Interurban Trail Tree Meeting Tonight at 6 p.m.

Seattle City Light will hold a meeting tonight at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20 to address Westminster Triangle neighbors and others concerns about tree removal on the utility's right-of-way on the Interurban Trail in Shoreline.

The utility will offer an update and revised plans following the last meeting on Aug. 23 which resulted in Seattle City Light agreeing to postpone tree removal and work with the city to develop an alternative to removing 40 trees.

The meeting will take place at from 6-7:30 p.m. at 32nd District Rep. Cindy Ryu's office, 15005 Aurora Ave. N.

"We’re going to get back together with interested property owners adjacent to the area," Scott Thomsen, a senior strategic advisor for Seattle City Light said. "We listened closely to what folks were saying last time."

The utility will make a short presentation and will take some questions from the audience.

Photos will be displayed showing Seattle City Light's solution.

"There will be an opportunity to walk the trail and talk about specific trees," Thomsen said. "We’ve listened to what the community is saying there and have made adjustments accordingly."

The trees in question were going to be removed because they were The original plan was to remove them and replace them with smaller trees that would not interfere with the lines.

However, about 550 people signed a petition asking Seattle City Light to continue its current trimming and maintenance program rather than remove the trees. They were concerned about maintaining a buffer between the neighborhood and busy Aurora Ave. North, runoff and dust issues, and the way the utility handled the plan.

that Suzanne Hartman, a Seattle City Light spokeswoman, admitted that the utility sould have gone to the public with its plans first before proceeding to remove the trees.

"I think our biggest mistake was not talking to the community first," she said. "For that, we need to take responsibility."