Quick Take
An undying loyalty to trees is a chief feature of Santa Cruz County politics, and no tree inspires such local passion as the native redwood. But what happens when a redwood is causing damage to a privately owned building?
As overcast skies began to spit on downtown Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon, the group of about 60 local residents in Keelan Franzen’s driveway pulled more tightly beneath the mature eucalyptus tree overhead. Still, the crowd spilled out onto the sidewalk.
The open, hot lunch buffet and selection of teas offered some warmth to passersby on this cold and wet winter day, but most had come with the intention of listening and, if possible, donating to Franzen and his fight. For months, the 26-year-old has been pushing to rescue from the city’s ax a friend he’s known since time immemorial: the 120-foot redwood tree at the corner of Walnut Avenue and Lincoln Street.
“I grew up on Walnut Avenue, and walked by it probably 1,000 times,” the bleached-haired Franzen told the audience. “For the city to make this like a rushed conclusion, it seems really silly because there is a lot of time on our hands to fix this.”
On Tuesday, the Santa Cruz City Council is slated to vote on whether to grant the tree continued life or to approve the request by the property owner, who legally owns the tree and the adjacent apartment building, to remove it and mitigate the damage the redwood’s roots are creating for the surrounding infrastructure.
An undying loyalty to trees is a chief feature of Santa Cruz County politics. Some residents continue to oppose a vision for county passenger rail in the name of existing eucalyptus trees; the City of Santa Cruz’s mixed-use downtown library project drew some of the strongest furor from those wishing to save the heritage trees the project planned to remove.
Yet, no tree inspires such local passion as the native redwood. Mayor Fred Keeley, who was previously on the board of the Sempervirens Fund — California’s oldest land trust, which focuses on preserving the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains — said he does not know how he will vote Tuesday.
“It’s very important for us to have a heritage tree ordinance, particularly as it relates to preserving redwoods, but redwoods are meant to grow in forests and not around cement and asphalt and sewer pipes,” Keeley said. “Personally I’m still wrestling with what the right thing to do is. If I had my way, I’d save the redwood tree, no question. But what goes along with that?”
Even in bureaucratic terms, the decision on the fate of this redwood has been anything but rushed. The city planned to cut it down last as early as last March. The tree towers between a small, two-story apartment building and the Walnut Avenue sidewalk. The root structure overpowered the sidewalk’s concrete slabs from underneath. The owner of the apartment building then discovered that the tree roots, which can extend as much three times farther than the tree’s branches, were pressing against the building and cracking the foundation. The city’s decision to grant the property owner’s removal permit was ministerial— the tree was causing damage to private and public property and thus qualified for a chop.
However, the impassioned push to appeal the ax and rescue the tree was immediate, and led by Franzen, who had no prior experience in things political.
“This is my first rodeo,” Franzen told Lookout as fundraiser attendees patted him on the shoulder and offered passing words of encouragement. “I’ve felt like doing stuff like this before, but this was a hill I would die on, so here we are.”
Under the city’s heritage tree rules, if a resident appeals the objective determination by the city’s arborist to remove the tree, its fate elevates to the realm of a political debate. Suddenly, what was a formulaic decision by city staff becomes subject to the votes of parks and recreation commissioners and city council members.
Over the past 10 months, arborists and civil engineers have opined ad nauseam on that debate. Saving the tree would likely mean altering the footprint of the apartment building. City engineer Jodi Collins reported last month that it would require removing a 24-foot-by-12-foot section of the building, eliminating two apartment units.
“It is my opinion that removing a portion of the building is an unreasonable request since the owner would have to sacrifice their private property and spend an incredible amount of money to keep the redwood tree,” Collins’ Dec. 13 report read.
Franzen and those supporting his appeal hired their own tree expert and engineers. Arborist Monika Buczko said she believes the tree is at least 150 years old, which would far predate the apartment on the property, which was built in the 1950s. Franzen said the tree being there first is paramount to the argument behind preserving it.
However, city arborist Leslie Keedy, who has overseen trees throughout Santa Cruz since 2000, says the tree is not more than 80 years old, and expects photo evidence to be presented to the city council meeting on Tuesday showing the apartment was there before the tree. For this reason, Keedy said she sees no avenue for political discretion.
“These issues are so emotional and contentious so I have no room for error, no room for conjecture,” Keedy said. “We cannot force a private property owner to keep a tree, or force them to reduce the size of their building.”
Franzen said ultimately it does matter whether the tree was planted or had grown on its own in the location before development.
“But it’s hard to know with old trees like this,” Franzen said.
As light rain turned to a downpour Saturday, the thinned-out fundraiser crowd started on a short walk to the redwood, where they joined a few squirrels and birds for dry refuge under the tree’s bristled canopy. The fundraiser combined with an active GoFundMe to raise nearly $3,000. Franzen said if the tree does meet its end at this week’s city council meeting, the money will go toward paying the engineer hired for the appeal. If the tree can be saved, Franzen said money would also go toward helping the property owner fix their building.
Regardless of the city council’s decision, Franzen seems ready to extend this cause toward preserving the rest of downtown Santa Cruz’s dwindling redwood population.
“We will have to fight this fight again,” Franzen told Lookout.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.