Forest Lawn Sues Over Plan to Remove Oaks

Forest Lawn Co. filed a lawsuit Wednesday to stop the city of Los Angeles from eliminating an ordinance exemption that allows the company to remove oak trees from cemetery property.

The company plans to seek damages estimated in excess of $100 million, according to the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit.

Forest Lawn wants to remove a number of trees to create more burial plots, the suit says.

A city ordinance passed in 1980 bars the removal of oak trees from lots larger than one acre, but the City Council also included an exemption in the ordinance that applied to the oak trees standing on the original 400 acres of the Hollywood Hills cemetery, the lawsuit alleges.

But when Forest Lawn asked city officials to verify the exemption last year, the verification was delayed. The company believes that city officials are working to change the ordinance, removing the exemption clause, according to the suit.

The company wants the court to order city officials to verify the exemption, stop future interference with the exemption and block any attempts to rewrite the ordinance.

Neither Forest Lawn’s attorney nor a spokesman for the city could be reached for comment.