'Parkside' Trees: City Staff Conspires With Developer To Hide Information

Mr Adrian McGilly, husband of Mayor Jennifer West, levels an explosive accusation; the Planning Department staff at City Hall, deliberately misled the city council in a report about publicly owned street trees a developer wishes to cut down as part of the new 'Parkside' condominium project now being built at Hollis and Powell Streets.  The Secret News covers the story:

Emeryville City Staff Deliberately Misled City Council

October 1, 2012

By Adrian McGilly

When the city failed to post notices on the trees to be cut down, Adrian McGilly took it upon himself to do so. While such notice is required under the city’s Urban Forestry Ordinance, the city is exempt. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Open letter to City Council says staff instructed “Parkside” developer to delete portions of arborist’s report

City Council Members:
Attached is the Staff Report you all received prior to voting to authorize the removal of 33 mature trees along Stanford [Street].  It includes the arborist report commissioned by Archstone and produced by Hortscience Inc., which recommends the destruction of those [public] trees. As you know, I find it sad and misguided that mature trees will be destroyed on a site that is being turned into a public park. I find this decision so repulsive that I have spent a lot of time trying to understand how it happened. I want to share with you some of my findings...

Click HERE for the rest of the story.

City Lowers Fine 36% On Park Avenue Tree Cutter

City Lowers Fine On Tree Cutter, Cites Compelling Ignorance

In a daring, possibly precedent setting move Tuesday night, Emeryville's city council reduced a fine of a man caught illegally cutting city owned trees by some 36%.  The man, Rick Gerow of Gerow Properties, a Lafayette California based real estate firm said in his defence he was unaware that Emeryville has a tree ordinance and that of the three trees he cut, one was dead, one was injured and one had damaged the sidewalk in front of his Park Avenue property.

Rick Gerow

The city originally fined Mr Gerow $14,100 for the infraction, an amount mandated by the city's tree ordinance based on professional tree valuation, replanting costs, administrative costs and penalty but the council used it's option provided by the ordinance to lower the amount to $9000, a reduction of $5100 or about 36%.  The city did not indicate if its out-of-pocket costs would be fully recovered by the $9000 figure.

Mr Gerow noted that because the trees in question were originally planted by him as a condition of approval for a 1990's remodel construction project at the Park Avenue address, he was simply maintaining the trees when he cut them and had every intention of replanting.
Cities, it should be noted, commonly make applicant tree planting a condition of approval for construction projects however the city becomes the rightful owner of any street trees in the public right of way as is the case here with these three street trees.

'Emeryville Properties 2' Says They Owe Nothing for Illegal Cutting of Street Trees

Will Corporations In Emeryville Be Held Accountable?

Business Appeals Fine For Illegally Cutting Emeryville's Trees

Rick Gerow of Emeryville Properties 2, a Lafayette California based real estate corporation, has thrown down the gauntlet; he should not have to pay a penny for having illegally cut three large city owned street trees in front of his building at 1259 Park Avenue and he has filed an appeal to the city to that effect.

In a May 20th letter to the city, Mr Gerow stated he was "not aware" of the 2003 Emeryville Tree Ordinance and that it was the city's responsibility to notify him that permission must be granted for anyone to cut down the street trees.

Rick Gerow: Says ignorance

of the law means you get off
scot free.

After Emeryville Properties 2, a subsidiary of Gerow Properties Inc was notified of the violation of the tree ordinance, Mr Gerow submitted that the three trees in question should have been cut down anyway and that the fine should therefore be zero.  The May 20th letter states that one of the trees he cut down was dead already and that a second had a major limb that had fallen and the third was causing the sidewalk to lift "about two inches" and these conditions mean the trees value is zero.  

Further, Mr Gerow says he is not responsible for any associated fees including the arborist report.  The city's arborist disagrees and has placed the three trees value at $4600.  With the penalty fine and other associated fees, the city is owed $14,100.

Mr Gerow indicated he has already replaced two of the cut trees with saplings and is willing to replant the third one.  The city's arborist has indicated that the replanting job Mr Gerow did is substandard and that the trees will subsequently not grow to their proper size.  The city maintains that a proper job must be done replacing the three trees and part of the fine imposed is meant to recover these replanting costs.

If the appeal is denied, it will mark the among first time the tree ordinance has been successfully implimented and imposed a fine on an illegal tree cutter.

The city council voted to strengthen the ordinance in May 2010 after citizens complained the ordinance was too lax and let illegal tree cutters off the hook without imposing any fine.  The complaining citizens posited that a penalty fine, as was enacted in 2010, would add sufficient deterrence to would be future illegal tree cutters.  Apparently, not enough for Mr Gerow.

Please read the precursor story to this in the March 10th edition of the Tattler.

Emeryville Properties 2 Inc will make their appeal at the June 21 council meeting.

Street Trees Illegally Cut On Park Ave

First Test Of Newly Strengthened Tree Ordinance

In a test of Emeryville's newly strengthened tree ordinance, a Park Avenue commercial property owner that in Janurary cut down three mature street trees without permission is being notified that he could be penalized $13,800, triple the value of the trees, according to a City Hall interdepartmental letter received by the Tattler.

The February 8th letter, written for City Manager Pat O'Keeffe by the Public Works Department, says the three trees in question were recently inventoried by the city's arborist as part of a city-wide tree count and that their value was determined to be $4,600 a piece.  The tree ordinance allows the City Manager to waive the fine but in that case the city council must hold a public hearing and the full fine can be reinstated and imposed at the council's pleasure.

Scene of the crime

Should the fines be successfully imposed as the ordinance calls for, it would be a first in Emeryville public policy; the business sector being held accountable, at least as far as the tree ordinance is concerned.

This case of the tree ordinance, first enacted in 2003 and strengthened by amendment in May 2010, will be the first test of the fortitude of the amendments.

The triple value fine and the requirement for a public hearing were among the amendments, added after several residents pleaded to the city council to better protect Emeryville's publicly owned street trees.  Before the amendments, the ordinance, known as the Urban Forestry Ordinance only fined illegal tree cutters the value of the tree removed and allowed the Director of Public Works to waive the fine at his discretion with no possibility of a public appeal in front of the city council.  Many residents at an August 2008 council meeting decried that the result of the lax penalties and low fines in the ordinance was that developers kept cutting the street trees.

Before the ordinance was amended, developer Pulte Homes 'Glasshous' project was involved in a particularly egregious violation.  In order to save money and to ease construction of the condos, the developer illegally cut every large mature street tree for one full block on 65th Street east of Hollis Street; some 20 trees in all.  The Public Works Director, Maurice Kaufman waived Pulte's fines with no explanation offered to the public.  Mr Kaufman also allowed the developer to replace the formerly spreading 30 foot tall trees with small six foot saplings.  If the newly amended tree ordinance were in effect at the time, such large fines would be levied against Pulte, it's unlikely they would have cut the trees, opting instead to work around them.

The trees illegally removed on Park Avenue were 25-30 feet tall locust trees, located on the south side of the street between Harlan Street and Haven Street just east of City Hall.  The owner of the commercial property adjoining the trees was identified as the responsible party according to the February 8th letter.

In addition to the $13,800 fine, the owner of the property could be charged for an arborist fee and also be responsible for replacing the three trees.  The ordinance also provides for criminal penalties as well as civic penalties but a city official said it's highly unlikely any criminal intent will be asserted by the city.   The City Attorney wrote a letter to the property owner notifying him of the violation and the right to appeal any fines imposed.