ball is more important than the size of the tree itself. The larger and healthier the root ball, the faster the tree will grow and the healthier it will be in the long run.

What is the timeline, cost and how many trees will be replaced? More on all that here.