Guest Opinion | Councilmember Andy Wilson: No Good Choices for South Lake Trees

It was with great sadness that I recently saw three healthy ficus trees come down on Lake Street. As an environmentalist and passionate walker, I have a deep passion for the 60,000 street trees that grace our city. As a member of the City’s Urban Forestry Commission, I consistently voted to deny tree removal of healthy trees. As a long-term member of the Design Commission, it was common-place to send developers back to the drawing board to rework plans to minimize tree removals. On the City Council, I strongly backed the City’s long-time policy of refusing to allow removal of the South Lake trees. Nevertheless, after a lawsuit was filed by the landlord, and after consulting with our attorneys, the Council reluctantly agreed to settle the case and allow removal.

You might ask how an ardent tree lover could support such a settlement? The answer is simple: Losing in court would not only have cost us these three trees but likely have resulted in significant financial damages to the City. More importantly, it could also have meant a damaging legal precedent for our entire Tree Protection Ordinance city-wide.

I cannot share the details of confidential conversations with City lawyers. But the odds we faced were well-summarized in a letter of November 1 (now public), from the landlord. Bruce Meyer: “…the judge presiding over our case self-identified as a lover of trees and involved in tree preservation efforts in her own neighborhood. Nonetheless, she immediately saw that these trees unquestionably were too large, in the wrong location and needed to be replaced. Similarly, a different judge to whom we were assigned for a settlement conference looked at the trees and stated that they were completely out of proportion to the street and the neighborhood, dangerous and should be replaced.” Third party experts further substantiated many of the landlord’s claims about property damage and public safety risks.

Given the legal situation, I and the majority of the City Council decided a settlement was the “least bad” option available to us. Afterward, I continued to urge the landlord to consider another solution. Sadly, he declined. While I very much regret the loss of these three trees, I do not regret having refused to put at risk the foundational rules we rely on to preserve and protect all trees across the City.