Consider Boulevard Trees for the Barren side of Sunwood Drive in The COR

Street trees provide many environmental and community benefits, including beautification of urban areas, and creating shady sidewalks for pedestrians.  Sunwood Drive is essentially Ramsey's 'main street', with boulevard trees, sidewalk, street scape and irrigation installed on alternating  halves' of the approximately one mile arterial roadway in 2008.  Planting trees on the opposite side sooner than later, will minimize the disparity in the height and canopy size of essentially a decade and a half differential in planting times for these new trees.  In addition to the contract installation of approximately one hundred, 2 1/2 inch diameter trees and soil amendments, the project would include the installation of a basic irrigation system behind the curb to ensure the establishment and viability of the shade trees.  This work includes: Single row of heads back of curb, irrigating a 5’ strip approx. 4000’ long, 2” PVC mainline, underground road crossings with bored sleeves, valves, wire, decoders, misc. fittings & appurtenances, with labor.
  

It is expected that staff will take up to 5 minutes to provide background on this proposed project, for the Committee's discussion.

Observations
Planting the the trees in 2022, versus waiting years for individual parcels to develop along Sunwood will lesson the future visual lopsidedness of boulevard trees along Ramsey's most prominent street.  Completing the trees on both sides of this street will also improve the overall aesthetic in this area of the downtown, improve property values there, and will have traffic calming benefits.  The installation of the trees and irrigation will also reduce future costs for private developers for sites that abut Sunwood Drive—thus the use of Tax Increment Financing may be considered.

It should be noted that this project only includes trees and irrigation; the future sidewalk, landscape, outdoor furnishings (benches trash receptacles, etc.) are not envisioned with this project—these would be installed as individual development occurs on Sunwood Drive.

Alternatives
Alternatives to this project as proposed, include scaling the project to just select areas, or doing nothing at this time.  While the whole of The COR is half built out, it may be many years before all of the parcels along 'main street' are purchased for development.

The proposed funding source is TIF #14, which has a 2021 year end cash balance of approximately $1M.

Staff recommends issuing an RFP for this project, before Spring/Summer of 2022, with a wide window for contractor completion of the work (for best pricing), possibly with a alternative quotation option of a Spring of 2023 completion. City Council can assess the value, and consider authorizing the addition of boulevard trees to Sunwood Drive once quotes are received.

Motion to authorize an RFP for the installation of boulevard trees and irrigation, consistent with the proposed Capital Improvement Project.