Weston Planning Board Approves Removal of Declining Red Oak at Merriam Street

WESTON — May 17, 2023 — Weston Planning Board unanimously approved removing a 37-inch red oak at 306 Merriam Street and endorsed two lot-line adjustment plans at its May 17 meeting. Vice Chair Alex Selvig, who led a morning site visit with staff, described the tree as surrounded by pavement with only inches of exposed soil and fungal growth advancing up the trunk, conditions he called worse than the 2019 Davey Associates assessment. The board also agreed by consensus to sign an ANR plan adjusting roughly 9,000 square feet between two Cart Path properties owned by the same party, and voted to sign a second ANR plan at 43 and 49 Concord Road after town counsel confirmed a property merger had extinguished prior easements. A 405 North Avenue hearing was continued to June 21. Chair Leslie Glynn flagged that the town's annual tree budget of more than $200,000 is spent entirely on removal and storm cleanup, with no line item for replacement — a gap the board hopes to address through a formal tree maintenance plan and newly contracted canopy-mapping software that will track aerial imagery back to 2016.