North Tustin : Toppling of Trees Halted by Residents

Residents of a semi-rural North Tustin neighborhood got a shock this week when they looked out their windows to see bulldozers felling the beloved eucalyptus trees that line the south side of Fairhaven Avenue.

The residents’ protests Wednesday halted the bulldozers, but only after about a dozen trees were toppled. And on Friday, residents were breathing easier after county officials and a developer agreed to save the remaining 18 towering trees.

The developer, JCC Enterprises, and the county were “very, very responsive and I think something will be done (to replace the uprooted trees),” said Virginia Flanary, whose country-style home faces the row of 60-foot eucalyptus trees.

A spokesman for the developer said the trees were bulldozed to comply with required county street improvements in order to proceed with a 56-home development.

Claim Assurances

Residents in the unincorporated area said they are angry because they were assured at a meeting with the county’s Subdivision Committee last October that the trees would remain in place, according to North Tustin Municipal Advisory Committee Chairman Patricia Seman.

William Zaun, director of regulations for the county’s Environmental Management Agency, said he could understand the residents’ anger but added that a “lack of understanding by the community and the (development) approval process” contributed to the problem.

Seman said JCC Enterprises took over the project after grading approval had been granted but before construction began. Grading was originally approved for Sand Dollar Development Inc. of Irvine, but the project was sold to Torrance-based JCC.

Zaun said plans to widen the street will be scaled back to accommodate the remaining trees. “We would have been quite happy with leaving the trees there,” said Kelly Thomas, a JCC official.

Flanary, one of the first residents to notice the bulldozing, said she also is concerned with decreased property values as a result of the tree removal.

Economic Concerns

“We did love the trees very much, but we’re not just a bunch of sentimental nuts. We have economic concerns, too,” she added.

Flanary said that when she realized the trees were being bulldozed, she called the Sheriff’s Department and vowed “to stand between the trees and the bulldozers. I don’t know if that’s what got them out here or not.”

“Taking out the trees is a violation of a previous agreement to preserve the rural nature of the neighborhood,” Flanary said. She collected about 30 resident signatures on a petition and took it to the meeting Thursday to show the neighborhood’s concern.

The residents vowed to replace the lost trees.

“The thing to do now is to have new trees put in,” Seman said. “Tustin is known for its semi-rural atmosphere; that’s why people like to live here.”