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Rooted in Community urges stricter design review for Skyworks site, calls for street trees
Summary
A member of Rooted in Community told Reading City Council the Skyworks development on south Reading Road appears not to meet the city's design-review and landscaping standards and urged enforcement of street- and parking-lot tree plantings.
Gary Kurtz, a member of Rooted in Community and a retired landscape architect, told Reading City Council on Nov. 18 that the Skyworks development on south Reading Road appears to fall short of local design-review and landscaping requirements.
"We are here tonight to express our concerns regarding the Skyworks development on the south side of Reading Rd," Kurtz said, flagging the site's visibility on a major city entrance and noting that the property lies within the city's Design Review District. He told council the developer's drawings and on-site visits show planned fencing too close to the right-of-way, a lack of interior parking-lot landscaping and no street trees as required by the Reading Road Streetscape Plan.
Kurtz asked the city to perform a more thorough design review and to enforce existing zoning and streetscape rules for impervious-surface ratios, fencing style and landscape buffers. He offered Rooted in Community's assistance, citing the group's past role in initiating a grant to plant new street trees on Reading Road.
No formal action was recorded on the Skyworks project during the meeting; council members did not vote on this item. The comment was entered into the record as part of the public-comment period, and speakers asked the administration and relevant review bodies to examine compliance with the Reading Road Streetscape Plan and the city's zoning code.
