COSTA MESA : One Resident’s Bark Saves 4 Old Palms

Jim Santacroce said he has learned, from experience, that fighting city hall pays off.

The 40-year-old real estate agent became incensed two weeks ago when he looked out the window of his Sea View Village apartment and saw a city worker spraying red paint on the trunks of four 65-foot palm trees that swayed along Whittier Avenue.

“I asked him what he was doing, and he told me that he was going to replace all of the old trees with new ones. I couldn’t believe it and said to him, ‘The hell you are!’ ”

The four trees had been the subject of complaints from Heidi Kelly, another resident in the complex who claimed that several fronds from a tree crashed through her window during a recent storm.

City officials were concerned with liability and said the 40-year-old trees had become a problem to maintain because they were too high to trim with the city’s equipment, which is unable to reach trees that are taller than 50 feet.

Because the city would have been forced to rent special equipment each year to trim the trees, they decided to replace them.

Santacroce, upset that the city would uproot the trees instead of exploring alternate solutions, distributed 200 flyers to neighbors and contacted city officials to voice his opposition.

Santacroce’s efforts have paid off.

Costa Mesa Mayor Mary Hornbuckle called Santacroce on Thursday morning to inform him that the trees would not be coming down after all. Later she praised him for getting involved.

Sea Palms Village manager Bonnie Knowles said the complex’s management company, Residential Management Services, is now working out an agreement with the city that will enable the trees to remain.

Knowles said the company agreed this week to take on the responsibility of maintaining the trees, which will cost about $350 a year.

“We like the trees and we don’t want to see the trees destroyed,” Knowles said.

Santacroce said the entire experience has left him with mixed emotions.

“This whole thing was almost a disaster,” he said. “Because we live in so much concrete and asphalt, we are really oblivious to something that is really so majestic as these palm trees. But I’m pleased that the city was so receptive. Although they were about to do some damage, they were receptive to a single voice. It certainly pays to make a few phone calls.”