St. Petersburg is helping residents and business owners to beautify their communities, according to Neighborhood Relations Director Susan Ajoc.
The city will assess what areas need the most coverage and shade. But first, Ajoc said people can reach out to their neighbors and see who wants to participate. She said the program will make communities look better and bring people together.
Ajoc’s office will review the information after property owners send it to their neighborhood associations.
“With the neighborhoods saying that they’re willing to do a tree assessment if they haven’t already done one, and kind of develop a tree plan so they have an idea in terms of what areas need trees,” Ajoc said.
Another plus in the program is to increase St. Pete’s tree coverage. It’s currently sitting at a little over 27% percent. But Ajoc said the goal is to get to 30%.
“So there are some areas in the city that, that are lacking in and some trees and you can’t it’s harder to do the to try to get to that 30% if you’re only focused along the major streets,” she said. “So getting it out into the neighborhoods and our neighborhoods love their trees as well, is really a good thing.”
This has type of program has been done before in St. Pete. But Ajoc said for this round, the city wants to focus less on major streets and buildings, and more on neighborhoods and businesses.
