Cemetery Gives City 90 Acres for Griffith Park

Forest Lawn agreed Friday to give the city of Los Angeles nearly 90 acres of land for Griffith Park, and about $70,000 in return for the right to uproot more than 100 oak trees on cemetery property.

The agreement stems from a Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed by Forest Lawn in March to stop the city from repealing an ordinance that allows the cemetery to remove oak trees from its original 400 acres in the Hollywood Hills just south of Burbank.

The cemetery wants to remove the trees to provide more room for burial plots.

“The city is getting a reasonable amount of money while at the same time Forest Lawn is replacing the trees and giving us some land for more park space,” said Deputy City Atty. Keith Pritsker.

In the agreement, signed in a closed City Council session, Forest Lawn Memorial Parks and Mortuaries agreed to donate just less than 90 acres of land for the expansion of Griffith Park while also paying the city $670 for every oak tree the cemetery removes, Pritsker said.

The land given to the city is mostly in a very steep area that could not be used for burials, Pritsker said.

Forest Lawn also agreed to plant an equal number of oak trees elsewhere in the cemetery and to take measures to preserve Sennett Canyon on cemetery land.

The money given to the city will be used for other oak tree preservation projects throughout Los Angeles, Pritsker said.

“The compromise reached was a ‘win-win’ that involved preservation of oak trees and mitigation for our development,” said Paula Graber, vice president of communications for Forest Lawn. “Most importantly, Forest Lawn will donate a substantial area of land to the city for the expansion of Griffith Park.”

All that remains for the settlement to be finalized is the signature of the court, Pritsker said.

In its lawsuit, Forest Lawn was seeking damages estimated in excess of $100 million.

In a 1980 ordinance barring the removal of oak trees from lots larger than an acre, the City Council included an exemption that allowed Forest Lawn to remove oak trees, according to the lawsuit.

Forest Lawn asked city officials to verify the exemption last year. When the city did not reply, cemetery executives suspected the city was planning to repeal the exemption, the lawsuit said.

The company had asked the court to order city officials to verify the exemption, block attempts to rewrite the ordinance and abstain from future interference with the exemption.