Charges in Works : Council Acts to Toughen Law on Oaks

As prosecutors prepared to file the first criminal charges alleging violation of Los Angeles’ 5-year-old oak tree protection law, the City Council moved Tuesday to stiffen the penalties for illegal removal of the dwindling giant oaks. Both actions were prompted by the felling of oaks in Chatsworth on April 16.

The council instructed the city attorney’s office to prepare legislation doubling to $1,000 the fine for each oak removed without a required permit. The legislation also would impose a 10-year ban on building on property where a tree has been illegally destroyed.

The measure must come back for another vote before the council for final approval.

The 11-0 vote came as the city attorney’s office announced plans to file misdemeanor charges against six people in connection with the bulldozing of four oak trees at a construction site in Chatsworth. At the time of the incident, officials had thought that only three oaks, estimated to be 500 years old, had been felled for sale as firewood.

Suspects Not Identified

Ted Goldstein, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office, declined to identify the suspects or to discuss details of the case.

But Goldstein, who is preparing a report on the incident to be presented May 3 to the city’s Board of Public Works, said, “In my 16 years at City Hall, this is the most blatant example of wanton destruction of some of the finest oak tree specimens left in the northwest San Fernando Valley.”

The case would be the first brought under a 1980 law requiring a city permit for removal of oak trees with trunks eight inches or larger in diameter, measured 4 1/2 feet from the ground. The maximum penalty is a $500 fine and six months in jail for each tree removed illegally.

Argument for Ban

At the council meeting, Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents Chatsworth, maintained that prohibiting construction for 10 years on property where an oak has been illegally destroyed would serve as a greater deterrent than the current maximum $500 fine. The fine, he said, can be dismissed by developers of multimillion-dollar projects as “a cost of doing business.”

Ironically, Bernson also won council approval Tuesday to move ahead with a street improvement project in another part of Chatsworth that would require the removal of 28 oak trees in the Chatsworth Reservoir area.

That project, Bernson said, is designed to eliminate a traffic hazard by building an extension of Valley Circle Boulevard, between Roscoe Boulevard and Plummer Streets, through the reservoir area.

Bernson said that the route now used by traffic runs through the Lake Manor community and contains dangerous curves that have contributed to many accidents.

He said the city would be required to replace the oaks it removes. He also contended that none of the trees compare in age, size or historical significance to the ones that were destroyed last week.

Demolition contractor Bob Switzer confirmed in an interview Tuesday that his workers bulldozed four trees at the vacant lot at 21826 Lassen St.

“I really feel bad,” Switzer said. “I didn’t even know you needed a permit.”

Switzer also contended that he did not see the “historical landmark plaques” that city officials say were posted on the trees.

The Oak Tree Coalition, a San Fernando Valley-based environmental group, has catalogued the oak grove as the site of an early Valley country store and stagecoach stop, and earlier as the site of an Indian encampment.

Switzer said he was to be paid $2,500 to clear the site by the Encino-based Jasin Co., whose representatives could not be reached for comment.

‘Tragic Loss’

“This tragic loss to the environment must be remedied immediately,” said Bernson, who has picked up the oak tree cause from his predecessor, former Councilman Bob Wilkinson, who introduced the 1980 oak tree protection law. Similar laws are in effect in Thousand Oaks and in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

As for the trees in the reservoir area, Helen Treend , president of the Oak Tree Coalition, said that they represent one of the few large stands of oaks in the northeast Valley and that she would continue to oppose the road project backed by Bernson when it comes back before the council for funding. She said the city should fix the existing road rather than build a new one.