Character massacre

June 29, 2008

This story is about cutting deep with a saw. It’s about a tree, in particular, but about a community on a much broader scale.

Two stories caught my eye in local media this week about the removal of a healthy, old Torrey pine along Cambridge Avenue in Cardiff. The neighbors were right to be upset about it, as the tree provided shade and character to one of the town’s old neighborhoods.

For me, the loss of the tree was another blow to a seemingly quiet trend that’s destroying all the things that make Encinitas and its communities so special to live in. In the past several months, I have observed old craftsman-style homes razed without lament, replaced with McMansions that will either be sold to the extremely wealthy or sit empty because no one can afford them anymore.

All you have to do is look at the crest of Birmingham Drive going east, just before the freeway. There’s a practical enclave of these recently finished McMansions sitting where decades-old houses once stood. My heart sank when the last one was removed about a year ago. And what has that last home been replaced with? Nothing. It’s a gaping hole of unfinished digging.

So the cutting of that Torrey pine on Cambridge got to me this week. The story behind its removal was explained well in a Coast News article, and it’s interesting because while the owner lives out of state, it’s clear from an interview that she was torn between apparent conflicting regulations in the city of Encinitas … required parking spaces for her sons’ new homes, and required approval before removing a tree of “community significance.” (The removal was done as a last result, she claims in the story.)

According to the Coast News article, the plan’s Resource Management Element states that “mature trees of community significance cannot be removed without city authorization.”

To confirm this, I tried accessing the city’s General Plan through its website, www.cityofencinitas.org. You would think these public documents would be accessible on the city’s site, but not all of the elements are. Ironically, the two elements of the General Plan that would likely be at the center of all this were the only two NOT accessible online without entering a username and password — the Resource Management Element and Housing Element.

That oddity aside, take a look around Cardiff and see what else is being destroyed in this chainsaw massacre of community character in the past few years. Two examples:

— A quaint beach cottage that housed Miracles Café, one of the most popular hangouts on the North Coast, has been replaced by an oversized glass box with mint-green trim.

— A historic church building nearly 100 years old isn’t such a sanctuary when it comes to preserving history and character. The original wooden doors with oval beveled glass have been replaced with aluminum strip-mall pieces.

Someone, somewhere, associated with these projects — and many others around the area — had to sign on to these changes. Someone, somewhere, actually said something along the lines of, “Wow. This is terrific.”

The only people I can imagine would be happy with what they’ve seen are those with so much money they’ve bought out their own right minds, or are so much in debt with their massive projects that they can’t afford to think anymore.

Which brings me back to that Torrey pine tree.

Just down the coast from Encinitas, Del Mar enacted a tree ordinance in an effort to keep some level of community character before it was slashed away. The Del Mar ordinance provides clear instructions on how to treat their “urban forest.” Those who want to cut an old tree such as a healthy Torrey pine must provide proof that the tree must be removed for specific reasons as spelled out in the ordinance.

Guess where I found the information on this ordinance? On Del Mar’s city website. An easy search found its “Resident’s Guide to the Del Mar Tree Ordinance” at the site.

Trees aside, someone in city government is approving the uprooting of community character in preference for the McMansions and monstrosities that are eating that character alive.

Call it a massacre of character.

Comments

[Roman Koenig]

From: Robert Nanninga (www.nanningaforencinitas.org)
Subject: Blog
Posted: 6/30/08 10:10 a.m.

Encinitas needs a tree ordinance [that] recognizes heritage trees and native
species as culturally important.