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Sudbury’s Planning Board struck a collaborative tone during their July 15 hearing with an Eversource arborist. Eversource is proposing to remove or prune over three dozen trees along scenic roads in Sudbury, as part of an effort to improve reliability and reduce the risk of tree limbs taking down power lines, particularly during inclement weather.
During the initial hearing, the Board approved the removal of six trees that are marked as high risk (the plan assigns hazard ratings, and all six were level 3, the highest level).
The next step is a site visit with the arborist to evaluate the other trees spanning Plympton Road, Water Row Road, Concord Road and Candy Hill Road. Rather than considering each tree one at a time, the Board is looking for ways to cluster batches of trees into similar groupings.
The Eversource representative signaled openness to removing fewer trees if it meant a faster approval process with the board. A quick decision on the high risk trees set the collaborative tone, but the Board also indicated interest in a site visit for the less risky trees along the identified scenic roads, indicating they’ll take time to thoroughly consider the trees that aren’t an imminent risk.
Adam Burney, Sudbury’s Director of Planning and Community Development, emphasized that people tend to get upset when the work is first completed, but many are happy with the outcomes when the areas have time to fill in. The Eversource representative also emphasized that some of the trees are in the right of way and on private property, and the property owners in those cases would have the right to block their removal by simply not approving Eversource to proceed.
According to the discussion, the trees have been marked on each of the roads, which makes it possible for the public to see what’s being proposed if they choose to visit the sites.
The hearing is at 28:45 below.
