This is a crime and I hope you will like the NEW look of Alpharetta when you get through destroying it. Jean E. Williams
I'm sorry I will be unable to attend your city council meeting on the 6th.

I encourage lots and lots of pictures to be taken of the area and the trees now. They will speak volumes when the Mayor (43%) and the pro tree killing, city plan changing council members are up for reelection. Remember Cheryl Oakes (one term and thrown out) who also thought she was smarter than the citizens of Alpharetta. Belle Isle is known to have higher office aspirations. Hope they all understand that their actions are being carefully watched. Hope they reconsider and make the right decision.

Please don't cut down that tree! I'm sorry that I will be out of town and will miss the meeting.

Margit, it will be a sad day if that tree has to be cut.

This is crazy! If any of us has a tree that needs to be removed we need permission.
The city even has an arborist that will come out to advise. Usually tree removal is based on the tree being diseased or dying. There is nothing wrong with that tree except that our "leaders" want a car to be parked over it??? We can't wait to react to this after it is taken down. An entire forest was clear-cut on Milton Pkwy years ago to make way for something that never came through - does anyone remember how nice it used to look? It's not so pretty now. Do not cut down this tree!
One of the things my visitors comment on is how nice our town is with all of the trees!

Tonight 7:30 at City Hall....hope we can make a difference, now is the the time to make the building adjustments and save the trees.
I've learned that whatever variation of the design plans, the most important point is a gathering place for people. We need to be able to walk there, meet and mingle with our neighbors.
We need to sit under trees, have coffee, shop at the market. I hope we have that feeling in our City Center design plan . I've realized I love the west side of our village. The brick fronts and sidewalks, loved going into Southern Comforts then the art store. Love the little corner deli. Love the shops on the west side of N Main.
I think that is the heart of our village.
From what I've read about successful, vibrant areas it is always the cozy little main street of eclectic shops and cafes that gives a village it's identity and keeps it going.
I truly hope the council hears this tonight.

It is truly a shame that so many trees were surreptitiously hacked down after the city took great care to protect their critical root zones while demolishing the homes nestled below these glorious trees. The additional removal of specimen trees on this site is absolutely unforgivable.

I would be fined by the City of Alpharetta if I removed a healthy tree that size from my own property!

Please everyone try and attend city hall council meeting tonight at 7:30.
Hopefully we will have some media coverage.

Everyone meeting at Brook Street Park at 6:30. Yes, I'll be there!

Any information from the meeting?

The reports presented during the Council meeting last night showed the City, so far, has managed to prepare a plan that may save 12 more trees than the concept drawing prepared last year in advance of the bond referendum that was approved by more than 71% of voters. Various Council members also reported they were looking for ways to preserve as much green space as possible.

Another item discussed in response to questions regarding sustainability was this - the intent is for all buildings on the site to be built consistent with the standards that would lead to LEED certified status, though we've not yet discussed or decided whether to spend taxpayer money on the LEED certification process. The buildings currently on site certainly are not constructed in such a way to qualify.

Finally, the consultants reported on the difference in the green space between the concept drawing and the currently approved plan. The town green has been reduced from 1.0 acres to 0.94 acres, and the park has been reduced from 5.0 acres to 4.82 acres.

All are welcome to contact me if you have any questions - mcross@Alpharetta.ga.us.

I will have my report on the meeting today, including comments from a portion of the residents who spoke on various viewpoints. If I miss you, there's always the comment stream to add your views.

While the room may have been filled with people who claimed to have attended several of the public meetings prior to the bond and again when the current site plan was presented, it became very apparent to this observer from comments being made that they must not have listened to what was being said. For example, moving Haynes Bridge Road has been part of the previous plans as well as the current site plan. Plans for community gathering areas in the park were presented (along with a band shell) during the public hearings. The parking garage was on plans at the conceptual stage...it is not something new.

One person spoke last night that if trees were cut down it would diminish his property values. Yet, when his subdivision was being constructed, the developer did a clear cut. The subdivision is beautiful today and he should ask himself if the neighbors around that subdivision felt like their property values would be diminished by the clearcutting done to give him and his neighbors a beautiful residential area.

The group at last night's meeting does not represent how all people in Alpharetta feel about the process were are going through. Many of us trust the people we elected to give us a viable revitalized downtown which will be successful.

I for one am not interested in spending $29 million on a development doomed for failure to cut down one particular tree which one man claimed had to be saved at all costs.

I cannot take credit for starting the online petition. That was started by another resident of Alpharetta and then signed by me and many other residents of Alpharetta. I'm afraid, Ms.Bristol, you have vastly under-estimated the "group" with whom you are dealing.

@Michael Cross
Re: "the original packet of information"

None of this information from the landscape architect was shared with the public before last night -- not a part of the original packet of info. I assume that all of Council had not seen it either since they all got up from their chairs to see the presentation. I have to think that if that information had been known on 6/18, the questions raised about the trees would have been addressed then.... but they weren't.

It seems to me that the landscape architect drawings were a *reaction* to public outrage, not a planned part of the process. This is why people are upset.... the trees are an afterthought.

The man who said that you can manipulate statistics and renderings to show anything you want was absolutely correct. Perhaps you've convinced yourselves but you've not convinced me. The City Hall still sits in Brooke Street Park. That is not what I voted for. Please do the right thing.

Academy Park Anon. As an original resident of Academy Park, I know for a fact that the developer cut down many trees, and for sure specimen trees, to build what we now have as a beautiful and vibrant subdivision. It is so hypocritical and mean spirited for my fellow Academy Park residents to become overnight tree huggers and anti-development crazies. Trees have a life expectancy just like we do, and what needs to be done in a sane, logical manner for development to occur should never be stopped in the name of "protection".

Sincerely,

Dancliff Trace Resident
(Anonymous due to guaranteed retaliation from the crazies)

Does the song stating "Pave Paradise put up a parking lot" come to mind?

"don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got till it's gone?"