City Rejects Plan to Have Residents Maintain Trees

A plan to force private property owners to trim hundreds of trees formerly maintained by the city was unanimously rejected by the City Council this week after a lengthy public hearing at which residents urged the city to continue caring for the trees.

City Manager Kenneth C. Frank had asked the council to adopt a policy under which only trees downtown and along Laguna Canyon Road or Pacific Coast Highway would be tended by the city.

Residents, however, said the city should consider trimming more trees across the city, rather than fewer.

Laguna Beach crews now maintain more than 1,000 trees in public rights of way--parcels the city may use for streets or sidewalks if needed--and hundreds of others in open spaces and parks.

City staff members said the rules on which trees the city will trim are based solely on precedent. “There is no logic whatsoever,” Frank said. “It’s just what we’ve done historically.”

Frank had suggested that the responsibility for about 400 trees now maintained by the city be turned over to the owners of abutting properties, a move that would have affected about 200 residents.

At the hearing, some residents told the council they feared that property owners would cut down the trees rather than trimming them at their own expense. “Neighborhood trees belong to all of us,” Michael Beanan said. “Once they’re gone, they can’t come back.”

Council members voted to maintain the current policy but to continue discussing it. In the meantime, the city staff will gather more information on the subject, including what it would cost to trim an additional 1,000 trees in the public rights of way.