{"id":8350,"date":"2016-05-06T01:40:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T05:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=8350"},"modified":"2016-05-06T01:40:57","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T05:40:57","slug":"state-trees-planted-at-evergreen-woods-in-line-with-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2016\/05\/state-trees-planted-at-evergreen-woods-in-line-with-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"State: Trees Planted at Evergreen Woods In Line With Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Traffic Noise in Evergreen Woods, Brick, NJ\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/165535337?dnt=1&app_id=122963\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Evergreen Woods residents are continuing their criticism of trees planted in their development, even as Garden State Parkway officials say the greenery that was added to the complex is fast-growing an in line with what residents requested.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, residents of the complex have been lobbying the state for a sound wall to be installed between the highway and their community, but New Jersey Turnpike Authority officials have said the area does not qualify for a sound wall because the expansion of shoulders does not constitute an expansion of the highway itself.<\/p>\n<p>In a compromise, the Turnpike Authority \u2013 which has jurisdiction over the Parkway \u2013 agreed to fund the planing of several hundred trees and maintain them for two years. After the trees were planted, however, residents said they were much smaller than promised.<\/p>\n<p>The authority, for its part, told Shorebeat and Brick officials that the trees planted were selected by Evergreen Woods\u2019 own landscaper, and they were specifically chosen as a species that grows quickly and will provide long-term protection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe landscaping plan was created in consultation with the homeowners\u2019 association,\u201d said Thomas Feeney, Turnpike Authority spokesman.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8351\" style=\"width: 628px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/egwoods_trees.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8351\" class=\"size-large wp-image-8351\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/egwoods_trees-1024x681.jpg\" alt=\"New trees planted at Evergreen Woods, May 2016. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" width=\"618\" height=\"411\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/egwoods_trees-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/egwoods_trees-400x266.jpg 400w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/egwoods_trees-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/egwoods_trees-310x205.jpg 310w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-8351\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New trees planted at Evergreen Woods, May 2016. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Likewise, Mayor John Ducey said he has been in touch with the authority following the criticism and learned that the trees that were planted have a better chance of staying alive than a full-grown tree transplanted to the site.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA tree that is already tall has a better chance of dying off,\u201d Ducey said he learned recently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe type and location of the trees, the timing of the planting, and even the treatment of the soil were all based on feedback from the homeowners group,\u201d Feeney said.<\/p>\n<p>Still, residents say larger trees, and a sound wall, should have been added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey might look aesthetically fine, but they won\u2019t stop a diesel truck from rolling off the Parkway into our children or one of the homes of our neighbors,\u201d said john Sluka, an Evergreen Woods resident.<\/p>\n<p>To that end, Feeney said trees are not a substitute to a sound wall, which under the law Evergreen Woods is not entitled to.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA sound wall was never in play,\u201d said Feeney, in an e-mail. \u201cLike other highway agencies, the Turnpike Authority builds sound walls in connection with construction projects along existing roadways (a) if travel lanes are being added to the road or (b) if the existing travel lanes are being moved closer to neighboring homes, schools, churches, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for the trees, Feeney said the species chosen \u2013 the\u00a0Leyland cypress \u2013 was chosen for its survival and rapid growth rate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are known as a \u2018fast-growing privacy tree,'\u201d said Feeney.\u00a0They grow to over 30-feet tall and 20-feet wide \u2026\u00a0it can add 3 feet in height and a proportionate amount in width annually in its early years of growth.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2016\/05\/state-trees-planted-at-evergreen-woods-in-line-with-agreement\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Evergreen Woods residents are continuing their criticism of trees planted in their development, even as Garden State Parkway officials say the greenery that was added to the complex is fast-growing an in line with what residents requested&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,248,170,249],"class_list":["post-8350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-evergreen-woods","tag-garden-state-parkway","tag-new-jersey-turnpike-authority"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/egwoods_trees.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-2aG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}