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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRevised Scope of Work_Email CorrespondenceFrom: Angelea Weihs Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2020 1:15 PM To: 'Rich & Susan Hopkins'; 'Marcie Palmer'; Vanessa Dolbee; Randy Corman Cc: 'Gary Palmer'; 'Lin' Subject: RE: Revised Arborist report Hello Rich Hopkins, Vanessa is currently out of the office and will be returning mid next week. I will work to provide a decision based on the revised scope of work as noted below. Once Vanessa returns, she will be able to review the decision and it can be issued. Thank you, Angelea Weihs Associate Planner, City of Renton 1055 S. Grady Way Renton, WA 98057 (425) 430-7312 From: Rich & Susan Hopkins <h4hopkins@comcast.net> Sent: Wednesday, September 2, 2020 10:28 PM To: 'Marcie Palmer' <pkplmarcie@gmail.com>; Vanessa Dolbee <VDolbee@Rentonwa.gov>; Randy Corman <Rcorman@Rentonwa.gov> Cc: Angelea Weihs <AWeihs@Rentonwa.gov>; 'Gary Palmer' <gary.palmer07@gmail.com>; 'Lin' <linxinus@yahoo.com> Subject: RE: Revised Arborist report Vanessa, I met with the contractor doing the tree work for our group, reviewed your recommendations below with them, and obtained a revised contract based on these recommendations. Please proceed with issuing the permit that includes your recommendations below. Having not been through any permitting processes before, please advise me as to what happens next, and a typical schedule. Will you email me a permit document? Is any additional action required on my part? This information will help me reserve a time window for the actual work to be completed. …Rich Hopkins From: Marcie Palmer [mailto:pkplmarcie@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2020 12:02 AM To: Vanessa Dolbee; Randy Corman Cc: h4hopkins@comcast.net; Angelea Weihs; Gary Palmer; Lin Subject: Re: Revised Arborist report Hi Vanessa, Thank you for the update & all your hard work & time put into our permit request. We Park Place neighbors are encouraged to read your email. I will leave it to our Lead Rich Hopkins, with our approval, to move forward as you suggested. Best regards, Marcie P 425-306-0918 On Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 11:58 AM Vanessa Dolbee <VDolbee@rentonwa.gov> wrote: Rich and Marcie, I have reached out to Ian Gray the City’s Urban Forester, he has been out to the site and looked at all the trees and has reviewed the Arborist report provided to the City. Based on his review of the report and a subsequent site visit the City is recommending the following: 1. The trees in location ‘C’ are in an undeveloped right-of-way owned by the city and the risk there does not rise to a level where urgent action is needed. These will be monitored and dealt with at a later date. Please note, these are City trees therefore they would not be your responsibility to maintain. 2. The trees located on your property (not in the City ROW) Ian has provided the following recommendations: a. B3 & B6 should be reduced to 20’ft wildlife snags b. A4 reduce branch bending out back to trunk c. A1 & A3 reduce crown and/or thin d. B1-2 & B4-5 reduce crown and/or thin These actions would allow for a balance the risks associated with trees and ensure the tree roots systems are retained in place to ensure slope stability along the protected slope. As we discussed, one of the challenges with this site is balancing the needs of slope stability (which trees provide) with the risk of tree fall and tree removal. If the above actions are acceptable to you, we would be happy to issue you a permit to complete these action in short order. Thank you for letting us know. Take care, Vanessa Dolbee Current Planning Manager City of Renton | 425-430-7314 1055 South Grady Way Renton WA, 98057 COVID-19 UPDATE City Hall is currently closed to the public but we are still available to assist you. · Pay Invoice and Apply for Over-the-Counter Permit: Permitting Portal · Schedule an Inspection: Permitting Portal -OR- Building: 425-430-7202; Civil/Site: 425-430-7203 · Contact Staff: o Building or General Permitting: permittech@rentonwa.gov or 425-430-7200 o Planning: planningcustomerservice@rentonwa.gov or 425-430-7294 o Public Works Permitting: pwpermitting@rentonwa.gov or 206-402-8626 o Code Compliance: Renton Responds or 425-430-7373. From: Vanessa Dolbee <VDolbee@Rentonwa.gov> Sent: Monday, August 17, 2020 3:12 PM To: Ian Gray <IGray@Rentonwa.gov> Subject: FW: FW: Revised Arborist report Ian, Please see the e-mail chain below. I left you a voice mail regarding this. I have talked with Marcie and would like to bounce a few solutions past you. Thank you, Vanessa Dolbee Cell: 425-282-9380 From: Judith Subia <JSubia@Rentonwa.gov> Sent: Monday, August 10, 2020 10:40 AM To: Jennifer T. Henning <Jhenning@Rentonwa.gov>; Vanessa Dolbee <VDolbee@Rentonwa.gov> Subject: FW: FW: Revised Arborist report FYI … From: Marcie Palmer <pkplmarcie@gmail.com> Sent: Sunday, August 9, 2020 8:02 PM To: Randy Corman <Rcorman@Rentonwa.gov>; Susan & Rich Hopkins <h4hopkins@comcast.net>; Gary Palmer <gary.palmer07@gmail.com>; Chip Vincent <CVincent@Rentonwa.gov>; Lin <linxinus@yahoo.com> Subject: Fwd: FW: Revised Arborist report Hi Randy, We along with our neighbors are concerned about some very tall (some over 80 ft. high) cottonwoods leaning towards the Bella Vista Apts. and the Griffin Home track & field below our homes in our "greenbelt". We have applied for a City permit to remove these trees as a precaution to not be liable should they fall onto the apartment complex property & Griffen Home---on cars, kids play area, etc. We received a response that our permit will likely be denied. In the past, the City Arborist, Terry Flahtley, did a site visit to assess the current situation. He then approved most of those trees we had concerns about. This denial of trees previously sighted by us as dangerous years ago is without a site visit, and demands we pay for a City appointed outside arborist for a 2nd opinion. If the City will not allow removal of these dangerous trees---at our expense--- then the City is liable should they fall & cause damage. In my opinion, the Permit Staff needs to be much more realistic and less confrontational with Renton residents. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Marcie Palmer 425-306-0918 ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Rich & Susan Hopkins <h4hopkins@comcast.net> Date: Sun, Jul 26, 2020 at 9:15 PM Subject: FW: Revised Arborist report To: Marcie Palmer <PkPlMarcie@comcast.net> Gary & Marcie, Here is an update on the status of cutting down the cottonwood trees along the Belle Vista Apartments property line (and Griffin Home property line). It looks like very bad news. Please review all the content below, and the attachments. I would then like to meet with you (at a social distance) to discuss what steps to take next. I am hoping that Marci’s knowledge of the workings of city hall and their existing processes can get us back on track. Maybe a meeting with them? I received the email below on Thursday on the status of the tree cutting permit I submitted to the City of Renton. It appears they will reject my permit request on the basis the cottonwood trees we want to remove are not hazardous enough to need cutting down. I find this amazing. Attached to this email is the arborist report that was submitted with the permit. It is divided into 2 files. ArborRpt1R.PDF - Report cover page, introduction, summary, location map with each tree uniquely identified, and photos of each tree. ArborRpt2R.PDF - Report details on the health of each tree. Upon receiving Angelea’s email, I did some additional research based on her comments. My findings are: 1. After looking at additional property boundary maps, it does appear that the trees in Group C (next to Griffin Boys Home) are on the zoned Pelli Street land, owned by the city. Although I can’t be sure, it looks like the outside east edge of the running track at the Griffin Home is the approximate boundary line – that the track goes right up to the edge of the street. I initially wanted to cut these cottonwoods down to improve our view. After viewing these trees from the Griffin Home property, I also realized they imposed a hazard to them. Two of the trees have already had their tops broken off, and have since grown split tops, which make them even more dangerous – per the arborist. Since it appears I can’t request a permit to cut these trees down, is there a process by which the Griffin Home can request the city to remove these trees and the hazard they pose? Last year, the city hired a contractor to cut down about 10 cottonwoods on N 26th street (a half block N of us) because they could fall across the street and hit the new homes there (or fall the other way onto the Mao’s house). 2. In reviewing the arborist report, I noticed that (1) the probability of failure was rated only as “Possible” for all trees, and (2) the fall distance for some was only “50 feet”. I think some of these trees are closer to 80’ tall than 50’. And (3), the report doesn’t appear to include the consequences should a tree failure occur. Specifically, that many of the trees are already leaning downhill, and if they fell (even at 60’ tall) they would contact cars and/or buildings. In other words, the report’s contents are not helpful in describing the risks. I am contacting Evergreen Tree Care to discuss these issues with them and see about getting a revised arborist report. Otherwise, it looks like they will lose our business. 3. Many of the trees Gary is focused on removing appear to be in the yellow zone, not red, on the slopes map. See attachment. I assumed these need a tree cutting permit, but maybe they don’t. Is there a process we can pursue to determine if a permit, or a relaxed permit process, is available for these trees? 4. The permit determination appears to be based solely on the arborist report. I don’t see that paying some other arborist to read it would yield a different answer based on its current content. Last time we removed cottonwood trees in 2013, which were adjacent to a couple of these (those in Group A), Gary and I met Terry Flately at the site and he was able to make a determination from visual observations. Is there some process we can initiate to get the new City of Renton arborist out to the sites and get him to do a visual? A brief history of this project: July 17, 2019 I met with Ian Gray, Urban Forestry & Natural Resources Manager for City of Renton, and showed him photos of the cottonwood trees I wanted to get a permit to remove. He identified the forms I would need to complete. After looking at my aerial mapping photos, he advised me that the trees “appear to be in a ‘red’ critical slope zone.” He also alerted me that the “CED can help establish that. If they need me to weigh in on the issue and inspect the trees as part of an active permit application process they will need to be the ones to request that.” CED is the Community & Economic Development Department. When we met and Ian looked at my photos, his comment to me was that it didn’t look like getting a permit would be a problem. April 15, 2020 I submitted a tree cutting permit form, and accompanying Master Application forms signed by property owners, and an arborist report prepared by Evergreen Tree Care. May 2, 2020 I received an email from Angelea Wells, Associate Planner for City of Renton, saying the arborist report had deficiencies. Mainly, the location of each tree was not uniquely identified on the aerial photos. She also provided a sample of an arborist report that was much, much simpler and shorter in content than the one prepared by the Evergreen Tree Care’s arborist. May 13, 2020 I contacted Thor Adkinson at Evergreen Tree Care and initiated work to get a revised arborist report. June 10, 2020 I submitted a revised arborist report to planning department correcting the deficiencies. July 23, 2020 I received the email below from Angelea Wells. July 23, 2020 I forwarded the email below to Thor Adkinson at Evergreen Tree Care asking that we meet. July 24, 2020 I did an email reply to Angelea Wells I would get back to her late this coming week or so. I look forward to your help on this. …Rich Hopkins 425-226-9289 From: Angelea Weihs [mailto:AWeihs@Rentonwa.gov] Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2020 9:55 AM To: 'Rich & Susan Hopkins' Subject: RE: Revised Arborist report Hello Richard, I wanted to provide you some options before I issued a decision just in case you are unhappy with the outcome. As I have previously stated, trees within critical areas are only permitted for removal if the trees have been determined to be dangerous, and there is no alternative to tree removal. Our city arborist reviewed your arborist report and provided the following comments: · Group C trees appear to be on City unimproved public ROW, not on private property. As such, these trees belong to the City and would not be permitted for removal. · Regarding the other trees, the risk ratings come back as low and moderate which are low hazard in the scheme of things and does not necessitate urgency · The only trees which might be worth reducing (as an alternative to removing) by the applicant to 20’ foot wildlife snags would be B3 & B6, but considering the issue with property lines, a revised site plan would be necessary to prove that the correct property owner has signed the master application form for permission. The site plan should indicate to location of trees B3 and B6 in reference to the property lines and label the parcel number so the property owner can be verified. As an alternative, you can request secondary review, in which case an arborist will be picked by the City, at your cost, to provide a determination regarding the arborist report you have provided. However, based on what I have seen in the report, secondary review may not give you the answer you are hoping for, as the trees are still required to be determined dangerous by an arborist, with no alternative to tree removal, as state in City code. Let me know if you have any additional questions, Angelea Weihs Associate Planner, City of Renton 1055 S. Grady Way Renton, WA 98057 (425) 430-7312 From: Rich & Susan Hopkins <h4hopkins@comcast.net> Sent: Monday, July 13, 2020 11:40 AM To: Angelea Weihs <AWeihs@Rentonwa.gov> Subject: FW: Revised Arborist report Angela, Please provide me an update on the status of my request for a tree cutting permit. Knowing that you are working from home, I would appreciate knowing that you received my email with the revised arborist report that was requested, and were successful in being able to open it. If there were any problems, I want to correct them as quickly as possible. If you have any questions, please email me at once. I look forward to your reply. Richard Hopkins From: Rich & Susan Hopkins [mailto:h4hopkins@comcast.net] Sent: Friday, June 26, 2020 10:59 AM To: 'Angelea Weihs' Subject: Revised Arborist report Angela, On June 10, I sent you an email containing the revised arborist report you said was needed to process my request for a tree cutting permit. When we last communicated, you were working from home. This email contained large files as attachments, which can sometimes get blocked for residential customers. Please send me an email to verify that you received my email successfully. If you did receive it, I would also appreciate an update on where my permit request is in the process, and any estimates of what I might expect my next communication for the City of Renton. Again, thank you for your help on this matter. Richard Hopkins 425-226-9289 (home) 425-591-5711 (cell)