The Sunnyvale Sun
News
Relentless roots, tree cuttings trigger review
By Stephen Baxter
Sunnyvale's 36,880 street trees are a blessing and a curse.
They provide shade and beautify streets, but on some Birdland area streets, branches block stop signs and roots burst through sidewalks.
On Frances Street and Hendy Avenue near downtown, sycamore and ash branches have tangled with power lines. City workers cut down some trees there and replaced them with much smaller crepe myrtles last year, and in November, a woman who lives on Frances Street called the new trees "shrubbery." She persuaded the city council to revise its rules and goals for Sunnyvale's urban forest.
On June 28, about 30 residents met with city officials at the Sunnyvale Community Center to discuss possible changes to tree policies.
Residents echoed years of frustration with liquidambar trees and the fruit balls they drop continuously after reaching 15 years of age. Magnolia trees also flower and drop pods on streets, and their root networks rip through sidewalks with a grip designed to weather a hurricane. Liquidambars and magnolias make up about 23 percent of trees in Sunnyvale, or roughly 8,000 trees.
"It's probably not the best thing" to have that many problematic trees, said Leonard Dunn, the city's street tree services manager.
Residents at the meeting expressed concern about new housing projects that have less distance between houses and streets, leaving less room for trees. One neighbor suggested the city have a goal for the city's total tree canopy cover.
Canopy cover can be estimated using satellite photos that show how much of the city has trees and how much is barren. Dunn estimates the current canopy cover at no more than 17 percent, and suggested a goal of 25 percent to 50 percent. In 2001, the city mandated all new developments with parking lots to have 15 percent tree coverage within 15 years. In 2005, city officials also facilitated replacement of liquidambar trees. Dunn said the problem of trees growing over stop signs should be monitored by the city and by neighbors so traffic laws are obeyed.
The next meeting on tree policy is scheduled for 7 p.m., July 19 at the Sunnyvale Community Center, 550 E. Remington Drive.
