CYPRESS : Golf Course Gets City OK to Cut Trees

This city so loves its mature, historic trees that it takes an act of the City Council to remove one.

The issue surfaced earlier this month when the Cypress Golf Course requested permission from city government to remove 14 diseased eucalyptus trees on golf course property. The request went before the City Council because a 21-year-old city ordinance puts strict controls on mature trees deemed “landmarks.”

On Dec. 12, the council unanimously approved the golf course’s request to remove the diseased trees, with no need for replacements.

Chris Eynon, public works director, explained that the 1973 ordinance protects “large, majestic” trees that have been designated “landmark trees” and placed on a city inventory. The Cypress Golf Course eucalyptuses are among them, Eynon said.

In a written report to the council, Eynon noted that “the criteria for determining whether or not to issue such a permit includes the condition of the landmark tree with respect to disease, general health and danger of falling.”

She said that the 14 trees golf course officials asked to remove all had been found “to be dead or dying as a result of infestation by the long-horned borer beetle” and that removal of the dead or dying trees “is necessary to keep the beetle infestation from spreading.”

Eynon said the golf course owners should not be required to plant replacement trees for the 14 diseased ones. She told the council that the golf course two years ago planted an excess of replacements when a batch of landmark trees had to be removed that year.

Eynon said a large number of landmark trees will remain on the golf course.