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<\/a>The notion of the trees coming down has some neighbors, community planners and park enthusiasts riled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re against it,\u201d said Thurston Coe, Old Town Community Planning Group chair. \u201cAt first [city officials] said it would be just a few trees \u2014 and now it\u2019s almost all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coe said the aging trees don\u2019t require much water and are part of historic Old Town\u2019s fabric.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city of San Diego is planning to remove more than 20 mature, 65-year-old pepper trees from Juan Street in the heart of Old Town and people are mad,\u201d said neighbor Maris Brancheau. \u201cThe city says the storm water drains they are putting in will include heavy equipment that will damage the trees\u2019 roots. The community wants the drain moved or the equipment scaled back, or any effort possible to keep the trees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brancheau added the sidewalk abutting the row of trees is \u201cbarely used as it is on the opposite side of Old Town State Historic Park.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trees, they\u2019re beautiful,\u201d said park sympathizer Annie Macpherson. \u201cI hope there is a way that we can save some of these trees, or move them to another place.\u201d<\/p>\n
A member of a Plein Air painting group, Macpherson and other artists spent a recent afternoon capturing the pepper trees, which have been targeted for elimination, in an effort to popularize their plight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to immortalize \u2014 and memorialize \u2014 them,\u201d she said. \u201cIf they have to come down, we\u2019d like to have at least done something to preserve them through art.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a careful examination of the row of pepper trees by experts engaged by the city, it was determined they had to go, said city spokesperson M\u00f3nica Mu\u00f1oz.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pepper trees primarily on Juan between Wallace and Twiggs have lifted and cracked the sidewalks,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz said. \u201cThese trees are no longer used when city projects require street trees because of the damage they do to the infrastructure and because of their classification as \u2018invasive.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Munoz said are two arborists engaged by the city on the Juan Street project evaluated all the trees along the alignment of the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth concluded that about 20 pepper trees needed to be removed because they would likely not survive the root pruning, the impact of the construction activities and the installation of the new improvements,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz said.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1oz said the Juan Street Project team met with local community planners and promised to \u201cconsider the option of having each tree evaluated as the sidewalk panels are removed. Once the roots are exposed, the condition of the roots \u2026 and the overall health of the tree will be taken into consideration to determine if the tree can be left in its original spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
All city sidewalk projects now include root barriers to prevent root intrusion,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz said. \u201cThe tree roots would have to be pruned in order to install the barrier and when the roots are pruned, the canopy also has to be pruned to balance the tree.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a tree cannot be saved, another tree will be planted in its place,\u201d said Munoz, noting three species \u2013 the coast live oak, the evergreen oak and the cork oak \u2014 have been approved as part of the site development permit for Juan Street project<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand the emotional connection to the pepper trees, but the City has to consider the health and safety of the public and the potential for damage by allowing trees to remain where they are when they may not survive,\u201d Munoz said.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s landscape standards, adopted in 1997, include the pepper tree as an invasive species that should not be used in public rights-of-way.<\/p>\n Councilmember Todd Gloria\u2019s community representative Molly Chase said \u201cCouncilmember Gloria understands the important role the pepper trees along Juan Street play in the character of the community and has shared this concern with the project team. The councilmember has asked that city staff make every effort to save the pepper trees and protect them in place. If there are trees that the arborists determined would be irreparably harmed by the project, or would cause a health and safety concern to the public and cannot be saved, they will be replaced with trees that are approved by the city and were designated as appropriate replacements in the site development permit.\u201d<\/p>\n Old Town\u2019s pepper trees are deserving of protection, said Bruce Coons, executive director of Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO), the state\u2019s oldest continually operating historic preservation organization.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Peruvian (California) Pepper trees first brought here by the Spanish in 1830 are a symbol of early California, and a symbol of Old town,\u201d Coons said. \u201cTo remove these trees would be a big problem: Everybody loves them.\u201d<\/p>\n Coons lamented that San Diego used to be known for its tree-lined streets, which have largely disappeared.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time a tree gets specimen-size, the tree people want to remove them,\u201d Coons said. \u201cWe\u2019ve taken them all out. It\u2019s terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>