Commission advances downtown tree plan and shade‑tree ordinance work for October

Chair reported progress on a downtown tree-planting plan requested by borough administration and said she is combining a 2024 resource list with recommendations from comparable municipalities. She expects to share a draft memo with the commission in the next week and said the borough’s engineers are revising maps needed to finalize planting locations in the downtown area.

The commission also noted the shade-tree ordinance is outdated (a prior draft dates from earlier years) and indicated that after finalizing the planting plan they will resume ordinance updates and prepare recommendations to present to borough council. The group flagged several downtown spots where underground utilities or narrow planting strips may require alternative approaches such as oversized planters for multi-year staging.