-
Visitors to Lakeside Park may be startled to see that the block at the southeast corner of Main and Yett streets now has no trees. Site-clearing work has started on the city's proposed hotel and conference center, which is expected to be finished early in 2024. The complex will include 123 guest rooms, ballroom and meeting space and a restaurant, bar and cafe. Phil Reynolds/The Highlander
Crews have begun work clearing a number of trees at the site of the planned hotel/conference center in Marble Falls.
Officials say that 20 “protected” trees with 10inch or more circumference including 15 hackberry, three pecan and two oaks as well as five "her itage” pecan trees with a 30-inch or more circumference. Nearly 10 trees removed from the site are considered dead.
Plans include preserving some of the cut wood to be milled for furniture slated to be placed in the completed hotel/conference center.
The need to remove existing trees on the site kindled a more broadbased plan, brokered by the EDC with the developer and approved by the Marble Falls City Council.
In anticipation of the site clearing, the council in September approved a tree-planting agreement with the Marble Falls Economic Development Corporation and the developer of the site.
At that time Marble Falls EDC Executive Director Christian Fletcher explained that “The site doesn’t work without the removal of the trees.”
Once completed, plans include planting ore than 40 new trees on site.
Officials said a mixture of live oaks, burr oaks, Mexican sycamores and bigtooth maples are among the species, providing “a better, more diverse canopy will be restored over time.” Officials detailed the developer plans.
Landscape Architect City documents described how Scott Weaver, the landscape architect for the Ophelia Hotel & Conference Center project, “submitted an aggressive landscaping plan that included the planting of 41 new trees and numerous other large shrubs on the 3-acre site.”
“Because of the number and type of trees on site currently, however, the city’s tree mitigation standards still require an additional 830 inches of mitigation over and above what Weaver has specified," the documents continued. “The MFEDC is requesting that those inches be replanted, at the MFEDC’s expense, over the next three years.”
Trees planted in Phase 1b and 1c of the Parks Master Plan, as well as those planted in conjunction with downtown street improvements, shall be included as part of the plan. MFEDC and the parks department will combine efforts to determine “tree selection, location and timing.”
City Tree Protection The agreement with the municipality includes:
• Included in MFHG’s (Marble Falls Hotel Group) permit application is a planting plan budgeted to cost more than $200,000.00, which includes at least 41 new trees;
• The requirements of the City’s Tree Protection and Mitigation Standards for this project include the replacement of 100% of the caliper inches of protected trees removed and 400% of the caliper inches of heritage trees removed from the site;
• Due to the condition and location of existing trees on the site of the Downtown Hotel and Conference Center, it is not possible to fully meet the requirements of City’s Tree Protection and Mitigation Standards on-site; and
• It is the opinion of the Board of Directors of the MFEDC that the MFEDC’s participation in a Tree Program will benefit the City and will assist the MFEDC in accomplishing its projects and in particular the Downtown Hotel and Conference Center project and its goals of furthering the City’s adopted Downtown Master Plan and Parks Improvement Plan.
Terms of Agreement Excerpts of the terms of the agreement read as
follows: Now therefore, for and in consideration of the sum of ten dollars and other good and valuable consideration, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, as well as the mutual covenants contained herein, the city and the MFEDC do hereby agree as follows: 1. The MFEDC shall fund the replanting of 830 caliper inches of new, approved trees in the City’s parks and streetscapes over the next three years in a total amount up to $124,500.00 (ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR THOUSAND, FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS AND NO CENTS). This amount is the City’s current fee-in-lieu, calculated by multiplying the caliper inches to be mitigated by MFHG by $150.00.
2. Trees planted and funded by the MFEDC as part of Phase 1b and 1c of the Parks Improvement Plan, as well as streetscape improvements along Avenue H and other Downtown streets, shall count toward the MFEDC's financial com mitment and MFHG’s mitigation described in Section 1 above.
3. The Tree Program shall be considered a City project in all respects and for all purposes. All legal requirements related to purchasing, procurement, or other purposes, shall be accomplished by the MFEDC and the City as such requirements apply to a municipality, even if the same legal requirement would not apply to the MFEDC in regard to a project, procedure, or program unrelated to the Tree Program.
4. The MFEDC, to the extent allowed by law, shall utilize economic development sales tax revenue or other funds available to the MFEDC to pay for the Tree Program.
5. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement of the parties hereto as to the subject matter hereof and shall supersede any and all prior agreements and understandings of the parties hereto, whether oral or written. This Agreement can be amended or modified only by written agreement executed by the MFEDC and the City.
6. This Agreement, and the terms, covenants, and conditions herein contained, shall inure to the benefit of and be binding upon the heirs, personal representatives, successors, and assigns of each of the parties hereto. Neither the MFEDC nor the City may assign its respective rights under this Agreement without the other party’s consent.
7. In case any one or more of the provisions contained in this Agreement shall for any reason be held to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, such invalidity, illegality, or unenforceability shall not affect any other provision hereof, and this Agreement shall be construed as if such invalid, illegal, or unenforceable provision had never been contained herein.
Crews are expected to start planting trees in the parks and along streets starting in 2023.