Willow Glen Resident
News
Homeowners group renews push to remove 41 eucalyptus trees
By Eli Segall
A group of San Jose residents rang in 2008 with a renewed effort to remove 41 trees from the condominium complex in which they live.
The Hamilton Corners Homeowners Association board met with a city representative Jan. 9 to secure a target date for the removal of 41 red iron bark eucalyptus trees from the 7-acre complex at the corner of Hamilton and Leigh avenues. The board filed an application for their removal with the San Jose Planning Department last August. The trees account for about 10 percent of the roughly 400 to 500 trees there.
San Jose city planner Michelle Stahlhut said the city does not have a timeline for addressing the application.
"I have 80 other projects to work on," Stahlhut told association members. "You're in the queue, but you're coming up fast."
Arborists say that eucalypti in general are brittle and prone to splitting and often cause property damage, but not every eucalyptus is an immediate safety hazard. Only 13 to 15 of the trees require immediate removal, according to an arborist's assessment.
"Legitimately there were probably eight to 10 that needed to come out immediately," the arborist, Rick Gessner, said in a recent phone interview. Gessner works for ValleyCrest Tree Services, which performs landscape maintenance at the complex.
Gessner said five additional red iron barks require immediate removal because they were heavily damaged in the Jan. 4 storm. He added that the species in general "is not suitable for the property" and should be "phased out" over time.
Board president Robert Dahlberg declined to comment on why the board seeks the immediate removal of all 41 trees and referred questions to property manager Dustin Mannina. Mannina, of Community Management Services, Inc., said he did not know who originally requested that all 41 trees be removed.
"You're decimating an entire species within the complex," said resident Heidi Simonsen, an outspoken opponent of the plan who has lived in the complex for 19 years. "Basically, what they're doing is urban clear-cutting."
Tree controversy is nothing new to Willow Glen. On Jan. 13, 2007, three sycamores were illegally cut down at the corner of Willow and Camino Ricardo streets, which sparked a community uproar and led the San Jose City Council to implement more stringent tree laws.
Emotions in the community ran high surrounding that removal, and now, the mere prospect of removal at Hamilton Corners has again caused tension.
The Jan. 9 meeting had a few flare-ups between association members, and Gessner said he was not there to handle the neighborhood's "infighting."
"I'm tired of dealing with it," he said.
