Real Estate In The SF Bay Area

Can Protected Trees Be Removed

Cities enact their own tree protection ordinances, which are specific to that city. A long-time Palo Alto resident recently posted about his protected tree removal attempts to force his neighbor to remove Coast Redwood Trees whose roots were damaging his foundation. We reached out and talked to him for several hours. One of the points that came up was that the city department in charge of managing protected trees apparently enacted regulations to appease the local tree preservation group Canopy. After two years of court cases and numerous discussions, the owner of the damaged house was left with the understanding that the city expanded its protection to other tree types and sizes to appease Canopy, reducing the organization's opposition to the removal of specific trees. Even if you...