Lynn Miller
How many times have we heard from Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway
and some members of the council, staff and associations that "all of
the area associations voted to remove the ficus trees on Main Street
in Balboa Village?" Well, here is the inside scoop.
According to the minutes taken at a Balboa Peninsula Point Assn.
meeting held April 23, the members and board that were present in the
early part of the meeting voted to keep the 40-plus-year-old ficus
trees. It was a 13 for and six against the trees. The final vote,
however, after several call-ins, ended up being 20 for and 15
against.
I believe it should have been a yes decision for the trees because
of petition of 124 residents who were against removing the trees. If
the association would have counted those voters it would have been
144 for and 15 against. The president of the association said he
didn't feel the petition should be counted.
There are about 1,000 homes on Peninsula Point and when this
petition was taken, the majority of the residents were not home. If
the effort had been continued, there would have been many hundreds
more. The city was notified of this injustice, but it chose to ignore
the facts and the will of the vast majority of the residents.
Only the board of directors of the Balboa Merchants and Owners
Assn., headed by Dayna Pettit, voted on the tree issue. No one on the
board even rents any property on Main Street, let alone owns any
property there or anywhere else in the village with the exception of
only one.
They also don't allow any of the property owners on Main Street or
businesses on Main Street or residents in the area to vote.
The Central Newport Beach Community Assn. never even voted on the
tree issue.
The Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission held a May 7 meeting,
where it voted on whether to keep the ficus trees. The vote was three
for and four against. Those voting against keeping the trees were Tom
Tobin, Debra Allen, Ray Englebrecht and Val Skoro. The commissioners
who voted to keep the trees -- Pat Beek, Marc Franklin and Stuart
MacFarland -- said that the city was not following its own policy for
removal of "special city trees" and "all other city trees."
Special city trees are retained if they contribute to and give
character to an entire neighborhood. Prior to consideration of
removal of the tree, such as disease, death or a very dangerous
situation, they are identified and specific treatment is implemented
to retain them.
