October 24, 2011<\/p>\n
John Buchanan, Mayor Re:\u00a0 Palm Trees – Danger from dead palm tree branches<\/p>\n Dear Mayor Buchanan,<\/p>\n I am writing to draw attention to something that poses a threat to the residents of Sierra Madre, as well as a liability to our City.<\/p>\n A short time ago my wife and I we were doing our exercise walk on Orange Grove, between Baldwin and Michillinda.\u00a0 There were a couple of other people walking ahead of us, a mother and her young daughter.<\/p>\n Suddenly, a large dead palm tree branch fell and hit the street ahead with a thud, just barely missing the young girl by only a couple of feet.\u00a0 If this dead palm tree branch had hit her, she could have been seriously injured or even killed.<\/p>\n There are a lot of tall palm trees on this street, as well as on of other streets throughout our city, and a lot of them have dead branches.\u00a0 Many of those trees are very tall, maybe up to 100 feet, so when their dead branches fall they come down with a lot of speed and force.\u00a0 And wherever the palm trees are located, we all notice that there are usually dead palm branches in the street, especially on windy days, so falling dead palm branches are a common occurrence.<\/p>\n These falling branches can be very dangerous, as I\u2019m sure you will agree.\u00a0 The problem is with the dead palms tree branches (not the live ones), because they become loose and the slightest breeze can cause them to fall to the ground.\u00a0 If the dead palm tree branches were trimmed from the trees when noticed, that should alleviate the problem.\u00a0 However, it appears that no one is trimming the dead palm branches from the trees.<\/p>\n As a result of my concern I emailed the City Manager (Ms. Elaine Aguilar), and inquired as to who owned the parkway and trees in front of the properties, and who was responsible to keep them trimmed.\u00a0 Her response was:<\/p>\n \u201cIn most situations, the parkway is the \u201ccity\u2019s right-of-way\u201d. Which means the trees are \u201ccity trees.\u201d\u00a0 However, we have a municipal code section that states: Section 12.20.070 it is the property owner\u2019s responsibility to care for and trim \u201cparkway\u201d trees.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n She also sent me this excerpt below, as supportive information:<\/p>\n \u201cIt is made the duty of all owners and persons having the possession and\/or control of real property within the city to properly cultivate, care for and maintain all trees now or hereafter planted or set out within any public street planting areas immediately adjacent to their respective real properties, subject, however, to: (1) the general supervision, direction and control of the director of public works as described in Section 12.20.040<\/a>, and (2) the right of the city and franchised utility companies to perform any emergency or maintenance work deemed necessary. The city shall, at no cost to adjoining property owners, when recommended by a cognizant tree expert, remove, cut, prune or trim any street or public tree which is found to be dangerous to health and safety.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n If this is the city\u2019s policy, which is that the city owns the parkway and trees, but the residents are required to trim the city\u2019s trees, then it is obviously not working, because the dead palm tree branches are not being trimmed by anyone, city or residents.\u00a0 This creates a very dangerous situation, so it is clear that some action needs to be taken by the city to remedy it.<\/p>\n This also brings up an interesting question, which is, Can a city legally require the residents to trim or maintain the city\u2019s trees?\u201d\u00a0 It seems unusual to me that residents can be required to do this and I doubt it would stand a legal test, but I am not an attorney and just guessing based on past experience.\u00a0 You should get a legal opinion on this, if you have not done so already.<\/p>\n Regardless, in these tough economic times we are all experiencing, I sincerely doubt that most residents will go to the expense to trim the city\u2019s trees, unless forced to do so.\u00a0 The fact that the dead branches are not being trimmed from the tall palm trees, seems to prove that point.<\/p>\n The question is, \u201cWhat can we do to solve this problem before someone is seriously injured or killed?\u201d\u00a0 And if something terrible like that should happen, who will be sued and held liable, the resident or the city?<\/p>\n The bottom line is whatever your policy is now, and however we are enforcing it, is not working and a dangerous situation exists that needs to be addressed and remedied.\u00a0 I am bringing this to your attention in the hope that you will take action before something regretful happens.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n G. Vernon Hensel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" October 24, 2011 John Buchanan, Mayor CITY OF SIERRA MADRE 232 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. Sierra Madre, CA 91024 Re:\u00a0 Palm Trees – Danger from dead palm tree branches Dear Mayor Buchanan, I am writing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[30,73,103,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5130"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCITY OF SIERRA MADRE<\/em>
\n232 W. Sierra Madre Blvd.
\nSierra Madre, CA 91024<\/p>\n