At tonight’s Decatur City Commission meeting, our commissioners will have to make a determination in a “He Said, She Said” type of case, concerning two live oak trees taken down by Artisan Homes during construction of a new home at 324 Mead Road.

You can read all the details – including a timeline generated by the city’s Development Director Amanda Thompson – of this decision in the meeting material for the meeting HERE (PDF), but in summation (deep breath)…

The City Commission needs to determine whether the city arborist made an error in determining the health of two oak trees on the property and/or do the unique site conditions at 324 Mead Road create an “undue hardship in implementing the required revised tree plan.”

Ms. Thompson’s timeline details the events surrounding this item.  To start, the city arborist determined these two oaks were in good health back in March 2011.  But then in November, they discovered that the tree protection fencing at the property was out of compliance and it was recommended that Artisan Homes hire an arborist to determine if any damage had occurred do to the inadequate fencing.

Artisan hired an Arborguard arborist, who subsequently determined that the trees were in poor health prior to construction activities.  As a result, Artisan Homes submitted a revised tree plan requesting the removal of these trees based on these findings.

The city’s arborist approved the revision, but required that Artisan compensate the city for the loss of the two trees in the amount of $6,325.  Artisan then filed an appeal to the Development Director to seek relief from paying the tree recompense based on the disputed claims of the two arborists. Ms. Thompson sided with the city arborist and now it’s up to the City Commission to have the last word.

Should be an interesting conversation.

There’s a lot of new construction in Portland.  But for some reason, it doesn’t feel all that new.  Which got me thinking, why is that?  And what does that mean I subconsciously expect from “new construction”?

Ultimately, I decided that a big part of it was nothing more than the pedestrian’s perspective on a crowded city grid.  As long as you have a consistent wall on your right or left, you’re already about 50% of the way to continuity.  From a distance, the city skyline is a mismatch of styles and forms, but as long as the base of each building touches the sidewalk, the city dweller is at home.

The other major reason I decided nothing felt new is that, generally speaking, I expect a vast majority of new construction to be of poorish quality.  But here, simply because most of the newer buildings are of similar quality to their more historic brethren, it all sort of works in harmony.  And with that foundation of quality materials and craftsmanship, style is again allowed to roam freely – within the boundaries of form of course – giving each building its distinctive, but cohesive look.

A few more of Portland’s newer residential buildings after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE III: Asst. City Manager David Junger responds “Our Storm Water Engineer Julie Gyuricza received this complaint this morning and she is investigating the nature and cause of the flooding. We do not have enough information currently to know why this area flooded.”

UPDATE II: Jon writes in with a second report…”So it turns out there was a major blockage in one of the 18 inch pipes, and the city has already come out and taken care of it. They have also said they will be on the lookout for the area in the future.  I’m really pleased with how quickly the city has responded to us. I hope you let everyone know, because the city earned it’s reputation on this one….”

UPDATE: Jon writes in “Peggy already has the drain crew out looking at the area. It’s really great to see the city respond so quickly.”

Four days ago, Paula reported “rumbling on the Midway Woods yahoo group about the stalled development at Midway and S. Candler. …the latest is that the clearing of the lot has caused huge run-off problems and flooding.”

Yesterday evening, the President of the Midway Woods Neighborhood Association, Jon Rork, wrote in asking for help…

Read the rest of this entry »