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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDocumentation_Environmental Advisory Committee_Tab 04_12/14/2022Agenda Item #4. Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) STAFF MEMO Meeting: Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) - Dec 14 2022 Staff Contact: Thomas Bradford, EAC Chair Department: Environmental Advisory Committee Cypress Drive Park Landscape Plan Development This document and any attachments may be reproduced upon request in an alternative format by completing our Accessibility Feedback Form, sending an e-mail to the Village Clerk or calling 561-768- 0443. PROJECT NAME: n/a BUDGET: n/a ENCUMBERED: n/a Proposed: n/a PROJECTED TOTAL: n/a Memo Cypress Dr Park Landscape Plan New Design 22 (1) Projected Remaining: n/a Page 37 of 43 Agenda Item #4. Village of Tequesta Environmental Advisory Committee Memo To: Environmental Advisory Committee Members From: Thomas G. Bradford, Chair, EAC Cc: NA Date: December 7, 2022 Subject: Cypress Drive Park Landscape Plan Development The EAC was requested to prepare a landscape plan for the VOT owned land between Cypress Drive and the FEC Railroad property and engage the citizens to come to an event to plant native plants on the property pursuant to the developed plan. Hereafter, I will refer to the property as Cypress Park. You have to walk the property to fully understand what preparations are required in order to render the property useable, and safe for any park use proposed. Henceforth, I will assume that the land use will be for a passive park. I recently walked the property in question to take photos. I encourage you to walk the site in order to become completely familiar with the property to be planned for landscaping by the EAC. The first thing we need to establish is an EAC understanding of the totality of the property in question. The property in question is approximately 912 feet in length at its longest point and 50 feet wide encompassing 1.0344 acres according to the Property Appraiser's website. Please see the screenshot of the land outlined in red below. As you can see, the land runs from Tequesta Drive to the southern boundary of Pineview Road. You can also see that businesses on the south end are illegally using the land for parking and storage which has to end to avoid prescriptive easement claims. Page 38 of 43 Agenda Item #4. I created a folder in my Google Drive for you to access the photos taken. The link to the Google Drive photo folder is: https:lldrive. goofzle. com1drivelfoldersl1 pWADkifebbwkg7fLG6bEJ7R8Ighd3wAZ?usp=share_li nk My observations walking the site are as follows: 1) You will see photos of bubblers in the Google Drive folder at the base of trees. You will also see photos of water meters also in the same location. All of these trees and water meters are at the adjacent property with Tequesta Drive frontage. The new sprinkler head photo with the blue circle on top literally sits north of the new sidewalk that abuts the Cypress Drive Park property smack dab in the middle of the Cypress Drive Park property. I think it is safe to say we have access to irrigation. 2) The property is a mess. The FEC railroad has dumped every type of imaginable thing on our property including large gravel chunks, abandoned steel rails and on and on. You can't grow plants on top of decades of discarded gravel. A fairly large-scale cleanup is likely going to be required with some topsoil perhaps being added thereafter. There will likely need to be a grading of the property. Removal of the years of gravel build up may address the problem. Maybe the railroad will want the gravel and they will remove it or a portion thereof? It should be noted that the gravel is valuable for public works and utility department purposes. It can be collected by dump trucks and carried away to a laydown area for future use. The discarded gravel used for the bed upon which rails are laid for the trains to ride on over the years has created significant grade differences on the property. I tried to get this in the photos, but you may need to walk the site to realize the order of magnitude in the grade differences. I hope you do so. The more confirmations about what is needed the better our landscaping plan will be. Page 39 of 43 Agenda Item #4. 3) We need an entrance feature, with signage, on Tequesta Drive. 4) We are going to need some kind of fencing to mark the edges of the property in question for a variety of reasons. Perhaps something like that shown in the screenshot below with the rustic fence at the land on Riverside Drive down the street from me? On the other hand, we don't want visiting children running out onto the train tracks so maybe a substantive 6- foot chain link fence with a hedge of equal height will be needed on the boundary with the FEC? It is problematic to encourage the public to come to the site and not secure the site from known hazards. 5) There is a healthy cocoplum hedge along the west edge of the property providing a nice boundary with the properties to the west, but it stops at the south end of the property at 360 Cypress Drive and creates a false east/west barrier as if to say the park ends there, but it does not. The land goes another 400 feet or so south of that point. 6) There is some sort of major drainage structure toward the south end of the property. think it is where the Old Dixie drainage runoff stops its westward journey and heads south to the Loxahatchee River. 7) There are two places where it appears we can gain access to electrical power if we need it. 8) We are going to need a clear line of demarcation about where our property ends and the FEC property begins. I took a photo of a survey stake that may mark the eastern edge of this public property. 9) There are plenty of weeds and invasive plants that will need to be removed. 10) There are way too many Sabal Palms planted there. Some accents are fine, but not that many. Are there other places the Sabal Palms can be used by the Village? They are very hardy and nearly always survive transplanting. 11) There are only a couple of locations where people can access the park from Cypress Drive. Unfortunately, it appears one would have to traverse over private property to get to the 3 Page 40 of 43 Agenda Item #4. park from Cypress Drive. Access from Tequesta Drive is not a problem. Also, the Pineview Road right-of-way intersects the Cypress Park property. This means there is legal, but not necessarily, practical access at the southernmost point. 12) The land needs trees to provide shade. There are many native tree options that we can plant to solve this problem. 13) Benches to sit on will be a very nice thing to have in the park. Since there is no vehicular parking, I'm going to assume pedestrian and bicycle access will be the norm. Thus, bike racks are going to be needed which will require a concrete pad. There was a surprising sort of peacefulness that occurred when I walked the land. I'm sure that gets altered, but still somewhat interesting, when a train comes rolling along or flying by when it's a Brightline. It was kind of like an oasis hidden in the midst of a bustling little metropolis. Check it out and see for yourself. Should we attempt to involve high school students in this project? Manpower is going to be needed particularly on the day that the native plants are brought to the site for planting. Maybe someone can find access to a landscape architect that can design a minimalist plan for installation of native plants? El Page 41 of 43 Agenda Item #4. Page 42 of 43 Agenda Item #4. NOT �T TO SCALF Page 43 of 43