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Lake Forest Park roundabout design will remove a large Douglas fir; city plans canopy replacement in public right-of-way
Summary
City staff told the Tree Board that the 104/40th/184th roundabout will remove trees — including a 44-inch-diameter Douglas fir found on private property — and that canopy-loss replacement must be counted in public rights-of-way under the current code; staff and board discussed possible code clarification and species choices for replacement plantings.
City of Lake Forest Park public-works staff updated the Tree Board on the 104/40th/184th roundabout project and confirmed the construction footprint will require removal of existing trees, including a newly identified 44-inch-diameter Douglas fir on private property that cannot be preserved because of necessary driveway regrading.
Rebecca Dickinson, Program Executive with Public Works, said the project team documented about 15,000 square feet of canopy removal in the original design and that the discovery of the additional tree increases the replacement obligation by roughly 962 square feet. She told the board the city’s canopy-replacement accounting requires replacement to occur on city-owned property or within the public right-of-way, and that private-property plantings are not counted toward the city’s replacement totals under staff’s current interpretation of code.
Board members pressed staff about whether the code reflected the original Council intent and asked whether private-property planting could be allowed to count in defined right-of-way corridors. Staff identified the relevant code section as Lake Forest Park code 16.14.040 and said the language has some ambiguity around the right-of-way corridor definition and whether replanting on private parcels adjacent to a right-of-way can satisfy replacement requirements. Staff recommended that the Council clarify the code if the intent was to allow certain off-site or private-property mitigations.
Staff explained that the city uses species-specific projected canopy areas (typically calculated at a 30-year maturity) rather than immediate planted canopy to compute replacement totals, which is why a small number of planted trees can offset the loss of larger, mature specimens over time. At the roundabout site staff proposed several species that meet engineering constraints (limited debris, low root intrusion and height limits); the board indicated a preference for native species where feasible but acknowledged trade-offs because of the constrained roadside environment.
Because the newly identified tree is on private property and will be affected by required grading for a resident’s driveway, staff said project plantings will be made in Horizon View Park and within public right-of-way areas identified in the roundabout plan. Staff committed to share the presentation slides and asked the Tree Board to provide input on species selection by the end of the following week. The board agreed to solicit individual feedback and to ask the absent tree expert to review species recommendations before a formal recommendation is prepared.
The board did not take a formal action tonight to change replacement policy; members recommended that staff and the City Council review the code language for clarity if the Council intends that private landowner plantings should count toward municipal replacement obligations.
