City Hall – DR assigned this issue to Public Works - AP (Forestry)

Thank you for reporting this issue. This tree well was cut to maintain an ADA compliant sidewalk on narrower sidewalks. The soil surface area is equal to the traditional square-shaped tree wells.

I appreciate that, I absolutely want all of the sidewalks to be ADA compliant. These specific wells are adjacent to sidewalks that are wider than ADA compliance requirements, so they could actually be adjusted (I measured over 4 feet). I want to give these trees the best chance of success because many new plantings don’t survive in this area.

I completely agree. I'd rather see these as wide as possible to still provide the 3' ADA requirement. Sounds like they could be widened by a foot or so.

I wanted to add, some of the narrow wells are on very wide sidewalks, for example between Otis and thorndike, the sidewalk is over 6 feet wide in addition to the narrow well. Thank you for reviewing these!

Thank you for the follow-up. ADA compliance is 4' pedestrian sidewalks, 3' is considered a pinch point that can be allowed on existing sidewalks. Public Work's goal is to provide a 4' wide sidewalk to be in compliance with the ADA. The soil volume and surface area are greater than the traditional 4'x4' pit.

That’s great, the sidewalk is over 6’ wide for a bunch of these, so the 3’ pinch point thing is not even close to an issue. :( we’re going to make it harder for these trees to survive. I hope the trunks are able to grow wider than the 2’ we are leaving them!

Trees were installed this spring within the existing opening.