Commission to vote on new greenspace policy

The City Commission is expected to vote today whether to approve changes to the greenspace policy, which dictates how many plants and permeable surfaces are placed downtown.

The city’s master plan originally stated that the city should “reduce the use of shrubs and bushes to a bare minimum.” But a recent shift toward more greenspace has resulted in a rewording of the city’s master plan to read that greenspace “provides environmental and economic advantages and is generally preferred over hardscape.”

That complete shift in policy resulted from a volunteer work group that the city put together to come up with a new greenspace policy. A couple of committee members felt the new policy is too extreme.

“My hope was that we were going to come up with a policy that favored both (green space and hardscape),” Andrew Foley said. “But I don’t think that happened.”

Contact Robin Roy at [email protected].