CIVIC CENTER — A handful of community members weighed in on a controversial tree ordinance during the last of four public input meetings Saturday, some calling the ordinance a intrusion on property owners’ rights.
The ordinance drew some community ire in August 2007, when Ann and Mike Collard were penalized $347,000 for illegally trimming 13 protected trees.
In September 2007, John Oppenheim was slapped with a $170,000 fine for illegally pruning five protected trees on and off his property.
In response to the public outcry, a cautious City Council opened the issue up to the public in this series of meetings to gather residents’ perspectives before moving forward with any changes to the ordinance.
The Collards’ case compelled attorney and Glendale resident Harvey Goldhammer, who attended the meeting on Saturday, to delve into law’s provisions and language.
“I hear the size of this fine and I go and look at the statute, as did the other attorney on my team, and we both come back with that fact that this thing is so fraught with constitutional infirmities that I was prepared as a pro bono attorney to come in on behalf of the Collards and challenge it.”
Not only does the ordinance contain no basis for making appeals, nor provide any guidance for imposing fines, but one cut can mean a fine of double the value of the tree, he said.
“It was a just a horribly, horribly written statute and the way it was being imposed would totally ruin people — financially ruin people.”
But other meeting attendees said that the ordinance was necessary, though it was being misapplied and could use some tinkering.
“I think that the view point of the ordinance is it was oriented against specific developers and not against scrupulous homeowners,” said North Glendale resident Bill Weissman of Crescenta Valley Heritage.
The law itself came into being after a developer “literally took down an entire oak forest over a three-day weekend” on the Mountain Oaks property on the bottom of Mountain Oaks Avenues, he added.
Viewed in that light, keeping the law on the books in some form is important, he said.
“We don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater,” he said.
“We don’t want this focus on punitive damages on the individual homeowner.”
CHRIS WIEBE covers public safety and the courts. He may be reached at (818) 637-3232 or by e-mail at chris.wiebe@ latimes.com.
