Turning Over New Leaf in City Policy on Trees : Cerritos: For years the City Council brushed off complaints about messy flora. But a new councilman is willing to look at requests to ax the troublemakers.

With some 27,000 trees lining its streets, this city is dedicated to creating what its founders called a “park-like” setting. So, for years, the City Council has turned a deaf ear to complaints from distraught residents about the trees the city planted in front of their houses.

Veteran council members have heard them all: The tree is messy, it sheds too many leaves, it drops inedible stuff all over the place, it causes allergies.

Only in severe cases--say when roots break up pipes or make a sidewalk impassable--has the council agreed to tear out a tree, even when residents offer to pay for the replacement.

Now, fresh from the campaign trail and with an earful of messy tree complaints, a new councilman says he will try to persuade his colleagues that it would be appropriate to ax some trees.

“I got enough feedback when I walked precincts that I think it’s a problem that should be addressed,” said Councilman John Crawley, who was elected in April.

But Crawley isn’t launching an assault on all trees. He just wants to replace troublesome ones with less offensive varieties.

Crawley thinks the most offensive tree he has seen in Cerritos is the ginkgo. That is what residents in one neighborhood told him was the name of the tree that drops sticky red fruit on their sidewalks and lawns.

It is true that the mature female ginkgo produces a cherry-like fruit. But the trees Crawley thinks are ginkgoes are probably the berry-bearing Brazilian pepper. There are only 29 ginkgoes in the whole city, according to Robert Meyer.

Meyer is city parks superintendent and is in charge of keeping track of trees. About 200 new trees a year are planted to replace those that have died, become diseased, or whose roots have badly buckled sidewalks, Meyer said.

Crawley, however, wants a new criterion added to the list of reasons for removal--nuisance.

At the council meeting Tuesday, Crawley will suggest that the city take out, perhaps, as many as two offensive trees per year on each block where there are numerous complaints about a particular variety. Eventually, Crawley reasons, the nuisances will be gone.

“I don’t see any reason why people should be forced to clean up after their trees when they could be replaced with some other kind,” he said.

He may get some sympathy from another new councilman, Sherman Kappe, although Kappe says he is not sure that he wants to start cutting down trees. “I did get a lot of complaints,” he said. “I know the carrot woods are a big offender.”

But one person’s nuisance is another person’s delight in this city, where tree complaints are a suburban government leitmotif.

“Everybody in this city hates the tree in front of their house,” said Mayor Ann B. Joynt, who is serving her second term on the council.

“The carrot wood. The sycamore. The jacaranda, it leaves purple leaves all over everything. I’ve got a Brazilian pepper in front of (my house) and it’s terrible. The Canary Island pine, we’ve had complaints about every kind of tree in the city.”

Joynt says she will not vote to take down trees because it would not be appropriate in a city trying to maintain its park-like setting.

“Besides,” said the mayor, “if we say yes to one homeowner, just one, we’ll have people lined up at council (wanting their trees down too).”