Atherton: Who will pay to cut down trees for Caltrain electrification? Atherton: Who will pay to cut down trees for Caltrain electrification? (June 09, 2004)

By Andrea Gemmet
Almanac Staff Writer

It's one thing to tell homeowners they must cut down perfectly healthy trees in their back yards, but it's another thing to tell them they'll have to pay for it, too.

The news that Caltrain officials may not only expect private property owners to remove trees along the railroad tracks, but to foot the bill as well, is adding insult to injury in tree-proud Atherton.

Atherton is among the hardest hit areas along the 77-mile rail corridor when it comes to trees earmarked for removal in order to accommodate Caltrain's plans to replace diesel trains with an electric-powered system. About 80, or more than a quarter of the trees growing along the rail corridor in Atherton, will need to be cut down, according to an arborist's survey commissioned by Caltrain.

Caltrain spokeswoman Rita Haskin, responding to the Almanac's query about the cost of tree removal, said that rules regulating public utilities state that nothing on private property, such as overhanging tree branches, can interfere with the operation of a railroad.

"It would be the homeowners' responsibility to make sure they're not interfering with the railroad," Ms. Haskin said.

When asked for further clarification on who would bear the cost of removing trees, Caltrain electrification project manager Carol Wolf said the answer will have to wait for the release of the final environmental impact report (EIR) this fall.

"We're answering that question. It was brought up during the public comment period and we're developing a response," she said.

Removing a large tree is not a cheap undertaking. Kathy Hughes Anderson, Atherton's town arborist, said costs can run from $1,000 to $2,000 for large trees, and some of the really large pines in town could easily cost more than that.

Also, she said, there's the access problem. Most of the trees are in people's back yards, and in most cases there's no way to bring in equipment from the front of the property.

"The access is going to have to be from the tracks. That's going to add an additional cost and (require) special permits to do the removal," she said. "It's going to be very complicated."

Town officials, already concerned about the appearance of poles and overhead electric wires the railroad plans to install, are dismayed by the thought of losing trees, which provide visual screening. To make matters worse, almost all of the trees are on private property, and many of them are large, mature, healthy specimens, according to the report by HortScience.

Part of Atherton's quarrel with the environmental study is that it refers to, but doesn't contain, the HortScience report, which includes a detailed, tree-by-tree survey, along with erroneous information about Atherton's lack of protections and permit requirements for heritage-size trees.

Atherton officials didn't even know the report existed until a resident at a public meeting overheard Caltrain representatives mention it.

"I'm getting tired of this information coming out in bits and pieces," said Atherton Councilman Jim Janz.

"If it's true, that they're going to require property owners to pay (for tree removal), I think they're going to find they have a fight on their hands," he said.

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