City Council OKs Landscaping, Live Oaks for Clayton Road Medians

Clayton Road’s medians are in for a makeover.

The City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved a $230,000 landscaping plan that would replace the shrubs and trees on the four medians between Mitchell Canyon Road and Oakhurst Drive with illuminated live oak trees, colorful plants and flowers and an upgraded irrigation system.

“I’m really looking forward to the first shovel,” said Vice Mayor Howard Geller after reviewing the proposal.

The medians won’t simply be replanted — they’ll be dug up and completely renovated to get rid of poor soil and remove the current greenery, which doesn’t grow well in Clayton’s climate, said City Maintenance Supervisor John Johnston, who worked on the design.

The new plan calls for five live oak trees, each surrounded by LED lights, to be spread across the medians. Two of the medians will feature a variety of plants and flowers, ranging from one to five feet tall, on either side of the trees. Another will feature a similar variety of plants and flowers inside planter boxes. 

The idea was not just to make the medians look nicer, but to make the street feel more open, said Johnston. He said those driving up and down Clayton Road are already greeted by a canopy of tall, full trees on either side of the street. He wanted to keep the aesthetic of the medians simple.

“When you get to downtown, if we kept the canopy going, you could drive right past it and not even know it’s there,” Johnston said. “We wanted to lift the ceiling a bit.”

Johnston said the illuminated oak trees are strategically placed to guide people to downtown Clayton. Specifically, there will be two trees in the median across from the City of Clayton sign that leads toward downtown from Marsh Creek Road.

“You’ll see the oaks lit up, you’ll see the City of Clayton sign lit up, and it will make you stop,” Johnston said.

While council members raised minor questions about the design and stressed the need to be vigilant about trimming the oak trees, they all praised the plan for being well-researched and designed. 

Council member Julie Pierce predicted the community would also be pleased with the results.

“I think this is going to knock their socks off,” Pierce said.

With the backing of the council and the Trails and Landscaping Committee, which approved the plan earlier this month, the next step will be shopping the project to contractors to solicit competitive bids, Johnston said. Work is expected to begin next spring.