Decision on Henry's Garden Bed

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

Hey everyone, remember this petition about dangerous plantings on public lands? More recent info/correspondence in this updated petition, also. 
ipetitions.com/petition/save-henrys-raised-bed-garden-in-somerville-ma/

Steve MacEachern has written the following to us and we have also responded below. Here's to Livejournal (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RON NEWMAN!) for helping us ALL kvetch publicly and, in my case, keeping things public and transparent in terms of odd municipal dilemmas involving neighbor vendettas and plants. CHEERS!  As the letters are long, I have included it below the cut! 




From Steve:
Thank you for your patience while we reviewed the issues surrounding the raised box garden you built on the strip of land between the sidewalk and the curb adjacent to your condominium association’s lot at 221-223 Powder House Boulevard.

As I wrote in my initial message, the City’s attention was first drawn to this structure by a complaint we received about visibility and safety issues.  According to your publicly posted writings, I understand that you are disputing the motives of your neighbor and the accuracy of the complaint. Ultimately, however, the City’s response to the situation you have created is not based on the details of the complaint: There are other and equally compelling reasons why this structure cannot remain permanently at this site.

As you have noted in your public comments, in 2010 the City had to remove a diseased tree from that site.  Because a water line and a natural gas line run directly under the site, the City elected to leave a large stump and attached root system under the site rather than risk damage to the utility lines.  We understand that you had originally hoped to get the tree replaced.  We, too, wish to replant a tree at this location, but we could not do so immediately because of the stump.

Our hope has been that, once the stump had been underground long enough to soften and partially decay, we might be able to remove it without threatening damage to the utility lines.  While we were not aware that you had built a structure at that location until we received a complaint, our right and requirement of access to the site necessitates removal of the raised box garden whether or not the structure creates a safety hazard.

At our request, the City Engineer has reviewed the official ordinance descriptions and street plans for Powder House Boulevard.  He has informed us that the strip of land between the sidewalk and the curb is clearly designated as part of the public way for the entire length of the street.  It is not part of the lot for 221-223 Powder House Boulevard.  Structures of the type you have constructed are not permitted in the public way unless explicitly allowed in advance by the City.

Nonetheless, the City is willing, provided that you sign and return the attached release on or before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, August 7, 2012, to hold off on its excavation plans and additional stump removal work until after the current growing season has passed.

Therefore, provided that you sign and return the attached release,  you are hereby directed to remove the entire structure by no later than Monday October 22, 2012, at 7 a.m., after which time the City will remove any structures from this site on the public way.  If the City does not receive a duly executed copy of the attached release by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, August 7, 2012, then the City will remove the structure on or after Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 7 a.m.

Please note that there is no guarantee that the stump can be safely removed and a new tree planted.  Whatever the outcome of the City’s excavation and review, please refrain in future from creating any vegetable or flower gardens at this location or any other point along the public way, except for small plantings of low, decorative flowering plants of the type the city has historically allowed within the immediate area of open soil surrounding City-owned trees.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

CITY OF SOMERVILLE

Steven MacEachern

Superintendent of Highways, Lights and Lines    

cc:        Hon. Robert Trane

            Hon. Joseph A. Curtatone

            Stan Koty

            Frank Wright

            Robert King

            Rachel Kelly

            Tom Champion


From us: 
Dear Mr. MacEachern,

Thank you for your considered response. We truly appreciate the city's willingness compromise on this issue and to convey its reasoning clearly. We are content with the city's solution, and very much hope that it will be possible to plant a tree on this site. The only small matter we would like to change is the date of removal, which we would like to remove from October 22nd to October 29th. We are having a family gathering on the weekend of the 25-26th, and Henry is looking forward to showing off the garden's harvest and collecting whatever seeds, vegetables, and flowers remain. This should still give the city plenty of time to remove any roots and hopefully plant a tree during the fall planting season. As the crew will discover, the stump and much of the root system has already been ground up by the city (else a somewhat flat raised bed garden would have been impossible to accomplish). We are more than happy to amend the date on the attached agreement by hand and initial the change. 

There are a few things we hope the city will consider going forward. 

1. We hope that the city will adopt an official ordinance or at least a public position regarding standards for planting on city-owned land based on considerations other than what is and has been "traditionally" done, a standard so open-ended as to be subject to capricious interpretations. Ideally, the city would keep up with the times by finding a way to encourage urban agriculture and beautification projects on public land, something Cambridge, for example, has been doing for a number of years with their Pick-a-Pocket Program. 

2. We understand based on your response that the city's decision was ultimately not based on the neighbor's "safety" complaint which led to the investigation, but nevertheless we think it would be prudent for the city to develop a means of monitoring complaints from a single person against another single person/household, in order to limit harrasment, promote neighborhood unity, promote a neighborhood's feeling of safety, and even to prevent potential crimes of bias. Our city is the most densely populated in New England; if the were to city monitor who complains the most against whom and why, it may be able to determine underlying tensions causing unrest. Perhaps Somerville might consider developing and offering mediation services unique to life in such a densely populated area as Somerville. 

Please let us know if the city is amenable to this small date change as soon as possible and we will be happy to return the letter of agreement. 

Also, we would like to hear of any progress regarding our 2 suggestions outlined above. 

         

Comments

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

I think it's a pretty good compromise, too! Thanks!

Sorry about the colors. It really makes it difficult to read? Sorry! I thought it might help. I guess that says something about my attention span, that I need new colors to keep me interested.

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

Yes -- a cut would be a better way to deal with posting long material than switching colors.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Yes, the additional formatting is hard to read.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

This is a very nice compromise indeed! Hopefully the city accepted your suggested change of date.

And now for the unsolicited-advice part of my reply (free with your subscription to Internetz ;-) ;-) )

For this issue and future issues with the city, might I suggest taking the "One topic per communication" approach? I like your idea of re-considering the regulations and attitudes toward city gardening, but it makes no sense to clutter a letter to the Highway Department with them. Especially since you risk him not even seeing your very reasonable request to move the date by one week.

In my experience, this is an important approach when dealing with the city because the people who handle the question of what to do with an existing issue (such as your garden box) are almost never the people who are empowered or even in the chain of people who make policies. I think of it as a separation of Executive and Legislative powers in very, very generalize terms.

Mr. MacEachern has his plate full as Superintendent of Highways, Lights and Lines, and has done an exceedingly good job at following up with your issue and communicating the policies, and even finding a work-around. To make new policies, expand the city's view toward home gardening, and possibly even consider monitoring community complaints, you almost certainly want to start by talking to your Alderman who can bring the topic up in session and to the Mayor's Office. It doesn't make sense for someone from the highway department to take community suggestions to the Board of Alderman or the Mayor's Office.

I like the ideas you suggest, though, so I hope you follow up by writing your Alderman about considering a change in policies.

Good Luck, and Congratulations!

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

They guy emailed the mayor and my alderman, Tom Champion and a bunch of other city officials who do other stuff I don't know about. I thought it might be appropriate to cover all the weird issues here that came up. :)

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

& Thank you! :)

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Wow! That guy was incredibly helpful! That's awesome.

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

We're waiting to hear if they give us until after our family celebration weekend, but it seems pretty good! I hope they get back to us before they say they're gonna come cut stuff down.

But then again, when I drive down Highland Road, I DO get sad, because they have some amazing garden structures on their strip of soil between sidewalk and street.

But I guess there's just something special about Highland Rd!!!!

[cos]

davis_square rules say:

• Formatting: Please post in plain text. The occasional bold or italic tag is fine, but extensively formatted entries won't properly display on many people's friends pages. Please do not post using large or colored fonts.

Please edit this post to change your text to plain text without all the different fonts and colors.

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

I will have my husband do it! Sorry everyone!

[bluesauce.livejournal.com]

An LJ cut might be nice for this post; it's kind of obnoxious having to scroll past it as is.

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I don't know how!

[ron_newman]

for future reference

<lj-cut text="Short description of what's behind the cut"> ... stuff you want to hide behind the cut ... </lj-cut>

or see this faq

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Ron, we got it sorted out! Hope you had a great birthday!

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

okay, formatting issues should be fixed.let me know if there's anything else I should do.

[ron_newman]

Looks fine now. And I'm glad you and the city reached a mostly satisfactory resolution.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Yay! Glad it worked out.

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

We finally received a reply from Steve MacEachern about our request for a one-week extension for our garden. I'm uncomfortable posting the language, which was downright vitriolic, even questioning our parenting in keeping our son informed (age appropriately) of the goings on and encouraging him to express his opinion. We have no quarrel with Bob Trane, who seems to always act in what he sees as the best interest of the ward, but leadership among other city officials seems sorely lacking, and not just because we didn't get the outcome we wanted.

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

Suffice it to say that I don't feel comfortable even bringing the signed affidavit Steve previously requested to the DPW. Now if I mail it, I expect it will come too late, and they will just come cut everything down. I asked Bob Trane to deliver whatever signed paperwork Steve might require.

But all right, if really want to read it....

[ron_newman]

It's actually supposed to be delivered to the City Solicitor at City Hall, not to the DPW. We should be able to finish this by 5 pm today.

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the help--and noticing the details! Whew! Saved the day, you did!

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

"unfortunately the date we offered is firm" or something equally civil" -- that would have been a most favorable reply!

[keithn.livejournal.com]

Whoa there... I don't think you should go levying serious accusations like this without providing the evidence when you clearly have it. I would suggest that you either post the letter or remove your comment.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

This.

It's starting to look like this person has a serious chip on their shoulder.

[astropurpurea.livejournal.com]

Sorry, we're still trying to reach a positive outcome. If you'd like you can have it messaged to you, as it's been already sent to so many public officials. It's really not something I think Steve would like to see posted online for all to see in perpetuity.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

You already posted your interpretation of the letter online for all to see in perpetuity. Without posting the letter itself you don't give other people the ability to judge for themselves. You are asking them to take your (currently) unsubstantiated claims as fact. And you clearly have a stake in this issue and are not a neutral arbitrator.

If you aren't comfortable posting the letter then you should delete your claims about it. I think that is clearly the right thing to do from a neutral standpoint.

You can feel free to message the letter to me, but I will post it here if you do. You made your claims in a public forum and that is where the evidence of said claim should also be posted.