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Connie Spellman, director of Omaha by Design, helps Mayor Mike Fahey and representatives from the Morton Meadows Neighborhood Association plant a tree on Twinridge Boulevard April 27.
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Green Streets Pilot Project Begins in Morton Meadows
For residents of the Morton Meadows Neighborhood Association, Omaha’s recent Arbor Day celebration was more than an occasion to host city officials and media outlets. It marked the beginning of a project that will bring close to 60 new trees to a local boulevard.
Three varieties of oak and a selection of trees with seasonal interest will be planted along Twinridge Boulevard in the public right of way and median areas, said Pat Slaven, project coordinator and planner with the City of Omaha Department of Parks, Recreation and Public Property. The project, which kicked off April 27 with a tree planting ceremony featuring Mayor Mike Fahey, is a pilot for “Green Streets for Omaha,” a master plan that calls for the greening of city streets. The plan establishes design and landscape standards, addresses maintenance concepts and standards, and lays out a process to help identify priorities for implementation.
“It’s gratifying to see a process move from plan to implementation,” said Omaha by Design Director Connie Spellman, who also participated in the April 27 ceremony. The completion of a Green Streets master plan is one of 73 recommendations outlined in the Urban Design Element, a planning tool that lays out a framework for changing the quality of development in Omaha while protecting and enhancing the city’s natural environment.
The Twinridge project is the recipient of an $18,000 grant from the 2007 Community Enhancement Program. Funded by the Nebraska Department of Roads and administered by the Nebraska Forest Service and the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, the program makes federal transportation funds available to assist communities and other organizations in Nebraska with the implementation of public property landscaping projects that improve the state’s transportation corridors.
The grant funded 80 percent of the project, Slaven said. The city will fund the remaining 20 percent.
Twinridge Boulevard, which runs from 44th and Woolworth to 45th and Center, was selected as the plan’s pilot site for a number of reasons. An inventory of the boulevard’s tree population revealed a half dozen silver maples in severe decline, Slaven said. As is typical in older neighborhoods, disease, inclement weather and age all contribute to the demise of trees. In addition, the relatively short length of the boulevard made it the ideal site to fund a complete project, Slaven said.
A third and important factor was the active nature of the Morton Meadows Neighborhood Association. “The residents don’t have a local park, so the boulevard is their main green space,” Slaven noted. The group hosted an Omaha by Design Place Game workshop in 2003. In recent years, the association has applied for and received funding to carry out a number of beautification projects for the boulevard, including entrance plantings and the addition of a circular brick patio/planter and bench seating.
On any given day, families can be spotted playing in the boulevard’s green space, said Doreen Herbert, president of the Morton Meadows Neighborhood Association. “It’s also our main meeting place,” she said. “We hold our neighborhood picnic there each year, and we’re thinking about having a ‘Blues on the Boulevard’ music event.”
Herbert, who’s lived in the area for 11 years, said she has witnessed the loss of stately trees in her block to disease, and is thrilled the neighborhood has been given a role in helping shape the boulevard’s green design.
The majority of the new trees should be planted by early to mid-June, with the remainder scheduled to go in this fall.
“Green Streets for Omaha” received an Honor Award from the Iowa chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects last month. For more information about the plan, visit http://www.ci.omaha.ne.us/parks. For more information about the Morton Meadows Neighborhood Association, visit http://www.mortonmeadows.com/.
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