LAGUNA BEACH : Responsibility for Care of Trees May Be Altered

Hundreds of trees that are in public rights of way and have been maintained by the city may be turned over to owners of adjacent property for maintenance under a plan to be presented to the City Council next week.

Municipal Services Director Terry Brandt said he will ask the City Council on Tuesday to “tentatively endorse the concept” of changing the city’s longtime policy of tree maintenance, in part to save money.

Brandt’s department now trims hundreds of trees in parks and open spaces, and another 1,107 trees in rights of way--strips of land that the city may use for sidewalks or streets if needed.

In a memo to the council, Brandt said it would make sense for the city to foot the bill for trimming trees along Laguna Canyon Road, Pacific Coast Highway and in the downtown business district because they benefit the entire community.

Whether tax dollars should be used to trim about 400 trees in public rights of way in residential districts, however, is “extremely questionable,” he said.

Under his proposal, the city would trim each tree one more time, then it would become the abutting property owner’s responsibility.

Property owners who don’t want to maintain the trees could cut them down, City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said.

But former Mayor Ann Christoph said she thinks the proposal is a bad idea.

“This is going in the wrong direction altogether,” said Christoph, who helped set up an inventory of the city’s heritage trees, which are considered especially valuable because of their age, size or unique characteristics.