Parks and Public Landscaping Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2017 07 06

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second season one could observe the vast change in the vigor of that planting design. The plant beds laid dormant, became a weed bed and now has been replaced...at what costs? We will be keeping an eye on the maintenance efforts of this new design. Purpose of the Boards When the (then) HFAB was presented the planting plan for the South Street Underpass project about 2 years ago, the board unanimously voiced the opinion that there are too many plants and that this will lead to unintentional costs to our community. The (final) planting plan was presented to our Board last week and we were very disheartened to see that there was only a 15% reduction of the plant material. In our opinion, this was a very passive effort to appease the board comments. A more drastic reduction was expected based on all the points we have previously discussed in this letter. We have pointed out that the City has not developed architectural design standards and guidelines. We have made the argument that the City establish this strategic guidance to strengthen our community identity and recognize the importance of wayfinding. With these guidelines in place, the City Staff can do their job of providing the initial review of the materials, architectural details and planting/irrigation plan of each new project. Then when a project is presented to our board we can focus on providing more purposeful and constructive comments to these projects. In Conclusion Signage is a key element of wayfinding. We want to commend the Parks Department for their leadership and vision in the effort to standardize park and open space signage. The new signs are an excellent example of how standardization visually influences the character and identity of our community. Below are examples of the new standard for these signs. 9