A Balcony View:

Last week I wrote about a handful of trees that were planted in the Rossmoyne area. The city of Glendale had failed to notify residents before altering the landscaping of many homes. Mine was one of the homes that had trees planted on the lawn.

After my column appeared, the Public Works Department sent me an e-mail admitting they failed miserably in following what is their standard practice for prior notification of residents for such projects. Better late than never, I suppose.

Regardless of their apology, my initial reaction was that the city had no right to plant trees on my front lawn. I was all set to auction the trees off on EBay when my editor suggested that I double check to make sure I could do that without ending up incarcerated. I’m glad I did because I found out a few interesting things.

According to local attorney David DiJulio, the city has rights to both sides of the street regardless of whether one side has a sidewalk.

“If it looks like the trees are planted where a sidewalk might be, they may very well be within their rights,” he said.

In fact, according to the Public Works Department, the frontage of our home along the street is not an easement. It’s called a public right-of-way with an open parkway. They are owned or controlled by the city for use in providing public amenities, like sidewalks and street trees.

The right-of-ways vary in width from street to street, even block to block. The city’s municipal code defines a city-owned street tree as any tree where the centerline of the tree trunk is within the right-of-way.

So that explained how and why the trees mysteriously appeared. But I still wasn’t satisfied that I knew enough, so I asked Kurt Schmalz, a real estate attorney in Beverly Hills, to help me out. He told me that many cities are removing themselves from landscaping easements to cut the liability and costs of maintaining large trees.

He added that some cities are even paying homeowners to take back the easement so the municipality can relieve itself of any financial and legal burdens caused by the easement. Schmalz then went on to say that the city is also 100% responsible for the maintenance of the trees and any damage they may cause, such as a branch falling on a car or a person.

The Public Works Department also confirmed the city’s full liability for the maintenance and ownership of the trees.