Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 29, 2010. A Coast Live Oak is center of the photo (native Toyon is on the left), at a slope cut for the 2 Freeway on Red Car Property. (Click here for wide view, on another day.) For the past week, we've been looking at some of the Coast Live Oak Trees of the Red Car Property. This is not a comprehensive list, but a series I've been meaning to run for quite some time.
Some trees may be growing where neighbors encroached on the property, or are within the denser communities of trees like Red Car Canyon and the steep slopes that are a part of the property.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 7, 2010. Coast Live Oak in Red Car Canyon. Click on photo to enlarge.) Coast Live Oak and California Black Walnuts are native species covered by the City's Protected Native Tree Ordinance. When a developer files for subdivision, zone change or construction on Hillside lots within the City of Los Angeles, he has to account for the native trees and follow the guidelines of the ordinance.
It doesn't give much protection to our valuable and quickly disappearing native trees, but it is better than prior to 2006.
Advice to anyone fighting a Hillside development battle: carefully check the MND and conditions for approval to ensure the correct ordinance, 177,404 is cited. In the four years since the ordinance took effect, City Planning has been using the out-of-date ordinance in their boilerplate conditions. Put your grievances in writing to the decision maker and cc: your City Councilmember and Neighborhood Council every time you see the mistake.
