Dear Liberty Square Homeowner:
Following the tree removal work earlier this spring, many of you have expressed concern and interest in the issues the neighborhood is currently facing with the trees and sidewalks.
At the last Homeowner’s Association Meeting, held on May 3rd, the community voted to form an Ad-Hoc committee to deal with tree-related issues in the neighborhood. The committee was formed from those volunteering on that same night. Since that time, members of the board of directors and the tree committee have met with the city to discuss various options for tree and infrastructure management. The City of Acworth has committed to fixing all of the sidewalks in the neighborhood, including those sidewalks impacted where trees still exist, and will do so this season. Many of you may have seen the orange cones placed on some of the sidewalks with no work having progressed. This is because the city has determined that the amount of concrete to repair is too big a job for their in-house teams and they have sought an outside contractor. The city is planning to invest $11,000 towards repairing 540 feet of sidewalks.
We have also been informed by the City that there is a longer-term issue with the trees that until now had not been brought to light. According to utility surveys done by the City (and confirmed via the plan submitted by the builder to the City when the neighborhood was being constructed), the power, gas, telephone, and cable lines were buried in bundles right beneath the trees that line our streets. The City has acknowledged that this was an oversight at the time of construction and should not have been allowed to happen. The City’s concern is that due to the fact that these cables are buried in bundles rather than in conduit, it’s possible that in the future the neighborhood may experience infrastructure problems should tree roots cause a short in any of the lines. The City has stated that residents in Liberty Square may be facing 24-48+ hours of power outages should we ever encounter a problem, as wide scale trenching would need to be done in order to find and repair the problem.
The City has recommended a “wait and see” approach with regards to the buried utility lines in the neighborhood. While they advised that the only way to truly eliminate the risk would be to remove all of the trees, they understand that maintaining the aesthetic integrity of the neighborhood is also important.
That being said, the position of the City at this time is that the sidewalks must be repaired in order to maintain a certain level of safety for those in the neighborhood. They have a great deal of concern about the way the trees are impacting the sidewalks, and have stated that they will be removing additional trees that they believe pose an infrastructure risk. While the HOA has stated that it will not be removing any trees in the neighborhood this year, we would like to make clear that as the trees lie on City land, the City will be removing additional trees as they deem necessary to avoid future sidewalk problems. They have also stated categorically that their position is that the neighborhood not replant any trees which are removed, as there is simply not enough room within the neighborhood to support mature trees without impact to both sidewalks and underground utilities.
Following the meetings with the City, the tree committee has put together a list of options moving forward following the initial repairs and tree removal by the city. These options are:
● Option 1: Continue to allow the city to handle all future repairs to the sidewalks. We have been warned by the city that should they continue to handle the maintenance that they will remove any trees causing damage to the sidewalks at the time of repair.
● Option 2: Raise funds to cover future sidewalk repairs without the assistance of the city. We discussed this option with the city, and while it’s not being presented to us as an option for this initial round of repairs (as the city has already procured funding and a contractor), we as a neighborhood would have the option to manage future repairs ourselves. This may leave us with the option of leaving trees intact, but would require sidewalks to be diverted around problem areas and encroach upon homeowner property in some situations. This would also mean that the city would no longer be responsible for the maintenance of the sidewalks, and the burden of future costs would be upon the HOA.
● Option 3: Individual homeowners can assume the maintenance costs of the sidewalks bordering their homes should they object to the removal of trees adjacent to their property. The City has advised that in this scenario, individual homeowners would be responsible for repairing any trip hazards that develop as the trees mature, and that the City would not resume ownership of maintenance in the future unless the trees in question were removed.
These options will be up for discussion at the next scheduled HOA meeting on June 25th at 7PM in the clubhouse. We invite all those interested to attend the meeting, where we will not only discuss the options but also have the ability to ask questions of City of Acworth representatives Mark Hipp, Director of Public Works, and Brandon Douglas, Assistant City Manager.
For additional information on this and other neighborhood issues, we invite you to visit our newly created web site at LibertySquareAcworth.com. Sign up for our email list and you will receive the most up-to-date communications.