Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:13:02 -0500
Subject: Update on trees
From: Cindy Baker cjbaker47@earthlink.net

Greetings to all Traders Point neighbors:

Those who attended the meeting on February 23 at the Creamery regarding impending tree trimming will remember that a small committee was selected by Ike Randolph, our City-County Councilman, and Greg Fennig of IPL, to represent the area in talks with IPL for the purpose of working out a mutually acceptable plan for trimming in the area. At the time of that meeting, some neighbors had already become alarmed by the apparent intention of IPL to perform a massive removal of trees in some areas, inconsistent with past trimming policies, and by recent past experiences with IPL representatives and their sub-contractor, Wright Tree Service. That sense of alarm had prompted a few of us to seek legal counsel resulting in the hiring of Greg Silver. Solicitation for contributions to a fund for paying Mr. Silver have been distributed and a number of you have contributed.

As any of you who happened to see the Channel 8 News last Monday evening will be aware, those talks are continuing. At this point, we would like to report to all of you what we have learned and what we think will be the outcome.

What IPL Wants
IPL sees two different needs in our area. First, in the case of their distribution lines, those lines along our roads which supply our individual houses, they expect to trim as they have in the past. Their standards for those lines require 8 foot clearance around the lines and more underneath to allow for growth prior to the next cutting. Second, IPL does intend to "remove all tall-growing species" - that means almost everything - regardless of height, under its transmission lines. What would be left, and in what condition, is unclear. The transmission lines in our area are on the tall poles along the south side of 86th St. from the substation near Lafayette Rd proceeding east past 465. IPL requires complete removal of tall-growing species from a strip of ground 50 feet wide and nearly 2 miles long in order to maintain "safety and reliability" of their lines. They claim that there is a federal mandate to upgrade line safety since the recent blackout in the Northeast. (That rationale is diluted somewhat by our research showing that IPL's removal requirement was in place in Zionsville in 2002 - before the blackout.) We think it's motivated by bottom line.

About Our Rights
After considerable, read that CONSIDERABLE, research we have learned that we property owners and IPL and the City have rights in this matter. Many people buy their homes without giving much, if any, thought to the notation "ROW" on the survey. Your committee has had to dig into the dark corners of County and City offices to find out where the "Right of Way" lines really are (in some cases it's still unclear) and who has what rights within them. The following is what matters. The city has the right to control activities within that area. Typical uses for "ROW" are sidewalks, access for location of utilities' equipment, drainage control and plantings. Two things matter most to us here. First, the plantings within the ROW are the property of the city and controlled by the Parks Department. If you want to plant or remove anything in a ROW, you need a permit from the city, period. If you plant something in the ROW without a permit, and it is not on the City's approved list of plantings, they have the right to remove it. We encourage you to look at your survey and be aware of where your ROW line is. It is important to note that while IPL may want to cut all tall-growing species, the city has the final approval over what is actually removed.

Second, when the City grants use of ROW for utilities' lines, the utility is also granted the right to reasonable access to the ROW, and in some cases, neighboring private property, for the purpose of maintaining and protecting their lines. Their conduct on the ROW is governed by the Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission (IURC) whose code, we believe, carries the force of law.

Where We Stand
A class action suit against IPL in 2002 resulted in the development of IPL's standards regarding tree trimming called "Project Cooperation". We encourage everyone to obtain a copy available on their web site at www.ipalco.com or by calling them. If you read it, you will recognize what they are doing right and, possibly wrong.

Project Cooperation dictates that IPL adhere to ANSI standards which determines their method of trimming. In the case of local distribution lines, trimming as in the past can be expected, and it could be ugly and potentially harmful to your trees because of the severity of the trimming. In some cases, particularly when the tree is directly beneath the lines, removing the tree may be the better option to continual trimming and disfigurement of the tree. You may request this if you desire.

IPL claims full responsibility for their tree trimming subcontractor, but keep an eye on them. You have the right to stop them if they are overstepping their bounds. If they are non-English speaking, they should provide you with a card that communicates with them that you want them to stop what they are doing until an English-speaking representative is made available and you can register your desire for action on your property. If you choose, you may hire your own tree trimming service to do this work but the service is obligated to trim to IPL's standards. IPL has agreed to have their Project Coordinator and an independent arborist oversee the trimming in this area.

The massive tree removal planned by IPL along 86th St. and the trees on 88th, 93rd, Moore, Connaroe and Lafayette Roads (all the trees marked in red), has been held up for over 2 months while we have negotiated for a satisfactory alternative plan. Federal authority over activities of power companies is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). They oversee the state entities, in our case IURC, to whom AES/IPL answers to. Yes, FERC may have sent a mandate to do a better job of protecting the electric grids, but the authority for how to do that was left to the individual power companies. Since our local company has been allowed to declare its own interpretation of what must be done, which may not be seen as a nationally agreed upon mandated method, we believe we have the right to take exception (which we have) and to seek a better outcome (which we are).

You may have seen the "IPL is a good neighbor" promo spots on TV. We would like this to be true, but when they want to take away, in this case, over a thousand trees, from saplings to very large, creating a giant scar along 86th St and the other roads, and deprive the home owners of existing shielding from the ever increasing traffic, and create potential for erosion problems, we think they should be adequately "giving back". In addition to the harm to the immediate property owners, this will forever alter the character of this area.

Negotiations are underway and there have been many meetings over the matter, and we have involved many people. In addition to Mr. Silver, we have had great support from Ike Randolph who is working toward a city-wide Tree Ordinance that will address this matter for future. Joe Wynns, the Director of Indy Parks, has been extremely helpful in moving the negotiation along. Our goal in this matter is for this project to be a poster-child success story for the ability of a city, utility, and local homeowners to get together and work out a solution good for all parties. We would like our solution to be adopted into a city-wide policy so other neighborhoods do not continually have to fight this battle.

The highlights of what we are proposing to the IPL and City are that they not cut all "tall-growing species" in the Right of Way unless the tree poses an imminent threat to the lines and that trees removed are to be replaced on a 1 to 1 basis. We are also proposing a long term resolution to the tree policy that we would like to see become part of the city's Tree Ordinance. There are additional details regarding the proposal and if you would like to know more, please contact one of the committee members. Currently the city and IPL are reconsidering their planned removal and replacement for this area. They will be coming back with a plan in the next 2 weeks following our April 18th meeting.

What You Can Do
We have good momentum, but need to build awareness of this issue. IPL is continuing to stand their ground and we need community opinion to influence their position. Below are suggested people for you to contact with your opinion on this matter. We have 1 week to make our voices heard in this matter as that is when the final proposal is targeted for completion. If you have other contacts you feel may be helpful to us, please share them with us so that we can raise awareness throughout the community.