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? • J Minutes of Public Hearing 11/15/88 -6- property lines. By "buffer" we mean that it is to contain no buildings; con- tain no parking; it should contain only landscaping, mounding and fencing. We have committed, in that buffer, because there is a great deal of natural vegetation in the area, to do several things. First of_all, we would c]_ean out any dead or undesirable trees and debris that is in that area. We would build a fence, which we have agreed with our neighbors to be six feet. I don't know, considering legislation that is on the table, but we are committed to making that a six foot high, rough-sawn cedar fence - natural. And that instead of being a straight fence, 1,000 feet long, that it would be staggered in that 50 foot buffered area and be somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 feet away from the residential property line. We've made the commitment. We would like to, and this is on the recommendations of our landscape architect, the City Forester, as well as some of the landscape architectural representation, pardon me, from the Hnmeowners' Association, to keep the landscaping natural. We are going to keep as much, retain as much, of the existing vegetation as we possibly can and we are going to leave the ground cover essentially - the ground plane - essentially intact, using wood chips and spreading them over the area to keep that natural. In addition to the fence, we would come back and we would put in new vegetation in the form of evergreens - large evergreens, 8 to 10 feet tall. They are part of the example that we've put in; as well as pin oaks in the 100 foot sample that we've put up, T believe we have (it's been a while now) I think we have three or four of the evergreens and three of the pin oaks. The pin oaks are on the order of 15 feet high. In addition to that, we would add ornamental bushes or trees and this would be left up to the option of the adjacent homeowner. What we'ld do is we would create a list of several appropriate types of vege- tation and then each bf the homeowners, in their backyard, could choose if they preferred dogwood to flowering crabs or pibk flowering crabs to white flowering crabs - they could have that choice and we would incorporate that in. So essentially, there will be some continuity in the buffer and that it will all be natural. It will all have the fence and they will all have the pin oaks and the evergreens but we would allow the character to change somewhat with the orna- mental trees and shrubs. We will work, as much.as we can, to save as many of the trees on the site as we possibly can. We've reviewed the site and the existing vegetation with the Forester and our landscape architects and there are trees and specimens that can be moved. It.is dictated by the size and also the hardiness of the tree but we would like to save as much and we would also like to move as many of the.trees and save them in that respect as we can. And to the extent that we can move them and it is appropriate to put.them into the landscape buffer, we woulld do that, especially in the areas where there isn't as much existing vege- tation. We also strive to save trees in the balance of the property - not just where we are abutting up against the residential areas but around the buildings and in the parking lots. It is a benefit to our office building and I think it provides a visual amenity to the city. In terms of the maintenance, because we are keeping it natural, the maintenance is going to be relatively minor. Again, we are comitting, because there will be 30/40 feet on the other side of the fence, we will be going through on a regular basis, several times a year, cleaning up - cutting down trees that have died - pulling up some of the noxious ground cover, poison ivy or anything like that - as well, we would be responsive to phone calls if there is a problem in that area - trees falling down - and we would come in and take care of that. In addition, in that same area, not related directly to the buffer, there have been some problems identified, relating to drainage, and we are resporisible as the City Engineer will tell you - and you probably all know - we are responsible for the water that falls on our property and we cannot allow it to drain onto adjacent properties. The improvements in that area, as we develop buildings, will take care of a great deal of that, but in areas where we've got low-lying areas and water from our property does flood onto adjacent properties, we will put appropriate drainage in there to take that water into the storm sewers.