Neighbors Temporarily Block Planting of 9 Trees at City Park : Ventura: Protesters say the palms are unsightly and would ruin ocean views. The strong opposition surprises the architect.

Fifteen Ventura residents temporarily blocked the planting of nine palm trees on the north side of Marina Park on Wednesday by bombarding a city landscape architect with their protests.

“The county is going bust and we are spending $250,000 to plant trees that nobody wants? It’s insanity,” resident Gerta Petersdorf said at an 8:30 a.m. meeting on Greenock Lane with architect Don Marquardt.

The city of Ventura had planned to start planting 67 Mexican fan palm trees Wednesday as part of a $258,000 improvement of the 14-acre park, but Marquardt said he held back the contractor until the tree issue could be resolved.

Marquardt said he attended the meeting thinking that he was going to discuss moving the trees only slightly to accommodate one resident’s view. He said he was not prepared for the reception that he was given.

Residents complained that they wanted no trees planted at all, or at least not in front of their homes, where the 15- to 20-foot trees would be as unsightly as telephone poles or jail bars. They said the trees would destroy the ocean views from their half-million-dollar homes and prevent weekend visitors from flying kites.

“This is total insensitivity to what the hell anyone wants around here,” Peter Gartlan said. “This is not good public policy.”

Residents also pointed out that the city has not properly maintained the palm trees already standing in the neighborhood. They voiced concern that planting additional trees would result in even more palm fronds in their front yards when the wind blows.

Marquardt listened calmly to the residents’ angry complaints, but said he could not promise that the 10-year-old trees would not eventually be placed where the lawns had already been marked with red crosses.

“There’s no way standing here I can say we’re not going to plant any trees,” he said. But “it’s certainly not our intention to anger all you people,” he added.

“The message I’m hearing from this group is you want no trees in the park,” he said. “I will take that back, tell my supervisor and see what happens.”

He also suggested that the group send a letter to his supervisor, Supt. of Parks William Byerts. Later in the day, Marquardt said Byerts had forwarded the residents’ concerns to his supervisor, Director of Parks and Recreation Barbara Harrison.

As a condition of receiving a federal Department of Interior grant for the improvement project, the city kicked in $129,000 of the $258,000 cost.

Marquardt said the project was funded based on plans for “reforestation” of the park. The original plans for the 1972 park included 250 trees, all but 50 of which have died, he said.

Resident Marlene McElroy said she could not recall seeing anything but grass at the park in front of her house.

“I never saw it full of trees and I’ve lived here for 40 years,” said McElroy, adding that she wanted to keep it that way.

Marquardt said residents should have raised their objections at a meeting in April, before the city awarded a $200,000 contract to Artistic Landscape and Engineering of La Mirada and a $25,000 contract to tree specialist William D. Young and Sons of Indio.

Although some residents did oppose the trees during public meetings, he said there had been no general consensus.

The first phase of the park improvement began in 1988 with the construction of a multimillion-dollar underground wall along the beach to protect the park from intrusion by the sea. The tree planting, which will cost $25,000, comes under the project’s second phase, along with the general rehabilitation of park facilities.

A sand dune, “now a big green lump with a fence around it,” will be restored and replanted, Marquardt said. Concrete walls and barbecue pits will be rebuilt, lights and paving will be replaced, and a volleyball court will be added.