”
In response to Mr. Beams statement on why we have extended
landscaping, I’d like to propose to the city fathers of Gilroy that
we have extended paving. I thought the purpose of Santa Teresa
Boulevard was to move cars.
More on landscaping
“In response to Mr. Beams statement on why we have extended landscaping, I’d like to propose to the city fathers of Gilroy that we have extended paving. I thought the purpose of Santa Teresa Boulevard was to move cars. Also, my understanding is that we do not spend money to plant plants and then spend more money to take them out because we overplanted. Why don’t we get on with the business of getting the road to move cars and worry about the landscaping later. At the pace we’re going, the landscaping will be mature enough we won’t have to plant any more because it will all be grown by the time that road gets done. Thank you.”
– “Thank you Red Phone for answering my comment on the planting along Santa Teresa. It sounds to me that the landscaper wants to sell as much labor and material as possible to make the most profit. But it’s up to the city to protect the taxpayers from this kind of gouging. Planting too many plants to just rip them out later is wasteful. We need to address these issues. Thanks again.”
Red Phone:
To get comment and clarification on the landscaping project, Red Phone again contacted Gilroy’s Steve Beams.
According to Beams, the Santa Teresa Landscape Concept Plan dates back even further than the final environmental impact report of November 2001. The Santa Teresa Widening Project’s preliminary design dates back to the early ’90s and went into design in the early 2000. Beams said the landscaping “has a history for why it’s planted the way its planted. The intensive concept landscape plan and design from the projects landscape architect, is very detailed, researched, quantified, and ultimately approved by City Council. … Everything on a Capital Improvement Project of the City of Gilroy is a paper trail that has justification with the paper to back it.”
He added that all materials including controllers, valves, irrigation mainline, shrubs, trees and vines are contract quantities that reflect on the “per plan” design. The contractor charges based on these quantities and unit price that went through a comprehensive bid process.
“We just can’t go and add or delete landscaping because we feel like changing the per plan design,” Beams said. “We might move a tree a foot or two because an unforeseen vault was in the way. The practice of slightly over planting is used most often when dealing with slow growing plants. When this is not done, there are complaints of the landscape being too sparse.”
Beams e-mailed Red Phone a copy of the landscape architect’s “planting notes,” in hopes it might clarify the landscaping.
The plant palette was derived with the help of city staff, according to Beams, and great care was taken to develop a palette that would provide visual interest through flowering or seasonal foliage change. The parkway is quite narrow, and in order to provide shrub massing that ‘fit’ the space provided, the palette was further refined to include plants that remain small enough to fill the space without requiring a lot of pruning, he said. The landscaping should be completed in mid-January.
Beams added that those in question of the project are more than welcome to join him firsthand.
“If anyone wants to experience a City of Gilroy Capital Improvement Project, I’m always inviting of anyone to have a ride a long with me,” he said. “Like the last Monterey Street Improvement Streetscape Phase II project downtown, a lot of citizens of Gilroy said, ‘Wow, the Federal Government had you, Steve, by the penny to the contract, you’re very organized.”
Anyone interested may call 846-0450.
