Fair Oaks Meeting: Landscape Drawing Will be Online

Below is an excerpt from Monday's Fair Oaks Corridor community meeting. Click here to read the full story. Click here to read a conversation that took place about bulb-outs. 

“Is the landscaping finalized at this point?” asked WISPPA president Gretchen Robinette.

“Landscape plans have been approved,” said Talebian.

“The number of trees—I can’t recall and they are not all Oak trees?” Robinette further inquired.

“Right now we are in the process of developing a bill of material that will show the difference between the final plants and what you have seen at the 60 percent level. I don’t have that readily available to tell how many of what species was reduced and added.”

“Is it possible for people to look at those plans?” asked Robinette.

“The overall number of trees didn’t change,” President Scott Feldman added.

“Are they the same trees from the meeting?” asked Robinette, referring to a special landscape meeting held in May.

“I believe it’s all the same trees that Amy Nettleton [an independent contractor overseeing the landscape portion of construction] recommended, which are Oaks and all drought-tolerant,” said Deputy Public Works Director Shin Furukawa.

“But it is possible to see the plans?” reiterated Robinette.

 “Yes, if you come by public works,” said Furukawa.

“Are there conceptual drawings of the new planting—what the planters are going to look like?” asked Mayor Mike Ten.

 “I think you better be careful, though, because there is a conceptual drawing that was done a couple years ago,” said resident Bob Joe.

“There are these drawings that have been put there for almost seven years of what things would look like and the only reason I ask is because what we got on Orange Grove in those islands isn’t what we were shown in the original drawings,” said Ten. “If there have been changes made, we need to get rid of old picture and show the latest visualization.”

“Maybe those drawings should have been presented today before—that’s all—I think it is very appropriate for this group to see it,” said Joe.

“If you put it all up online, all of us can see it,” said Ten.

“When does the planting occur,” asked Robinette.

“Next week,” said Talebian. 

"If we try to meet two weeks from now, we are too late," said Joe.

The next Fair Oaks Construction Corridor community meeting is slated for June 27 at 8 a.m. at  Amy Nettleton, an independent contractor overseeing the landscape construction portion of the project, is slated to attend.

This conversation has been edited and condensed.