Sandy Springs has been partnering since the 2018-2019 planting season with Trees Atlanta to provide front yard trees free of charge to residential property owners. Since then, Trees Atlanta has worked with nearly 50 property owners to install new trees as part of the NeighborWoods Right-of-Way Trees program.
The program allows for up to 200 trees to be planted per year at a cost of $250 per tree.
The original agreement with Trees Atlanta called for the city to make payment in four installments over two years: 50% of the total contract value ahead of the planting season, 25% after the trees are planted and verified by the city, 17% after the first year of maintenance and 8% after the second year of maintenance.
The city has found this complicates accounting, especially when not all trees are planted but have already been paid for at a 50% rate.
To simplify things, Sandy Springs recently approved a new agreement, proposed by Trees Atlanta, to change the payment terms to a single full payment after city staff have verified the trees have been properly planted.
The new agreement does not relieve Trees Atlanta of their two-year maintenance responsibilities or any other stipulations of the contract.
Apply for a tree planting: www.treesatlanta.org/yardtree/.
