LAGUNA BEACH : City Seeks to Change Heritage Tree Rules

The City Council has moved to change the controversial Heritage Tree ordinance, saying trees should be granted special protection only at the request of their owners.

The tree preservation law has drawn considerable fire from people who feel it has been used to thwart development. Council members have long said they objected to the provision in the current law, which allows people other than the owner to request that the tree be placed on the Heritage Tree List.

Once a tree is on the list, it cannot be removed without a city permit.

“The Heritage Tree Ordinance has been abused by no-growth proponents in the past,” Dave Connell, a Laguna Beach Taxpayers Assn. director, told the council.

The council generally agreed that the city should maintain an ordinance to preserve trees. Owners of heritage trees sometimes gain an advantage when applying for a variance to a building permit.

The council unanimously asked city staff to revise the ordinance, however, for consideration at a later meeting.

Last month, the council removed a towering eucalyptus tree on Pala Way from the Heritage Tree List over the objections of some neighbors, after the property owner said arborists told them the tree posed a safety risk and should be felled before they began building at the site.