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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Update: Sequoias Removal at Shorecrest Was Permitted by City

A preliminary inquiry to the City of Shoreline has revealed that the cutting of four huge Sequoia trees last Thursday, was a permitted action by the Shoreline School District. 

Charlie Brown reviews the damage.
He measured this tree stump which was
44" in diameter at the cut.
The SSD, Shorecrest site plan had been revised from the original version shown to the public. Originally, ALL of the Sequoias were scheduled to be preserved. But the District's final site plan which was approved and permitted called for the four removals, because an expanded space for access, parking and tennis courts was requested. The plans apparently meets the 20% tree retention requirement. However and inspection of the site plan shows that the landscape designer mis-labelled the trees as "Cedars".

This points up the very inadequate tree ordinance in existence in the code. 

Also, the Shoreline/LFP PATCH Blog carried our original story AND yesterday a response from SSD public information officer Craig Degginger's response. There was also a vigorous series of comments following it. Folks can still add their comments as the discussion moves forward. 

Many Shoreline area citizens are watching this situation closely and looking at options for responding and improving our tree codes. 


Stay tuned! 
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 4, 2012 at 2:55 PM

    Pretty flippin' typical, if you ask me! The SSD motto is "we don't care because we don't have to." And these are the people who are supposedly educating our children - but just what are they teaching them? Be ruthless, lie whenever it's convenient, and step on anyone you have to in order to succeed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 4, 2012 at 5:21 PM

    Thornton Creek Watershed needs stronger tree ordinances both in Shoreline and Seattle.

    Chuck Dolan

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 5, 2012 at 5:13 PM

    What about the City of Shoreline Parks Department cutting 13 trees in the Twin Ponds Park, which is part of the Thorton Creek Watershed without a clearing & grading permit or a critical areas permit.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Janet WayJanuary 6, 2012 at 9:10 AM

    Anonymous,
    Agreed! The loss of those trees is equally tragic, though maybe less visible.

    We need a better more effective tree ordinance that protects and increases all of our Urban Forest Canopy. We should start with the Tree Board Ordinance. It should be a "separate" board, not just the Parks Board.

    ReplyDelete

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