Police responded to a resident’s call about the removal of trees without a permit.
A resident taking a walk in the Huntington Palisades on November 25 alerted Cindy Kirven that large trees along the street parkway were being removed.
Kirven, who is the co-president of the Pacific Palisades Community Council Forestry, went to the site at the intersection of Corona Del Mar and Altata Drive.
“Huge old eucalyptus street trees were being removed,” Kirven told CTN. “There were no permits pulled.”
Another resident, who was with Kirven called 911. Police responded and tree removal of healthy trees was stopped.
“Palisades Forestry will be reporting this to the Urban Forestry division at Bureau of Street Services, Monday,” Kirven said, and added that trees on either side, also large eucalyptus were beautiful.
An application for tree removal for on-site native trees and shrubs protected by Ordinance 186.873 and for parkway trees must be submitted and approved by the city click here.
They had cut down 3 trees before they were stopped! Just take a look at the street view on google for 14929 Corona Del Mar, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. The arrogance and disregard of the homeowners for their neighborhood and property that does not belong to them, not to mention trees, is horrific. Shame on them!
We faced the same problem on the 800 block of Galloway. A developer wanted to take out one of our beautiful camphor trees. Our neighbors fought it and thought we had won. But the person who bought the house applied for a permit to remove the wonderful, healthy tree so she could widen her driveway. The tree was removed and her driveway was widened. She and her family parked 4 cars in the driveway oftentimes blocking the sidewalk. Not sure what the moral of this story is…
I photographed those trees a few years ago because I had a funny feeling this would happen. I walked by Saturday and saw them taking the trees down. Today I noticed they hadn’t finished the job. Thanks to the alert resident who called Cindy Kirven. It’s ironic that calling 911 worked, when often one gets put on hold.
Trees” removed” or” cut down”- ? these are 2 different things
Cindy Kirven: neighborhood hero!! It takes a lot of arrogance to chop down healthy trees on a parkway, which belong to the city. Let’s hope the homeowner is now required to replace with trees of equivalent size. CTN: please do a follow-up story.
“Huge old eucalyptus” is rarely synonymous with “healthy”. In fact, many cities across California, including Beverly Hills, are proactively removing these trees because of the dangers posed to pedestrians as well as their tremendous fire risk. I am curious how Ms. Kirven was able to visually assess the trees as “healthy”, when she presumably has performed no testing on the trees’ subterranean roots (often rotted) or the trees’ crowns (often decaying)? And will Ms. Kirven raise her hand to bear the liability when these old “beautiful” eucalyptus inevitably uproot or drop a thousand pound limb on a car (or worse—a person), as they are very prone to doing? The city of LA performs nothing more than infrequent, cursory inspections on these aging and often diseased trees, preferring to pay out settlements after the fact (of which there are many) rather than proactively managing their tree inventory. Has the Forestry Committee called for risk assessments on “huge old eucalyptus” trees in pedestrian areas, particularly after similarly “beautiful” and “healthy” appearing eucalyptus toppled all over this neighborhood in just the last year? CTN, please also publish the credentials required to serve on the “Forestry Committee”. Again, if Ms. Kirven wishes to vouch for the safety of these notoriously dangerous trees and underwrite any resulting claims, let’s hear her state it loud and clear for the record.
The main point is that to remove parkway trees, one must have permit from the city. There were no permits and Kirven was right in calling after asking if the landscapers/arborists had one.
CTN will not wade into the eucalyptus controversy. . . .
To join the forestry committee, which is currently an adjunct of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, contact PPCC President Maryam Zar.
In Santa Monica if you illegally remove a public street tree there is a $17,000 fine per tree. Please contact Los Angeles Council District 11’s Councilwoman Traci Park to help support protecting publicly owned street trees:
councilmember.park@lacity.org