They Can’t See the Seas for the Trees in Del Mar : Committee Wrestles With Disputes Over Foliage That Blocks Scenic Views

We moved here and enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous ocean view. Now it’s gone.

Don Kennedy

Del Mar resident

When actor-carpenter Don Kennedy moved to Del Mar in 1968, he could see the ocean from his back porch. He remodeled and expanded the porch into a formal dining room with picture windows so his family and friends could enjoy the view.

“We moved here and enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous ocean view,” Kennedy said. “Now it’s gone. And what’s worse, I’m continually raking my neighbor’s leaves.”

The dining room now offers a view of three large trees in the backyard of Kennedy’s neighbor, Navarre Perry, a retired lawyer turned actor. Perry has declined persistent entreaties to trim his trees to restore Kennedy’s view.

“If everybody cut down or trimmed trees in Del Mar to protect ocean views, we’d have a desert, with a bunch of tree stumps,” Perry said. “One of the nice things about Del Mar is the woodsy feel. If you want ocean views and don’t mind barren landscape, move to Clairemont.”

A Coastal Conundrum

Ah, the coastal conundrum. Views versus vegetation. One homeowner’s blockage is another’s beauty.

For a year, Kennedy and fellow members of the city’s Vegetation View Blockage Committee have labored to devise a municipal ordinance to protect and restore ocean views. All of the members say they have suffered view blockage.

After studying ordinances adopted in the upscale communities of Sausalito, Tiburon, Belvedere and El Cerrito in the San Francisco Bay Area, the committee proposed that Del Mar form a Vegetation Control Board. The board would have the power to order pruning of any greenery that “substantially” blocks sunlight or “obstructs scenic views.”

The City Council last week ordered the city manager to develop a height limit for new vegetation and prepare a report on how some communities use non-binding mediation to settle view disputes.

Delay for Legal Review

But the council delayed consideration of the Vegetation Control Board idea until September, after the city attorney studies it.

“I have friends up on Seaview Avenue who once had wonderful views of La Jolla but now have none,” Councilman Lew Hopkins said.

“If there is one issue I’ve heard the most about since I first ran for the council, it’s view problems with trees.”

Hopkins added that he is able to be

objective because his own view of the ocean is unobstructed.

Wherever there are hillside homes along the coast, views are an issue.

In Cardiff, for example, the Town Council has asked the Encinitas City Council to consider trees and views when developing the General Plan and other regulations to guide the fledgling city.

“We feel that trees should be kept trimmed so people can have at least a partial view of the ocean,” said insurance broker John Davis, who serves both on the Cardiff Town Council and school board. “Tall, unkempt trees can block views every bit as much as a building.

“Cardiff is almost overrun with ungroomed trees. We would like an ordinance to regulate trees and other things that block our views.”

Value of a View

The view debate, of course, is part aesthetics, part real estate values. The greater the ocean view, the greater the cash value of your home.

One Del Mar real estate agent puts the value of a decent ocean view at $50,000 to $75,000--this in a community where a $250,000 home is considered a fixer-upper. Some owners near the beach have bought “view easements,” in which their neighbors promise to keep their trees short or not plant trees at all.

“I have one home listed right now which would be $100,000 less if it did not have an ocean view,” the agent said. “There are other listings where you have to warn prospective buyers that, yes, they have a view today but they won’t in a few years when their neighbors’ trees grow.”

The Del Mar proposal would seek to protect all views of “the ocean, the community, lagoons, canyons or surrounding areas.” A homeowner would have to make two attempts to resolve a view problem privately before appealing to the Vegetation Control Board.

If a homeowner is seeking to establish a view not present when he bought his home, he would be liable for 75% of the trimming costs. Refusal to trim a tree or bush as ordered by the board would constitute a “private nuisance” and thus allow the offended neighbor to seek a court order.

“This has been going on for 15 years,” said Vegetation View Blockage Committee member Gay Fisher. “I’ve talked to every council member going back to 1965 and 1970. I think Del Mar can be a leader.”

Problem Deeply Rooted

Though the Del Mar problem is deeply rooted, the council is cautious. The Tiburon ordinance is already under attack in the courts as an illegal “taking” of property.

“I worry about people who have had trees for a long time and are very attached to them,” said Councilman John Gillies.

“I would like to see a view blocker (come to the council),” said Councilwoman Brooke Eisenberg. “I would like to see what would make a person unblock without litigation.”

In San Diego, tree-view arguments are referred to the Mira Mesa-based Community Mediation Center. Complaints are particularly common from La Jolla and Point Loma; the city has no tree height ordinance and rejected a proposed “sunlight rights” ordinance several years ago.

“View complaints get quite emotional,” said mediation center director Liz Underell. “Homeowners complain that the value of their property is being hurt, they can’t use their decks or backyards, their nerves are upset. The problem often starts with the tree; then the neighbors are fighting about other things--dogs, kids, noise.”

The Kennedy-Perry dispute led to a claim and counterclaim in small claims court over Kennedy trimming part of Perry’s trees that hang over the fence. One neighbor called the Sheriff’s Department, the other is thought to have called out the building inspectors.

Acting Up a Storm

Both neighbors are actors--Perry is involved in Gaslamp Quarter Theatre and the San Diego Repertory; Kennedy did Broadway, Hollywood and a recent bit on TV’s Starman--but they can’t agree on who is playing the villain in their backyard drama.

“I’m not asking that a single tree be cut down, just trimmed,” said Kennedy, 65, who retired after 16 years as a county building inspector. “I love trees. But I believe every property owner should be responsible for controlling his vegetation from stealing from other people.”

“There are trees across the street that hurt my view and I’d love to take a poison arrow and kill them,” replies Perry, 50, who has lived in Del Mar for 12 years. “But you have to make compromises and allow some give-and-take to live in society. I’m just an innocent victim in all this.”

A final act may be near, however. Perry has sold his home and is moving to San Diego to be closer to the theaters.

Kennedy plans to talk trees with his new neighbors as soon as they move in.