Tree cutting vexes residents

The sound of chain saws echoing through quiet streets in the Eastbluff area of Newport Beach means a clearer view of Upper Newport Bay for some homeowners. But other Bluffs residents are mourning the loss of trees they say beautified their neighborhood.

The Bluffs Community Homeowners Assn. has been cutting down trees near Upper Newport Bay in recent weeks as part of what it calls “view restoration.” Some trees and bushes in the area have also been cut down as part of a city project to clear non-native vegetation from the area around Upper Newport Bay.

“Some of these trees are 40 years [old] ... perhaps it preserves the view for some people, but all we get is a horrible view of this devastation,” said Bluffs resident Ron Roman, who has lived in the area for more than a decade. “It’s slash and burn.”

Roman said the homeowners association has hired workers to cut down many mature trees in recent weeks to please a few residents. He said the trees provide shade and privacy.

The association did not notify him before the cutting around his home began a few weeks ago, Roman said.

Appeasing all residents all of the time is difficult, said Bluffs Community General Manager Ted Loveder in a written statement. Loveder declined a request for an interview.

“While the association is sensitive to all homeowners’ desires, it is sometimes difficult to balance homeowners’ requests for view restoration versus the homeowners’ requests not to trim,” Loveder said in the statement. “In addition, there are safety and liability issues the association must address in maintaining the common area, making it necessary from time to time to trim and prune landscape.”

The Bluffs Homeowners Assn. is no stranger to public feuds. One Bluffs resident made local headlines last year when he rented a 24-foot-long Penske moving truck and parked it by his home to block the organization from ripping up his newly installed flagstone driveway. The homeowners association claimed the driveway wasn’t made out of the right material, according to published reports.

Trees in the area have grown significantly in the roughly 40 years of the Bluffs neighborhood’s existence, Loveder said, and the association has had to trim some of them to restore the view for some of its residents.

But, Bluffs resident James Hardin said, “They’re not really improving anybody’s views.” Hardin said he and his wife, who have lived in the neighborhood for about seven years, like the area in part because of the privacy the many trees that surround their home provide. “They’re just cutting down trees and giving homeowners less privacy.”

Hardin said he has watched workers cut down trees as tall as 20 feet near his home over the past few weeks. He and many of his neighbors feel the homeowners’ association did not do enough to let residents voice their opinions on the trees, he said.

“The bottom line is we can’t get a straight answer from anybody on what’s going on,” Hardin said. “It wasn’t adequately discussed.”

The Bluffs is also working alongside the city of Newport Beach to restore native plants to the area, Loveder said in the statement. The city has been removing non-native plants and replacing them with native ones in the 55-acre Big Canyon Nature Park between Upper Newport Bay and Jamboree Road as part of a $5 million restoration project in the area, according to city documents.

“There will be times when some association members will be pleased with the decisions of the association, and there will be times when they would prefer a different direction,” Loveder said. “After all is said and done, the association must do what is in the best interest of all the homeowners.”

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.