Crews to Yank Holiday Road Eucalyptus Trees in Newport Beach

After a few weeks of debate, the Newport Beach City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to chop down 18 blue gum eucalyptus trees on Holiday Road.

The decision was in the council's hands because despite an inspection that deemed the trees in the 2200 block of Holiday Road a threat to public safety, the Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission voted to keep them. Mark Harmon, the city's municipal director of operations, presented the findings to the city panel and soon after appealed their decision.

Despite pleas from a handful of residents asking the council to keep the trees intact until further studies could be done, Mayor Mike Henn said the expert opinions could no longer be ignored.

"I don’t know how I could avoid a real feeling of negligence to allow trees to remain in the face of expert confirmation and recommendation that they should come down," Henn said. "I would have a great deal of trouble living with myself making that decision to keep these trees up in the face of this information and God forbid someone else be injured.”

Last month, two city arborists and contract arborist R. Dan Jensen & Associates evaluated each tree's characteristics (size, age and history), health (foliage density, vigor and woundwood development), site conditions (landscape type, irrigation and obstruction), potential targets (use under tree and occupancy) and defects. According to a staff report, 14 of the trees posed a high risk, while four were deemed a moderate risk.

In addition to Holiday Road, Harmon said staff will be recommending  an examination of other larger canopy trees throughout the city that "have a potential for problems." Councilman Ed Selich also requested post mortem reports on all of the 18 trees to "make sure we are on the right track."

What started the inspections

Newport Beach's tree-chopping binge began after was killed when a eucalyptus fell onto her car in September as she drove along a Costa Mesa street. The city quickly removed more than 100 eucalyptus trees from the Irvine Avenue median between Westcliff/17th Street and Dover Drive. Since then, arborists inspected another 250 trees citywide.

Last month in Corona del Mar, along Fourth Avenue.