Council Votes: Nine Parkside Trees Saved

Parkside Trees To Be Dug Up And Temporarily Stored Elsewhere

The Emeryville city council voted Tuesday night to save nine of the 33 most contentious trees slated to be killed to make way for the Parkside condominium project.  The housing development project raised the ire of Emeryville residents when the city staff and the developer conspired to kill every existing street tree to ease construction of the project.

The Parkside Condominiums will look like
other housing projects in Emeryville
completed in the last 15 years.

Residents were especially dismayed by the prospects of cutting down 33 mature trees along Stanford Street in what is to be a small park adjacent and associated with the project, as widely reported by The Secret News.  The city council responded to residents complaints by scheduling Tuesday's reconsideration of an earlier green light to start cutting by the council.

The new plan now as approved by the council is to dig up and temporarily pot the nine trees in large boxes and store them off site.  The trees would later be re-planted in roughly the same spot at the new park upon completion of the project.  The arborist associated with the project has determined the nine mature trees to be saved as "good", the highest rating.

All of the other street trees on the city block circumscribed by Powell, Doyle, Stanford and Hollis streets either have already been killed or will be to make construction of the project easier.  The nation-wide condominium developer, Archstone, has done other housing projects in the Bay Area including the Archstone Apartments on Shellmound Street in Emeryville.