Chop Chop: City Recommends Removing Four Large and Healthy Street Trees from Hollywood Boulevard; Claims the Sidewalk is Too Small [Updated]

Tomorrow, Monday October 3rd, the Board of Public Works is scheduled to consider a Bureau of Street Services report (.pdf) that recommends that four large, healthy, mature Indian Laurel Fig Trees (Ficus trees) be removed from the 5500 block of Hollywood Boulevard (near the intersection of Hollywood and Garfield Place) and be replaced with five Pink Trumpet trees.

The Bureau of Street Services report was prepared at the request of the developer of the 5555 Hollywood Project, a 120 unit mixed-use senior apartment building currently under construction at that site. The 5555 Hollywood Project is required, as a condition of approval of the project, to repair or replace the sidewalks, curbs, and gutters abutting the project site. The developer requested that the Bureau of Street Services inspect the condition of the street trees and determine if they would be impacted by the sidewalk reconstruction work.

From the report (emphasis mine):

The inspection revealed four Indian Laurel Fig trees growing on the project's Hollywood Boulevard side. The good condition trees are planted in four foot tree wells in a twelve foot sidewalk. The trees are in good health and measure twenty-four to thirty-two inches in diameter by forty-five to fifty feet in height and are in good condition. The root crowns have substantially outgrown the tree wells and significantly contribute to the defective condition of the public sidewalk. Although the tree wells can be enlarged laterally, the minimal sidewalk width does not allow for expansion of the wells across the sidewalk. The trees cannot withstand the root pruning that would have to occur without compromising the trees structural integrity. Additionally, there are two street lights and a dedicated crosswalk warning sign that are obstructed by the trees.

The trees are aesthetically pleasing to the residents but the potential hazard created by extensive root pruning exceeds the benefits provided by the trees. To ensure public safety it is recommended that your Board approve the request for a no-fee permit for tree removal.

To summarize: The Bureau of Street Services is saying that the four Ficus trees are in good health and are aesthetically pleasing but the root crowns are too large for the existing tree wells and the sidewalk is too small to accommodate larger trees wells. Therefore, in order to facilitate the required sidewalk reconstruction, the Bureau of Street Services is recommending that the trees be removed.

Sounds open and shut, right? Well, not exactly.

There is just one small little wrinkle: Once the 5555 Hollywood Boulevard Project is complete the sidewalk along this portion of Hollywood Boulevard will be at least 20 feet wide, which is a significant upgrade from its current width of 12 feet and which should be wide enough to accommodate the larger tree wells that these four Ficus require. Why is the sidewalk being enlarged? Because the Bureau of Engineering required that the project dedicate a 7-foot wide strip of land along the project's Hollywood Boulevard frontage for street widening purposes (see Conditions of Approval for VTT-65592, Original Tract Map for VTT-65592, and Modified Tract Map for VTT-65592). As this extra 7-foot wide dedication won't be used to widen Hollywood Boulevard (at least not at this time!) this added extra space will be tacked onto the public sidewalk. So, once the project is complete, there will be a 19-20 foot wide sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard.

Of course, this bit of information is nowhere to be found in the Bureau of Street Services' report.

That being the case, The Board of Public Works should not approve this report until and unless the Bureau of Street Services addresses whether or not these four Ficus trees could be safely accommodated the 19-20 foot wide sidewalk that is planned for this portion of Hollywood Boulevard.

These four trees are providing valuable environmental and atheistic benefits for the community. Large, shade providing, street trees are an essential element of a pedestrian friendly street environment and are sorely lacking in this area of Hollywood. The five Pink Trumpet trees that are proposed to replace these trees have a relatively slow growth rate and will take years to reach the height and size of the existing Ficus. I have nothing against planting Pink Trumpet trees here, but if the planned 20 foot sidewalk can in fact accommodate these four healthy Ficus trees then these trees should be saved and protected.

*Update: The Board of Public Works approved the removal of these trees. At the Board meeting the Bureau of Street Services representative said that they did not want to recommend the removal of the trees but indicated that the key reason they did so was because the trees were obscuring the streetlights and the crosswalk signal. Of course, the only reason the trees are obscuring the streetlights and the signal is because the City refuses to adequately fund its street tree pruning program...

Postscript: I did want to address one other thing. The Bureau of Street Services report noted that there are two street lights and crosswalk warning sign that are obscured by the trees. This shouldn't be that big of a deal to fix. The easternmost street light (near Garfield Place) is only partially obscured by a Ficus tree and could, if necessary, be replaced with a street light that telescopes over the street. Both the westernmost street light and the crosswalk warning sign can be relocated (and co-located) to the empty gap between the western two Ficus trees (where the curb cut currently is) and also, if necessary, be extended further. You should be able to see what I'm talking about in the slideshow above.