Riverside Drive: Grading Project Leaves 1 Black Walnut Tree On Adjacent Red Car Property

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, September 18, 2016.   The developer for the 8 (or 13) Riverside Drive lots below the Red Car Property left one protected Black Walnut Tree on the Red Car Property when they were grading well beyond the property line, right up to and around the large protected Coast Live Oak Tree.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 6, 2016.  Earlier this summer, neither the Red Car Property nor the Riverside Drive lot owner had done brush clearance by May 1, like responsible hillside property owners.  Little did we know, every tree in this shot, despite their protected status, would be gone by mid-August.

Worth noting in the second photo, according to the Riverside Drive developer's property line stakes that had been in the ground and updated several times in the past few years, the dead Eucalyptus is on the Red Car Property.  The Coast Live Oak is the dark green tree in the upper right corner, is also on the Red Car Property.  Almost all the other bright green trees are California Black Walnuts that had grown back after earlier removals without permits. 

As I've said before, the City's Protected Native Tree Ordinance is a joke.  The point of protecting specific native species is because they are integral to the hillside habitat.  Razing and entire ecosystem, building on almost every inch of available hillside lot and planting a couple of 15 gallon trees in a graded slope, hoping they'll grow really isn't responsible urban forest management.