Milpas Street Crosswalk Safety and Sidewalk Widening Project aims to bring safer conditions
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - When walking or driving along the Milpas corridor in Santa Barbara an umbrella of trees hovers over the streets, but along the sidewalks and for pedestrians safety concerns arise.
Santa Barbara Public Works plans to remove some of the trees under the Milpas Street Crosswalk Safety and Sidewalk Widening Project.
"Milpas unfortunately ranks number two in the city for most involved collisions between pedestrians and vehicles," said Supervising Transportation Planner, Jessica Grant.
The large trees that provide shade through out the corridor have torn up sidewalks and reduce visibility for pedestrians. 8 of the 13 trees slated for removal are laurel fig, or ficus trees and the recommendation comes from the city’s Street Tree Advisory Committee.
The specific reasons for removing the trees include five due to accessibility issues, especially for folks in wheelchairs, five near intersections for sidewalk widening and three for obstructing motorists views at intersections.
“We are able to have 82 trees remaining along this corridor and the reason of the removal of the 13, 8 will be ficus tree removals and those are due to again safety issues. although we’re removing 13 of the trees we will be planting 37 new trees along the corridor," said Grant.
The 37 new trees are expected to be a mix of four species including eucalyptus trees.
Some folks on social media are concerned about replacing the fig trees with eucalyptus, arguing they are invasive and can be fire hazards, but according to Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation's Urban Forest Superintendent Nathan Slack, there are many species of eucalyptus and not all of the eucalyptus species are fire hazards.
"It is narrow and there is a big tree there, but people manage, we've all been able to work around that and it feels like a huge loss for the community," said community member Kate Clark.
