Developer Seeks Change in Oak Tree Permit

Dense bushes crowd each other next to willow trees and grasses, and somewhere in all that brush, baby oaks may be hidden.

In a city named for the stately trees, the young oaks complicate a developer’s plan. But because the trees were mere acorns or saplings when the city’s oak-preservation ordinance passed, Raznick Community Builders may be able to move or remove 31 of the trees.

On Tuesday, the Thousand Oaks City Council will consider a modification to an oak-tree permit already granted to Raznick, which is building homes on the tract bounded by Reino Road, Kimber Drive and Knollwood Drive in Newbury Park.

The city, which takes its namesake trees seriously, has an ordinance that prohibits the removal or transplanting of any oak tree without a lengthy hearing process and approval from the planning department and City Council.

Raznick wants approval for the transplanting and removal of 31 newly discovered trees, as well as a streamlined approval process for any other young oaks the builder discovers as brush is cleared from the site.

The project was originally approved in 1981, when the Cohan family owned it. Raznick bought the project in 1987.

According to Raznick project manager Ellen Michiel, who has been working on the project for 12 years, changes in the laws between the time the project was approved and her company began working on it have resulted in its redesign. And the oak-tree permit has been modified to reflect changes in the number of trees.

“In the meantime, it’s true that living things have babies, and that is true of trees,” said Michiel.

The trees have propagated and some of the smaller saplings that weren’t originally counted have grown big enough to count as official trees. The dense brush on parts of the property, however, makes it nearly impossible to determine the exact number of smaller trees.

“They become nightmares,” said Bob Rickards, a senior planner with the city planning department.

He thinks the chances are good that Raznick will get its modification.

“It would seem more likely, because [the trees] are very small and because the project’s been approved,” Rickards said.

Most of the trees will be replanted elsewhere on the site. Michiel said that there are a few that will be replaced because the oak tree expert on the project said they were deformed and would not transplant well.

“All around, it’s not a bad program,” she said about the ordinance. “It can be a headache, but it’s not insurmountable.”