It looks like the Carnegie Building is getting its palm trees back.

The landscaping plan for the 101-year-old building hasn’t been finalized, but it’s likely that two palm trees will be planted in front of the entrance to the building, similar to the arrangement visible in old photographs.

At planting, the new palms will measure about 18 feet from the ground to the bottom of the canopy.

The plan also calls for three fruitless olives, a crabapple, bushes and four park benches.

St. Helena Senior Planner Greg Desmond, who’s in charge of the landscaping, has proposed permeable pavers to create a low-maintenance, pedestrian-friendly plaza. Others have said the plan needs to include grass. The final plan will probably have a combination of pavers and grass.

On Tuesday a majority of the city council said they’d favor grass. But they agreed to send the plan to landscape designers around town to get their opinions before settling on a final plan.

Shady street trees can also be planted along the sidewalk as part of a separate project. Desmond said planning and public works staff will work together over the next few months to come up with a plan for those trees.

Desmond said that when the landscaping is done there will be more trees at the Carnegie Building than there were before the old trees were cut down in March.

In the wake of the public outcry that resulted from the removal of those trees, the city council has tried to gather as much input as possible about how to restore the landscaping.

The current plan was formed with the input of city staff, members of the Tree Committee, the St. Helena Historical Society, Cheers! St. Helena and a St. Helena High School student. All were invited to a design meeting in June.

The city has narrowed down the choice of colors for the outside of the Carnegie Building, and swatches of some of the colors under consideration are visible on the building.

The Carnegie Building’s seismic retrofit is continuing, but city staff told the council that Valley Architects, which has a $168,000 contract to design the Carnegie Building’s retrofit, is $5,700 over budget with several months of work left. No change orders have come to the council yet.

In other action:

• Councilmembers Bonnie Schoch and Catarina Sanchez are making progress toward reopening St. Helena’s polling places.

Napa County Registrar of Voters John Tuteur drew sharp criticism from city councilmembers and members of the public by closing several polling places within the city and forcing many residents to vote by mail. But on Tuesday Schoch announced that she and Sanchez have met with Tuteur, and it appears that more St. Helenans will be allowed to vote the old-fashioned way in future elections.

“We’re going to have our second meeting (with Tuteur) in the next couple of weeks,” said Schoch. “But it looks like we’re going to potentially consolidate some polling places. I don’t think people mind driving or walking another block or two to have the opportunity to vote.”

• The council approved an $82,600 change order to the flood project. Argonaut Constructors, the contractor in charge of the project, said additional excavation and compaction of dirt is necessary to produce a solid foundation for the new floodwall.

Flood project manager Luc de Faymoreau said he’ll get the trees at the flood project site marked to indicate which will be cut down and which will be saved. He said one tree that was slated to be saved was “inadvertently injured” during construction, “but we’re going to make every attempt to save that tree if we can.”

Members of the public and the Tree Committee have expressed concern over the treatment of the site’s trees, particularly oaks that “have been there since before the Gold Rush,” according to Tree Committee member Marty Oldford.

He told the council the Tree Committee wants to look at the plans for the floodwall to make sure “all has been done to mitigate the possible destruction of these beautiful oak trees.”

The flood project’s levee is scheduled to be finished in August, with other construction continuing into October.

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