LFIA spoke in favor of saving the tree. It was noted that planting four small trees will hardly mitigate the loss of this beautiful specimen tree. There are many other difficulties involved in the development of this particular lot. The realtor should have disclosed all of these issues to the buyer. The street is substandard so the owner must donate three feet to the city to widen the street. To provide access for emergency vehicles the owner will have to build several retaining walls to create a “hammerhead” turn around stub driveway between his property and the next. He also has to sink 15 concrete piles 46 feet into the ground at the back of the lot to stabilize the steep slope below the house on Shannon.
CD 4 supported Urban Forestry’s recommendation to allow removal of the trees. The owner will be required to plant four 36-inch-box oaks for each tree removed for a total of twenty trees. Since only a few of the trees will fit on the lot after the home is built, the rest will be planted in Griffith Park. That is some compensation for the loss of the oaks.
Saturday morning, April 5, the owner began clearing the lot.
April 2008