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Portola Valley resident David L. Douglass has agreed to pay a penalty of $75,000 to head off a potential lawsuit from the town over the felling, without a permit, of at least 18 trees on a lightly forested hilltop on his undeveloped property at 18 Redberry Ridge.
Because the trees were located within an open-space easement on his property, the town was allowed to seek damages “for the value of the trees and the loss of scenic value,” Town Attorney Sandy Sloan said in an email.
Leigh Prince, an attorney and an assistant to Ms. Sloan, announced the settlement following a closed-session meeting of the Town Council on April 24. The vote was 4-0, Mayor John Richards said. Councilman Ted Driscoll recused himself from the decision because his work brings him into occasional contact with Mr. Douglass, he said.
Mr. Douglass faces additional expenses of $150,345 to have the hillside replanted and then maintained over the next five years, Town Planner Tom Vlasic said. Of that total, $52,625 would cover the cost of planting replacement trees and other vegetation, Mr. Vlasic said.
The planting is to be completed this spring, Town Planner Tom Vlasic told the Almanac. The town’s Architectural & Site Control Commission will review the situation in October to see if the replanting is going as intended.
If so, the ASCC would be prepared to recommend to the council to lift the municipal code violation now applied to the property and allow Ms. Douglass’ construction plans to move forward, Mr. Vlasic said.
Settlement negotiations were “fairly quick,” Ms. Prince said. The town made an initial offer for a penalty, Mr. Douglass made a counter-offer, and the town accepted it, she said. The amount of the town’s initial offer is confidential, but it was higher than $75,000, Ms. Prince said.
The trees were taken down in late December or early January, and the town first learned of the situation in January, according to staff reports. Fifteen of the trees were “significant” and consisted of 10 oaks, four bay laurels and one madrone, Mr. Vlasic said.
Several bay laurels on the adjacent property, owned in common by residents of the Blue Oaks subdivision, had had their tops lopped off. Asked if this was part of the same incident, Mr. Vlasic said that “no one else was down there doing anything but his crew.”
The municipal code categorizes trees by species, many of which become significant to the town when their diameters reach 11.5 inches.
The ASCC visited the site in March for a presentation by the landscape architects engaged by Mr. Douglass to replant the hillside.
About a dozen oaks will be planted soon, with underbrush and grass coming in December, according to an ASCC staff report and remarks during the on-site tour by Paul Kephart, president of Monterey-based landscape architect Rana Creek.
Extreme!
How many other people actually could see these particular trees on private property? Does “open space easement” mean that it’s OK for the public to walk within it? Hope not. That would seem like trespassing, to me.
I wish the county would impose similar fines. These people know about the ordinances and deliberately flout them. Serve him right.
We are a nation of laws. We are a nation of community, of barn builders, not solo Daniel Boone’s out in the wilderness.
If you don’t like the law of the land, move to Texas. Heck, you don’t even need to install sprinklers in Texas in your bomb, errr, fertilizer factory.
downtowner: why do you object to open space easements? It’s an up-front agreement. google it.
I’m not objecting, Leroy. I’m asking for definition. What is an “open space easement”?
I think it means the owner can’t build a structure on his property within the easement. Does it also mean that he must allow access for the general public to walk/rid/drive on his property? Can he fence the open space easement to separate it from his personal, presumably private & non-easemented space?
Why do you interpret a question as an objection?
“Why do you interpret a question as an objection?”
Perhaps because most questions posted are rhetorical, as they are so easy to answer one’s self, that most posters use a question as an objection (in my experience/opinion.)
But then, I’m strange that way. Aren’t I?
For example, it’s almost as easy to go to portolavalleydotnet and search ‘open space easement’ and arrive at a number of documents as it is to type the question here and wait for someone to possibly give you an answer of questionable accuracy.
Typing that into a search might even find the document in question (such as document #5600,) or definitions of conservative easements, as in doc #4520 here http://www.portolavalley.net/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=4520
Thanks, Leroy!
“conservative” should have been ‘conservation’ easements
would blame the spell checker, but………………
A person that can afford that property can look at $75,000.00 as “chump change”. Given how long it takes for those oaks to grow, the property owner will have a lifetime of open viewing for a a relatively small amount of money. I’m thinking $75,000.00 a tree would have been more appropriate.
A Million dollar view for 75K, not a bad deal. Also, I’m wondering if the replacement trees will reach the all important 11.5 inch diameter (measured at a certain height of the tree) in 5 years? Probably not, so in 5 years he can just cut them down again?
This fine should have been much higher, in my opinion. Also, no building permit for 5 years.
I personally think property owners should be given the freedom to use their own property as they wish PROVIDED IT IS WITHIN THE RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THEIR MUNICIPALITY. In this case, the homeowner failed to get a permit. The permit would have been granted so he should be penalized for failing to secure an administrative document.
I find it ironic that some posters are suggesting that this homeowner (who purchased those trees…) IMPROVED his view by taking the trees down. Some might suggest that looking at trees is valuable.
So he now has a million dollar view? I’d pay $75,000 for something worth a million dollars.
POGO:
I think the suspicion is that had this owner applied for a tree removal permit it WOULD NOT have been granted and thus he would be denied his “million dollar” view. So, the owner just went ahead and did it anyway and rather than asking permission he asked forgiveness figuring it would cost him $75,000 to get the view he would have otherwise been denied. I think many suspect this just another example of a wealthy person skirting the rules.
You don’t have to be wealthy to skirt the rules. My neighbor built a 15 ft-retaining wall on my hillside property in old landfill (only 3 ft above ground) without my permission, did not get a permit – and then sued me when I tried to take it out.
The result? I was forced to agree to apply for an as-built permit, where the Town ignored my engineer’s drawings and evaluation, accepted the neighbors – and granted an as-built permit without ever checking to see if the drawings submitted were what was actually built. The contractor lived in Portola Valley, by the way, but an engineer with no first hand knowledge of the wall submitted the engineering plans.
The same neighbour has put in a driveway without permits. What can I do ? I told the Town and they did nothing.
In this Town, forget the permit. Do whatever you want and just threaten the Town with a lawsuit and they will give you a tap on the wrist – and most importantly – will grant as-built permits without even checking to see if they are safe.
Annelise Connell –
It’s difficult to comment on your specific experience without knowing all of the facts but it does not appear to reflect well on Portola Valley officials.
My experience has been that when illegal construction or modifications are promptly reported to city officials, they do not hesitate to issue a “red tag” to stop the project in its tracks. Once illegal construction is completed, it may be more difficult to “undo” the illegal gains. But in Woodside, officials have not hesitated to make a property owner demolish illegal structures (even parts of a home) or restore property to its original condition.
I would suggest you talk to your Mayor and Council Member, address the Town Council during public comment, or even ask the Town Manager to place your issue on the Council’s agenda for a formal review.
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