Homewood public works carries over request to retroactively approve hedge plantings in right-of-way at 214 Edgewood

The Homewood Public Works Committee on May 19 heard a request to retroactively approve trees and a perimeter hedge planted along the sidewalk at 214 Edgewood Boulevard. The planting team said the screening had existed historically and was intended to be reinstated; the city’s staff and committee members responded that any work in the public right-of-way must receive prior written approval and normally requires an indemnification agreement.

Landscape consultant Bridal Garrett told the committee the plantings were intended to restore a long-standing privacy screen and to screen pool equipment and mechanicals associated with a new in-ground pool that previously received zoning variances. Garrett said design and permitting work began before the landscape section of the zoning code was fully aligned with the new ordinance and that the team believed the plantings were consistent with earlier approvals.

City staff and committee concerns Committee members emphasized that Homewood’s right-of-way is city property and that “if you work in the right-of-way you have to have permission,” as a committee member put it. Members said the record shows the property had prior variances and BZA hearings that referenced perimeter screening, but that prior variances do not substitute for a right-of-way approval or indemnification agreement required for new plantings in city-controlled sidewalks or strips.

Committee action and conditions discussed Public Works carried the item over without objection and directed the applicant group to provide a legal description or a survey showing the exact property and right-of-way lines. Committee members also identified potential conditions for approval, including a recorded indemnification agreement that would: place maintenance responsibility with the property owner, require the owner to repair sidewalks if tree roots later damage paving, and ensure the city has access for utility or maintenance work.

Committee members noted two themes in the discussion: fairness and precedent (members said it would be unfair to grant retroactive permission when other residents had been denied similar requests after applying properly) and public-safety/sidewalk-maintenance risk from tree roots. Neighbors and applicants said the hedge was important for privacy and visual screening; the committee asked for a formal, recorded proposal with a clear legal description before making a decision.