Community Development
City Completes Tree Planting in City Parking Lots
The City of Cortland was fortunate to receive $7,500 in Community and Urban Forestry funds from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation in Fiscal Year 2005. The City provided a 50% match for this project. The original focus of this project was four parking lots located in the City’s Central Business District. Due to escalating costs and other issues, the City decided to focus its efforts on three parking lots: Orchard Street, Port Watson Street, and the Main Street parking lot located adjacent to the Marketplace Mall.
The City appointed a local committee to guide the parking lot renovations. Cindy Teter, Registered Landscape Architect, was hired by the City to do the design work and oversee the landscaping contractor, D&L Landscaping of Cortland.
Community and Urban Forestry grants are awarded to increase a community’s tree stock, or urban forest. The City has been fortunate in that it has received several of these grants in the past. The purpose of the parking lot project was to increase the shade in these lots and to reduce urban heat island effect. The trees selected include a mixture of Amur Maple, Kousa Dogwood, Green Ash, and American Elm. In all, 22 new trees were added to the Cortland tree stock. The City created new planting beds which also included the planting of bushes and perennials in addition to the trees. The Main and Orchard Street parking lots were repaved and striped. New parking lot signs for all three sites completed the project.
The DEC encourages grant recipients to educate the public about the importance of trees to the community. It is hoped that the aesthetic appeal of these new sites will be appreciated by the public in addition to their ability to provide needed shade.
Photo: new and improved parking lot on Orchard Street.