After a group of residents were initially told the city of San Fernando was planning to remove 100-year-old trees on Macneil Street, they spoke out at a recent council meeting determined to save the trees.
“I don’t understand why you guys want to take down our trees,” Jorge Vasquez said. “It’s what makes our block beautiful. Not only are they beautiful, but they’re healthy for us. … If you guys want to fight, I’ll get a lawyer. They mean that much to me. I’ve been taking care of these trees since I was 13 years old and they really mean something to me.”
The issue arose last month when Vasquez, living on the 400 block of Macneil Street, noticed city staff walking on his street with a notepad. When he asked what they were doing, he said he was told that due to roots damaging the sidewalks, they were going to cut six trees, tear out the roots, resurface the street and fix the sidewalks.
Vasquez is a foreman for a company with 30 years of experience in building streets and fixing sidewalks, including sidewalks in the city of San Fernando.
Having fixed the sidewalk in front of his own house in about an hour, Vasquez said it was possible to do repairs without cutting the trees.
News spread to the neighbors who asked why there was no notification.
Neighbor Kelly Duggan said she began to read the city’s municipal code on tree removal. She believes that the trees on her block qualify as heritage trees, which can only be removed by the City Council upon recommendation of the Tree Commission. However, she noted, the commission was dissolved in 2016 and was combined with the Planning and Preservation Commission.
City Manager Nick Kimball, however, in a previous interview with the San Fernando Valley Sun/ el Sol said there was no current plan to cut the trees and staff were instead conducting a preliminary inspection of any trees that may be causing damage along the street. This is in preparation for the next phase of the city’s street improvement projects.
The city of San Fernando will also be working with an arborist and will receive a report on the state and health of the trees.
Duggan made a request that upon its completion, the report be made accessible to the public.
“After the city has provided us access, we should be given the reasonable amount of time to consult with our own arborist and present a response if we deem it necessary,” said Duggan. “I believe all steps need to be taken to preserve healthy trees.”
Wendell Johnson, the city’s Public Works director, reaffirmed during the meeting that there is no current decision to remove the trees on Macneil Street. He added that staff is forming a draft to improve the city’s policies and procedures on city-owned trees, which was established in August 1996. Johnson said the new policy is going to be presented in April before the Planning and Preservation Commission.
“One of the key components that’s missing from the policies and procedures … was a policy around communication with the public,” Johnson said. “In our draft policy, it talks about notification and [the] appeal process for the public.”
Johnson explained that under the draft policy, notification will include the reasons for the tree removal and access to the arborist report. Notifications can be made online or signage placed on the trees themselves.
This isn’t the first time the city of San Fernando has experienced controversy over the subject of tree removal. In October 2015, six Queen palm trees on Brand Boulevard were cut down – a job that was part of a contract for a major drought landscape renovation – in what city officials called a “grave mistake.” A couple dozen residents – including Cindy Montañez, who was a former councilmember at the time – protested at the site where the trees once stood. Montañez would later become the CEO of Tree People and come back to San Fernando to serve again as a councilmember prior to her passing.
Mayor Celeste Rodriguez said that the city of San Fernando has the responsibility of carrying the legacy of Montañez and the community that helped to plant trees. She said there should have been a plan in place before staff started measuring the trees and raising the concerns of neighbors.
Rodriguez proposed that the City Council discuss options for reestablishing the Tree Commission down the line, which was approved.
“We want to make sure that we are in the loop about this process and that we’re protecting our tree canopy as well,” Rodriguez said.
I guess the meeting went as well as could be expected. I think that something that was not mentioned in this article, but was mentioned by Wendell Johnson, Public Works Director, is the surprising and unacceptable fact that the city has 200 stumps that need grinding. 200 stumps in a city that is 2.47 squared miles is an embarrassment.
Still waiting for the dead tree on the city walkway in front of my house to be removed. We brought it to the city’s attention two years ago. Soon I hope, since the city has seen fit to plant new trees along our street, yet couldn’t take down the dead one.