City Council, March 11th - Ambulances and Trees

On Monday Council will consider a report on bringing ambulance service back into the Fire Department and ending the contract with a private business.

Reports arrive by magic!

Here what has seemed striking is how if we want a pedestrian safety study downtown, if we want a Vision Zero plan, if we want a Twenty is Plenty plan, a Councilor has to make a motion and Council has to approve it and approve an appropriation for it or approve a grant application.

But many of these Police and Fire studies and plans are apparently covered under an administrative purchase and approval process that doesn't even seem to hit the Council "administrative purchases" report. They just appear!

A search for the authors of the latest Fire Department report, "triton," turns up nothing, and a search for "ambulance" turns up several recent items, which crucially do not mention studying the prospect of bringing service in house.

• Why the Fire Department Responds to Medical Emergencies with Multiple Apparatus. (Sept. 2022)
• Modification of Fire Department fees related to ambulance services. (Nov. 2022)
• Supplemental Budget 1 for unanticipated City expenses related to operation of the City medic unit. (Jan. 2023)
• Marion County Ambulance Service Area Franchise Agreement Renewal. (Dec. 2023)

There should be more public process, transparency, and Council oversight of these reports and studies.

A quarter century old (Rotary club of Salem)

Also on the agenda are some other items to note. The playground at Riverfront Park is a quarter-century old, and it needs replacement, refresh, and redesign.

The Staff Report looks forward, to new values of inclusivity and broadening notions of play, and also to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Local Government Grant Program, which could fund a redesign beyond merely replacing old equipment.

The City application will seek a grant award not to exceed the maximum request amount of $1 million. The City will provide $1 million in match funds from general obligation bonds (approximately $600,000) and Parks System Development Charges (approximately $400,000) to provide a 50 precent match required by the grant program. The total estimated cost of the project is $2 million.

But the Staff Report might have given more attention retrospectively. It says only "The current playground at Riverfront Park is known as the Rotary Children’s Playground." From the Rotary Club of Salem:

1996-97 was the year the Rotary Club of Salem had its first serving woman President, Ellen Wyatt. Rotary International's theme was "Build the Future with Action and Vision." Rotary Club of Salem exhibited this theme in its projects and programs throughout the year. Under community service, the five Salem-area Rotary clubs agreed to come together to build a lasting expression of Rotary's motto, "Service above Self", in the form of a playground in Salem's new Riverfront Park. The Rotary Playground project cost is $125,000, of which our club's share was $60,000.

The Club has also led on projects for the new amphitheater and the less new pavilion at Riverfront Park. They are involved in a great proportion of the park's central features, and the Staff Report could be more generous about historic credit and placing the playground in a context of an ongoing series of projects the Rotary Club has sponsored.

A shorter report this year

The Urban Forestry group offers the Annual Tree Report, and it's more abbreviated this year, only four pages, focusing on "highlights and major accomplishments."

How about some real talk about failures? What about those trees at Costco? What about the tree failure earlier this year in which a large falling tree branch killed a person? What about the ongoing damage at the cemetery?

At IOOF Pioneer Cemetery (July 2023)

A little close to the root zone (June 2023)

At a "tree" of particular interest here, a supposed Heritage Tree, the honeysuckle at Cottage and Union, there was a lack of coordination on the bikeway project, and the design and construction side found out very late that the honeysuckle merited special protection. 

When we decide we are going to protect a tree, is there in actuality sufficient protection? How are we doing with that? If there is not sufficient protection, why not? On social media there are often pictures at construction sites posted of trees "receiving" protection that doesn't look like much protection, and an annual report might be a good place to engage with that debate.

Conversation on trees in Salem seesaws between tree absolutism — save all the trees! — and indifference or neglect. Finding a balance with trade-offs for valuing trees in an urban context where we also have a housing crisis still seems elusive.

If we tolerated and even induced more apartments and more height, we could save more trees.

That honeysuckle also operates in a zone of legend. The City's has not much publicized that it is in fact a Heritage Tree and is totally silent on what evidence supports the designation. When was it even designated? In an annual report it would be nice to see more discussion of developments in the Heritage program. What of the ongoing conversations about designating the Lower Oak Grove at Bush Park? That's an important group of trees in Salem!

And speaking of housing, there's an Information Report on the AirBnB problem ("short-term rentals," they call them).

Based on the information provided by three separate companies (Avenu, Granicus, and All the Rooms), there are approximately 250 to 300 rentals being advertised on the major platforms on any given day. Approximately 94% of the postings are for non-licensed units....

According to the 2020 US Census, the City has a total of 67,411 housing units. The combined number of approximately 300 ASTRs and STRs represents a half of a percent of the overall housing inventory. From this standpoint, these rentals do not significantly influence the housing market. Nevertheless, each unused STR that could otherwise be utilized for permanent housing may contribute to the overall housing scarcity in the city. Additionally, ASTRs and STRs has the potential to influence rental unit prices, causing an upward trend.

Again, this is an information item only, but for further consideration, Staff offer three options:

1. No changes.
2. Amend regulations to prohibit STR in single family areas.
3. Amend regulations to prohibit STR and/or ASTR in Residential Historic Districts only.

If chosen, the third option would be a clear example of the crypto-exclusionary zoning function of Historic Districts.