It wasn’t a love of the oaks, appreciation for the shade or a love of the city’s bucolic greenbelt, but a legal threat letter and a closed-door decision that saved the trees this week, according to a report out of closed session from City Attorney Joe Montes.
On Tuesday, the city had previously planned a second reading and approval of changes to its oak-tree ordinance that the City Council had expected to finalize this week.
Then a council agenda was released that called for a special closed-session conference with the city’s attorney, Joe Montes, who shared the following in his report out of his closed-session talk with the council:
“With regard to the first closed-session agenda item: In light of the environmental issues raised, with the unanimous direction of council, staff is going to take another look at this item rather than schedule it for a second reading at this time.”
Mayor Laurene Weste thanked Montes and made no further mention of the discussion, but later in the meeting announced a recognition of the city’s love of trees for its National Arbor Day recognition.
There was plenty discussed two weeks ago at the City Council’s previous meeting, in which a handful of residents spoke out upset about the changes proposed by city staff.
City staffers said they were trying to make it easier for property owners to address trees they considered problematic. The opposition described it as a cost-cutting measure, since the city is reducing the barriers to get rid of the oak trees — a symbol prominently displayed on the city’s seal.
Jamie T. Hall of the Channel Law Group, the firm representing the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment, lists several concerns in a letter that was attached to the agenda for Tuesday’s 5:30 p.m. meeting.
“The amended ordinance proposes to establish a new ‘Class I’ ministerial oak tree permit that would guarantee the removal of protected oak trees if a qualifying structure happens to fall within the tree’s ‘fall zone,’” according to the firm’s letter. “The amended ordinance also removes an entire class of oak trees from protections and mandatory mitigation.”
The attorney argues that Santa Clarita seeking what is known in legal terms as a “common-sense exemption” from the California Environmental Quality Act is a clear violation of the law’s intent.
“Where a categorical exemption is at issue, the court ‘must first determine as a matter of law the scope of the exemption and then determine if substantial evidence supports the agency’s factual finding that the project fell within the exemption,’” according to the attorney’s letter. “A plain reading of the CEQA guidelines demonstrates that the amended ordinance falls completely outside the scope of every single exemption cited by the city.”
Opponents also questioned why major amendments were needed to the city’s ordinance.
Valerie Ferchaw, the city’s urban forestry administrator, said the city receives fewer than 20 requests per year for removals on single-family lots citywide.
Several residents who spoke out at the first reading of the ordinance considered the city’s plan a significant existential threat to its trees, as the ordinance could eliminate approximately 10,000 of them from around the city. That was the approximate number determined have a building within the potential fall zone.
Councilman Bill Miranda, who moved to accept the ordinance, dismissed the concerns of residents — including one who created an alternative seal, with a tree stump, and a motto, “No oaks, no joke” — as extreme. He called for a balance between addressing the concerns of homeowners with the environment.
During the dedication at the start of her council member comments, Weste talked about the dozens of different tree species found locally and that Santa Clarita earned recognition as a Tree City USA for the 36th consecutive year.
In order to earn the nod, a city must: apply; have an urban-forestry department; have a tree-care ordinance; spend at least $2 per capita on tree care; and celebrate Arbor Day.
