Expressing warm support for what Frederick Law Olmsted Society President James Reynolds called “an important high point in our village’s history,” Riverside trustees on Monday night unanimously approved a landscaping plan for planting beds in the downtown area along Longcommon and Riverside Roads.

The vote was the culmination of months of work-and years of debate-by village officials, members of the Landscape Advisory Commission (LAC) and the Olmsted Society over what should be planted in those beds and how best to maintain them.

By allocating $25,000 in the 2008 village budget for implementing a plan everyone could agree on, trustees sowed the seeds of the cooperation that led to the final product. Despite some initial turmoil on the LAC that saw the resignation of two of its members, commissioners rallied to formulate a plan that included aspects of past plans and included both native and non-native plants.

The Olmsted Society came through with a donation that funded a landscape architect who created what is now being considered a template for public plantings throughout the village.

“This is the fruition of a shared devotion,” said Trustee Ben Sells, who served as the village board’s liaison to all sides during the planning process.

Sells lamented past attempts to create what he called a “false divide” between natural beauty and commercial goals of the village downtown. Riverside, he said, was created as a commercial endeavor as much as an experiment in landscape planning.

“We ignore our history when we choose to appose beauty and business,” Sells said.

Thomas Shields, a trustee who voted against funding the plantings in the 2008 budget, said he did so because he felt there could never be agreement on an issue that had become so contentious over the years.

“I’m very pleased to have been proven wrong,” Shields said.

That thought was echoed by Trustee Kevin Smith, who also expressed surprise at the unity that led to the plan.

“I am greatly heartened by this,” Smith said. “I really think this was a big thing. Given where we were six months ago, this is huge.”

Officials did not discuss the actual planting process that will be set for this spring. The LAC met Tuesday night after press time.