Dear Eileen,
As a neighboring landowner, I want you to know that I am appalled by yesterday's removal of the beautiful mature trees at the Mission Resource building on Alvarado. It is my understanding that you and your community planning group approved the removal. My wife and I have been in the desert for a day celebrating our wedding anniversary, she just drove into town and alerted me to what had happened. In the four years since this organization took occupancy of this county property, the landscape around the building has been long neglected and now totally denuded. Obviously they have little regard for either beautiful mature trees or their neighbors. What was the sin of these magnificent specimens? That they were non natives with the gall to provide a little shade and beauty on public land?
There is some small irony that a quasi public entity that professes to teach the community proper environmental stewardship can be such a poor, inconsiderate tenant and leave such an awful legacy in its wake. In 2016 it took several letters from me to get them to even weed their property. Their director suggested that I either do it myself or make a contribution so that it could be cleared.
I wish that my fellow property owners and I had had some prior notice of their intentions to cut down the trees but we did not.
I want you to know that I am extremely angry about this arboreal travesty. I think it is both shortsighted and tragic. I will miss those beautiful trees.
Sincerely,
Robert Sommers
Blue Heron Gallery
113 N. Main Ave.
Fallbrook, CA 92028
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I appreciate your email and I can understand your anger.
I was completely opposed to the removal of the trees until I got more information. No one else was happy about it either. We even tried to find a way that the trees could be replanted somewhere else.
The only reason that we approved the removal was that the roots from the trees were causing major safety issues with the gas lines.
Jackie Heyneman who is on the Design Review Committee and our resident tree expert investigated this for us and went over the plans. She confirmed that the trees did pose a safety issue, as did an arborist. As a result all 15 members of the Planning Group approved the plans.
Courtney Provo became the new Director of Mission Resource Conservation District in June. I think if you contact her, she would be happy to go over the plans with you. You can reach her at the email above.
No one wanted the trees to be removed, so I hope this gives you a better understanding about why they needed to be.
We have monthly meetings of the Design Review Committee and the Planning Group. Our agendas and the projects we are working on are published in the Village News as well as being posted at the fire station.
The meetings are open to the public and we want community input on each agenda item. In the future if you see something on an agenda that you are concerned about, I hope that you will come to the meeting/s.
Sincerely,
Eileen Delaney
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| and the sin of the Washingtonia filifera? |
I appreciate your quick response. I admit to not knowing the facts about the root growth of these particular trees. But I have my suspicions that you were being fed a line. These were ambers, not ficus, the roots are relatively shallow. Gas lines can be lowered and they are made out of flex these days, they can be rerouted. I heard that the MRCD wanted to do a native plant exhibition garden and the trees and their attendant roots were interfering with their grand design. I think that these fabulous trees were probably sacrificed needlessly as a convenient excuse. But I hope that I am wrong. Before I was an art dealer I built subdivisions. I had to alert my neighbors in writing when things like this took place. Unfortunately I don't have a habit of reading your planning group's agenda items. I would have made my feelings known.
Thanks very much once again. What is done is done, the trees will never reappear no matter how badly they are missed. At least I have pictures of them.
Sincerely,
Robert Sommers
