Trees and Utility Line Planning & Planting, Part 5
 | Author:
Patrick Plantenberg, Tree Board Chair
Townsend Tree Board Chair, Townsend Rotary Club |
Trees and Utility Line Planning & Planting, Part 5
Note: This is the fifth in a series of articles to help prepare residents for any planned tree planting or pruning in their yards this coming year.
The Townsend Tree Board is proud to provide this series of articles on tree planting and pruning considerations. A demonstration site on the northwest corner of D Street and South Walnut Street here in Townsend is being used.
In last week’s article, we learned:
• How to map your yard to identify areas that need to be considered when planting.
• Avoid visibility impacts for traffic.
• Some basic information about planting trees on city property.
Where can you plant on the city right-of-way adjacent to your property? Most people don’t know the exact location and extent of the city right-of-way adjacent to their property. I have attached a map showing the typical planting strip on city property. This planting strip usually contains the gravel or dirt area adjacent to the pavement and a grassed area that abuts the private property. Trees can only be planted in a limited part of this planting strip to minimize impacts from the trees to passing vehicles and to minimize impacts to the trees from potential future road or sidewalk work. This tree planting zone is usually 8 feet from the property line.
To identify potential planting locations, I recommend cutting out paper circles that represent the mature width of the trees you are considering planting on your property. Place the paper circles on the map of your property and move them around until you can identify locations that do not conflict with the restricted areas you identified on your planting plan map.
This is when you may have to select smaller size trees to fit into your plan to avoid future problems. Typically, you want to plant large street trees 30 feet apart to allow them to grow to full size with minimal competition from neighboring trees.
And, as mentioned last week, don’t plant too close to the driveway entrance or to the corner of the lot to avoid impacts to traffic in what is called the clear sight or visibility triangle. Once the city water shut-off valve is located you must stay 10 feet away from it to avoid impacts to trees when the water line needs work in the future.
As trees grow on city property, they will need to be pruned as they grow up to 14 feet to avoid impacts to passing traffic. And if there is a sidewalk, the trees will need to be pruned as they grow up to 8 feet above the sidewalk.
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