Lawsuit Filed Over Rancho P.V. View Law : Property rights: The plaintiffs say they have a right to grow trees and other foliage. The law’s supporters say they have a right to save their views.

A group of Rancho Palos Verdes residents is seeing red over a city ordinance aimed at restoring homeowners’ views that have been obscured over the years by the growth of trees and other foliage.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Torrance Superior Court, seven residents contend the ordinance, which voters approved in 1989, is unconstitutional because it deprives them of their property rights.

The suit also contends that the law, which gives a citizen’s committee the authority to order homeowners to remove or severely prune trees or other foliage on their property, conflicts with city planning laws aimed at preserving natural vegetation in the community.

Rancho Palos Verdes City Manager Paul Bussey said Wednesday that he had not received a copy of the lawsuit and declined to comment on its allegations.

However, he said City Council members would not have placed the ordinance before voters for their approval unless “they felt it had merit.” The measure passed by a 2-to-1 margin, he said.

Mayor Douglas M. Hinchliffe said the lawsuit did not surprise him. When the law was placed before voters, he said, some residents questioned its legality.

“The only resolution really is in the courts, and I’m just hopeful the lawsuit that has been filed framed the question in a matter that will put it squarely in front of the court and allow the court to decide,” Hinchliffe said.

“We are touching a nerve that is a very deep nerve,” he added.

Michael Bay-Boychuk, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said the ordinance is tantamount to giving residents seeking to preserve their views an illegal easement on their neighbor’s property. Previous court decisions have ruled that residents are not entitled to so-called view easements, he said.

“They could have voted themselves the right to invade my checking account,” Bay-Boychuk said.

The council placed the law before voters after some residents complained that trees and other foliage were blocking their views. Some argued that they had purchased their homes because they provided an ocean view--a view they no longer have because their neighbor’s trees have grown too high.

Under the law, a citizen’s committee appointed by council members has the authority to determine if a homeowner’s views have been blocked by his or her neighbor’s trees or other foliage.

If the committee rules the foliage is blocking a view, the homeowner seeking to have the view restored must pay for pruning or removing the foliage. The person who owns the foliage cannot appeal the committee’s decision to the City Council or another governmental body.

According to the lawsuit, six of the plaintiffs have been ordered to remove or trim foliage on their property. One has been ordered to remove three mature eucalyptus trees.

Richard Pyle, a plaintiff who has lived in the same house since 1964, said the lawsuit boils down to the “foliage owners versus the view owners.”

He said he has been ordered to prune nine trees on his property to the same height as his house, or about 15 feet, so his neighbor can once again enjoy an ocean view. Some of the trees are 60 feet high, he said.

“Taking a 60-foot tree and cutting it to 15 feet will not only make it look terrible, but it is likely to kill a lot of these mature trees,” Pyle said.

Pyle’s neighbor, former Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Ken Dyda, argued that the purchase price of his home was based on it having an ocean view, and the view is taken into account when the residence is assessed for property tax purposes. Moreover, pruning the trees on Pyle’s property will not infringe his neighbor’s privacy, he said.

“Basically, the ordinance restores something for which I paid for initially,” Dyda said.