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Guilford Residents Rally for Cherry Street

After learning that 24 trees would be removed from Cherry Street, residents upset by the plan, rallied together to ask the town to reconsider the plan and help maintain the character of the street. After numerous letters and a public hearing held by the Tree Advisory Board on April 18, residents were victorious, reducing the number of trees to be reduced by more than half.

The issue of the tree removal arose when Sunset Creek Development, which owns a subdivided parcel on Cherry Street, asked in late March for the trees to be removed as part of a plan to widen and repair the road.

Town Engineer Jim Portley said the original plan had been to widen the road to 22 feet and build in a drainage system that would help control runoff. Portley said the road is in bad shape, but by building in something that is called a drainage swale, there was going to be more disturbance to the roadway and the need to remove numerous trees.

After learning of the plan, residents sent letters to the town asking for the plan to be reconsidered and some brought the issue before the Board of Selectmen at their meeting on April 17. Hearing the concern, Portley said he went back and reviewed the plan. After reconsidering, the road will now only be widened to 16 feet with curbing and a catch basin for runoff, a design that requires the removal of only 14 trees, 10 of which are already decaying.

“This is a way of dealing with the runoff and that way we are able to reduce the number of trees that need to be removed,” he said. “That way we can provide safe entry and exit for the residents and the new subdivision without really impacting the overall character of the road.”

Environmental Planner and Town Tree Warden Kevin Magee sent a letter to Sunset Creek Development with the changes in the plan and noted that of the 14 trees to be removed, 10 should be replaced with native trees.

The 14 trees can now be removed under the conditions set forth by Magee, but the plans to widen the road must go to the Planning & Zoning Commission.

“Testimony at the public hearing from the residents concerned how the trees provide to the scenic nature of Cherry Street, which was described as one of the last narrow country roads in ‘South Guilford’ and the residents did not want to lose this character,” Magee said in the letter.

Tree Advisory Board member Shirley Girioni said the applicant was very cooperative in listening to the residents’ concerns and she said she was pleased to see so many people come out and express an opinion.

“It was a demonstration of the citizens getting involved and democracy in action,” she said. “The citizens expressed their views in a positive and energetic way.”

After the meeting, resident Tim Sperry, who was against the removal of the trees, said he was pleased to see the town listen and respond to the concerns of residents.

“I am very pleased with how the town responded to the concerns and how quickly they came back with a workable solution,” he said. “I continue to be very concerned about how quick they are to simply modernize things when there is more work to be done to understand why modernization might not be the best route. We only have one Cherry Street left in this part of town and once it was destroyed, it wouldn’t come back to its small road/lane status.”