Growing concerns
Council members to rethink plans for Pasadena’s trees
By Joe Piasecki 03/19/2009
Community outcry over the February removal of mature ficus and carrotwood trees along East Colorado Boulevard has prompted City Council members to rethink the future of Pasadena’s urban forest.
The council is expected to vote Monday on whether to continue a moratorium on cutting down healthy street trees until a study of all existing plans for tree planting and removal in commercial areas of the city
is completed.
Representatives of the Playhouse District Association, proponents of the controversial tree-removal plan that sparked calls for a moratorium, have asked council members to exempt the now-barren stretch of Colorado between Los Robles and Lake avenues from planting restrictions to facilitate replacement of the felled trees with ginkos and palms.
Without such an exemption, replanting of trees along Colorado could be delayed for many months, and council members could order city workers to plant different kinds of trees.
Playhouse District Association President Paul Jacoy complained that repair of sidewalks and curbs that had been damaged by ficus roots — the primary reason cited for removing those trees — would also be delayed.
“The concrete work cannot be done until we know what tree is going to be planted, the spacing and arrangement,” said Jocoy. “If we change the tree, not only will we have to remove all the ginkos, but we will have to revise the entire plan.”
Association Director Erlinda Romo said the group will pay for an independent arborist to help city workers select healthy tree specimens that are already at least 12 feet high.
Meanwhile, residents who organized to oppose removal of the ficus trees have been exchanging emails about what kinds of trees they feel the city should be planting in the Playhouse District and other commercial areas.
Architect Phoebe Wilson, wife of Pasadena Star-News Public Editor Larry Wilson, urges careful deliberation.
“We all need to be aware that there is no perfect street tree,” she wrote in a Monday email. “We need to agree on what we value most: Shade? Sign visibility? Drought tolerance? Native? Fast-growing?
“The ficus trees heaved sidewalks, dropped berries and needed a good deal of maintenance. But in their mature form they provided lots of shade, were drought tolerant and had grown up above the commercial signage. If people had repaired their plumbing, if the city had provided larger plant pockets and root barriers when they were planted, and if there had been money to maintain and clean up after them, they would have been a near-perfect tree once grown,” she continued.
“The ginkgos and palms were the ‘answer’ to everybody wanting a little of this and a little of that. What we, the citizens, got was a lot of nothing.”
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