The San Marino City Council last Friday held a public hearing on an ordinance amending the city’s code for the preservation of trees. After a lengthy discussion on the first reading of the ordinance, where both residents and council members added their input and stories, the ordinance will go back for further edits and is estimated to be prepared by the Wednesday, December 12 meeting.
In May, the City Council directed city staff to amend the tree preservation ordinance. New language was incorporate to address new provisions, including tree protection and tree protection during construction, notification requirements for tree removals, penalty fees, reducing fees for specific circumstances, providing guidance towards best management practices for tree care, new definitions for established trees and heritage trees, amending the threshold for tree sizes as it relates to permit requirements and amending the appeals process.
In the existing City Code, an “Established Tree” is one that is 36 inches in circumference in a front yard and 49 inches in circumference in a rear yard. The new language takes into account that measuring trees in diameter is the industry standard and moves towards that instead of circumference. With the new provision, what constitutes Established Trees is reduced to 6 inches in diameter, or 18 inches in circumference, in the front yard and 8 inches in diameter—or 25 inches in circumference—in the rear yard.
For Oak Trees, the threshold currently requires that the trunk be at least 36 inches in circumference, regardless of where on the property the tree is located. The proposed ordinance reduces the size requirement to 4 inches in diameter, or 12 inches in circumference, in the front yard and 8 inches in diameter, or 25 inches in circumference in the rear yard.
Also created was the category of “Heritage Trees,” which did not exist previous in the code. Heritage Trees includes trees of certain species that are at least 4 inches in diameter, or 12 inches in circumference, within the front or side yard and at least 8 inches in diameter, or 25 inches in circumference, in the rear yard.
Any trees which fall under these size thresholds will now require a permit for removal.
Within the Historic Preservation Ordinance, a Historic Landmark includes structures, sites, signs, buildings, landscapes, objects, areas, places and features. Staff may start proceedings before the City Council to officially deem a tree as a Historic Landmark, with permission of the owner. In order to establish this case, staff will review requests to remove a Heritage, Oak, or Established Tree fully in order to determine if the tree qualifies as a Historic Landmark under the criteria.
Council members also discussed specifications for pruning, which was brought up by both members and public commenters as being an ongoing issue. San Marino City Arborist and Environmental Services Manager Ron Serven spoke to the council to provide additional insight and said he would work to add additional language that would make it more straightforward to owners and tree trimmers on what’s appropriate for San Marino trees.
“We’re looking for what’s best for the tree, not doing something to the tree,” said Serven.
Council Members Gretchen Shepherd Romey and Susan Jakubowski voiced their strong support for comprehensive education to be provided, which would help inform owners and trimmers of best practices. Ideas considered were diagrams, reasonable percentages for trimming and holding public forums.
“This is all about educating our community so that we can unite to preserve our trees and protect them,” said Romey.
San Marino resident Kelly Manning, who has worked to build a tree policy since 2016 when damage occurred to an oak tree on her street, praised the council for their work on the ordinance.
“I’m very grateful for this particular code that is changing and enhancing the diameters and the restrictions that the neighbors have not only for the front yard, but also for the backyard because it’s still a commonplace belief that we can do anything in our backyard,” Manning said.
Also discussed at the meeting was the third quarter 2018 crime update, which was presented by San Marino Police Chief John Incontro. According to Incontro, the report showed overall declining rates of crime over the past three years, particularly in the category of residential burglaries.
“As you can see, our commercial burglaries are just slightly on an uptick from 2016, however residential burglaries are down so far this year, about 43 percent,” said Incontro.
Incontro touched on the growing issue of residents posting publicly on social media that they are or will be traveling and will not be home. He shared that burglars exploit this to find their next targets.
“They’re very good at it and we’ve been able to document it and also through talking with other agencies that criminals do go online, they do check public or social media, and that they check public records and determine where you live, which is all public information,” said Incontro.
He stressed that residents should ideally have a security system that includes an alarm or camera system. Other options for protection are doorbell cameras, web monitoring and being involved in the Neighborhood Watch program.
Theft from vehicles over the recent three-year period was also reported. Out of 212 vehicles that experienced theft, 179 were unlocked. The remaining 33 were secured and entry was forcibly made. Incontro said that a simple way residents can protect themselves is by locking their vehicles, even while parked in driveways.
“What is happening nowadays that some homeless people, some other folks are going out late evening, walking up and down streets, and it’s not only our community but many others, going into driveways and just seeing if your doors are unlocked,” said Incontro.
Residents can also look to park in safe locations when away from home and hide valuable items from view.
“These are preventable crimes,” Incontro said. “If I can eliminate 179 crimes, our overall part one crimes decrease and if we don’t have this kind of crime, we can focus on the more serious crime issues and we can solve a lot of other larcenies…especially those larcenies dealing with identity theft.
