2004 Robbie Park STA, Rodney Kempf

New Search

s EUGENE City Attorney Civil Department City of Eugene 360 East 10th Avenue, Suite 300 Eugene, Oregon 97401 (541) 682 -5080 May 20, 2004 BY FAx 342 -6177 AND FIRST CLASS MAIL Randall E. Thwing Attorney at Law P.O. Box 11064 Eugene, OR 97440 Re: Street Tree Plan Agreement for Robbie Park Dear Mr. Thwing: This letter responds to your letter addressed to the City of Eugene, dated May 10, 2004, in which you demand that the City pay your client, Rod Kempf, $3,300.00. For the reasons set forth below, the City denies your claim that the City has "failed and neglected to comply with the terms and provisions of the Street Tree Plan Agreement for Robbie Park, dated June 4, 1999." Initially, the City's Street Tree Program placed responsibility to plant and maintain street trees within a development solely on the developer. In response to requests from developers who did not want to be burdened with that responsibility, the City offered to relieve developers of the obligation. Eugene Code 7.280 and Administrative Rule R -7.280 give developers the option of having the City plant and establish the street trees; or, the developers can plant and establish the street trees themselves. While the option to plant the street trees themselves was readily available to your client, he chose to have the City plant and maintain the street trees within the Robbie Park development. The City disputes that Mr. Kempf paid for, but did not receive, ten trees. The Street Tree Plan Agreement (hereinafter "the Agreement ") between the City and Mr. Kempf was never intended to obligate the City to plant a specific number of trees. Instead, the purpose of the Agreements was to alleviate your client from the street tree planting and maintenance responsibility. The Agreement requires the City to plant street trees within the developments in accordance with the procedures, standards, and requirements of R- 7.280. By planting as many trees in the development as the City was able to, based on the available space, the City met its obligation to plant street trees within the above - listed developments in accordance with R- 7.280.