Battle Brewing Over Trees At Greenwich High School

GREENWICH, CT— Following a ruling by the Town of Greenwich Tree Warden, a battle is shaping up over trees related to the Cardinal Stadium improvement project.

Earlier this week, Tree Warden Dr. Gregory Kramer issued a ruling after a contentious public hearing on trees within the construction site.

The Board of Education had requested the removal of 34 trees so that an ADA compliant parking lot, rain garden for drainage, and access road could be built. That number was later changed to 21 after Russell Davidson, President of KG+D Architects, said on the day of the hearing that 13 trees would not need to be removed for the current phase of the construction project.

Kramer ruled that a handful of trees for the proposed rain garden must stay, as well as two trees along East Putnam Avenue. Twelve trees were approved for removal as part of the ADA access and parking area.

Additionally, Kramer ruled that the trees will be removed upon the planting of 68 trees in the area, double the original removal request from the Board of Education of 34.

Board of Education member Joe Kelly heavily criticized Kramer's ruling, saying that "100 percent, under no conditions could the stadium be done according to the proposal of the tree warden." The ruling, Kelly added, could delay the opening of the stadium, even though he pledged that work will continue elsewhere until completion.

"There are several trees that need to be taken down in order for us to deal with the challenging topography of the property regarding soil and underground rock formations," said Kelly on the proposed rain garden. "We extensively worked with the town on creating the stormwater drainage, which requires us to take some trees down which the Tree Warden is telling us we cannot take down. Therefore, the drainage we spent thousands of dollars on designing and getting approved by the town of Greenwich, would have to be redesigned and we don't believe there is a solution to a redesign that would preserve these trees."

Kramer told Patch that he was given a plan several weeks ago by Davidson that looked at a viable option for a rain garden that would save those trees.

"When I was talking with the architect a few weeks ago, he presented to me an option that would work [for the rain garden], pertaining to saving those trees, that would be able to accommodate up to 70% of the water that would come off the parking lot," Kramer said. The remaining 30% would then be part of the second phase of construction.

"The discussion we had was that that would more than likely work. There were discussions in terms of making mitigations and making those changes in order to accommodate those trees," Kramer added. "There's enough space. I'm not an engineer, but I've worked with enough engineers; there's enough space to accommodate a rain garden without having to cut trees down to put in trees for a rain garden. It doesn't make sense to me."

Kelly also said that there are two trees in the way of an access road that would connect the stadium to East Putnam Avenue. The road needs to be widened.

Kelly said that Kramer was told about all of these issues in advance of the public tree hearing but he "ignored them anyway."

Kramer, even though he said he approved the removal of two trees closer towards the bleachers to help, believed the road was wide enough already.

"Even prior to agreeing to removing those other two trees [near the bleachers], there's construction vehicles going in and out of that worksite. So big trucks of all sorts and sizes. My question was, why does it have to be wider if it's accommodating big trucks already? There seemed to be some extra land on the left side going towards Putnam that could accommodate if there's any extra space needed," Kramer said. "I never got a clear answer other than, 'Oh, those trees are in the way.'"

Kelly remarked that, "We can no longer safely protect the 2,000 people or so within the stadium, according to the regulations of the police and fire safety. There are zero alternatives without a total redesign of the structure of the Cardinal Stadium project that we can do that."

Kelly said he hopes a compromise can be reached with Kramer through conversations in the coming days. If not, the Board of Education has 10 days from the time of the ruling to appeal.

Members from the First Selectman's Advisory Committee for People with Disabilities could also pursue legal action. Kelly said that members believe federal ADA regulations and requirements trump the state authority that is given to the tree warden.

According to a land use attorney who is working with the Board of Education on the matter, an appeal could take upwards of a year, Kelly pointed out.

"This could delay the opening of the stadium significantly. The stadium will be built. There's nothing that's stopping us from building Cardinal Stadium. We will continue to build Cardinal Stadium. But without ADA parking and without safe fire and police accessibility, we will not be able to use Cardinal Stadium," Kelly said.