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Albany council adopts street tree management plan, sets yearly planting goal of about 170 trees
Summary
The Albany City Council unanimously adopted a Street Tree Management Plan after a multi-year inventory and community outreach process. The plan sets planting, maintenance and equity goals and asks staff to begin implementation while preserving mature canopy and addressing sidewalk and utility constraints.
The Albany City Council on Sept. 15 unanimously approved a Street Tree Management Plan that city staff and consultants developed after a 2023 street-tree inventory and two years of public outreach.
The plan, presented by Public Works Director Mark Hurley and consultants Daria Barar and Ryan Suttle of HortScience/Bartlett Consulting, sets a near-term planting target of roughly 170 street trees per year, recommends proactive maintenance cycles, and highlights equity by mapping neighborhood canopy disparities.
The inventory completed in February 2023 estimated Albany’s overall tree canopy at about 19 percent and found that street trees account for about one-fifth of that canopy. The consultants told council that 56 percent of street trees recorded are in “good” condition and 37 percent in “fair” condition. The draft plan estimates annual air-quality benefits from the street-tree canopy at roughly $53,000 and assigns an approximate value of $1,300,000 for stored carbon with an additional $50,000 in annual sequestration value.
“Street trees deliver ecosystem services like cooling shade, capturing air pollution and improving air quality,” consultant Ryan Suttle said during the presentation. He described the plan’s chapters on inventory analysis, community input, and an action-oriented chapter with implementation steps.
Mark Hurley, the city’s public works director, told council the plan is founded on Albany’s general plan and climate action and adaptation plan and was shaped by presentations to the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Commission, the Climate Action Committee and public surveys. “The intent is to finalize [formatting] unless we get any substantive comments,” Hurley said.
Council members asked about practical issues raised during outreach, including tripping hazards at tree wells on Solano Avenue, interactions between trees and private property insurance/defensible-space concerns, and the availability of suitable planting space. Hurley and the consultants said the plan recommends right-sizing species to specific parkway widths, routine maintenance to address low tree-well grates, and analysis of private trees as a complementary strategy because most canopy in Albany is off-street.
Councilmember Jordan asked whether the city could count trees already growing in front yards toward canopy goals; Barar said the plan includes investigating protections and recognition for private trees. Councilmember Mickey raised outreach ideas, suggesting partnerships with local higher-education programs such as UC Berkeley’s forestry program to expand stewardship capacity; consultants endorsed investigating such partnerships.
Public commenters urged the council to use the plan to protect large, established trees and to prioritize plantings in neighborhoods with low canopy. Several speakers at the meeting also urged the city to consider tree planting in parks and school sites as a way to increase canopy where street planting is constrained.
Several technical recommendations in the plan call for proactive inspections (rather than reactive pruning only), a species palette that increases diversity and native representation (currently about 2 percent of recorded street trees are native to the Albany area), and use of the city’s GIS tree inventory as the single repository for tree data and planting history.
After discussion, Councilmember (motion mover not specified in the record) moved to adopt the plan with the caveat that only editorial and formatting changes would be made before publication. A second was recorded and the council approved the resolution on a unanimous 5-0 roll call. Mayor Robin D. Lopez, Vice Mayor Peggy McQuay, Councilmember Hanson Romero, Councilmember Jordan and Councilmember Mickey all voted yes.
The plan will now move to implementation, beginning with staff incorporation of any final clarifications and continued coordination with the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Commission. City staff said they will use the plan to inform future sidewalk and planting decisions, and to pursue funding and partnerships to support the stated planting and maintenance goals.
The council’s adoption of the plan follows multiple community meetings, an online survey with 188 responses, and presentations at the Albany Community Expo and the citywide planning open house earlier this year.
