Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Del Mar Torrey pine headed for pruning suffers big limb break
Neighbors see removal as only option now
View of the five Torrey pines provided by Michael Deftos to the Del Mar Times
Owners of an endangered Torrey pine have hired a lawyer to try to save the tree, which the city of Del Mar says must be removed.
It's the latest move in a battle that officially began in 2021 over trees the neighbors have long considered a curtain across their ocean views.
While Del Mar has an ordinance protecting Torrey pines, among the rarest pines in the world, it also has one that guards private property views.
Neighbors who live behind the Ocean View Avenue property owned by Harvey and Sheryl White filed a Trees, Scenic Views and Sunlight application, asking the city to help restore their views.
The Planning Commission agreed that five of the trees pose an unreasonable obstruction, and worked with the owners to carve out a 5-year pruning plan that would reduce the largest tree by 40 percent and the others by 20 percent.
View from Whites' deck in Ranch & Coast magazine
Three days later, a limb broke off the biggest tree, effectively reducing its live foliage by 40 percent - but not in the right place to open up the eclipsed view. The neighbors, Michael and Angela Deftos, appealed the pruning plan, saying the limb break needed to be considered.
An arborist for the Deftos said 90 percent of the tree's foliage would have to be removed to restore views, while the Whites' arborist said pruning this trimming cycle could harm the tree.
There's only one way to restore the view fully, as the Deftos see it: remove the tree. At a meeting on November 14, the city council agreed, with Mayor Dwight Worden and council member Dave Druker opposed.
"I disagree immensely - the decision to remove a protected tree," Druker said. "I believe we have made an incorrect decision."
Last week, an attorney for the Whites told the city there was no notice of the possibility that the city would suggest removing the tree.
"It is absolutely necessary for the city to re-open the matter in full," said attorney Scott Williams, calling for a new public hearing. An environmental review is needed, he added. "The CEQA exemption simply does not apply to removal of a healthy mature tree."
Despite being one of the most critically endangered pines in the world, Torrey pines receive no federal protection. Threatened by the loss of genetic diversity, beetles, and climate change, they grow naturally only on a sliver of San Diego coastline and on Santa Rosa Island.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Del Mar Torrey pine headed for pruning suffers big limb break
Neighbors see removal as only option now
Del Mar Torrey pine headed for pruning suffers big limb break
Neighbors see removal as only option now
View of the five Torrey pines provided by Michael Deftos to the Del Mar Times
Owners of an endangered Torrey pine have hired a lawyer to try to save the tree, which the city of Del Mar says must be removed.
It's the latest move in a battle that officially began in 2021 over trees the neighbors have long considered a curtain across their ocean views.
While Del Mar has an ordinance protecting Torrey pines, among the rarest pines in the world, it also has one that guards private property views.
Neighbors who live behind the Ocean View Avenue property owned by Harvey and Sheryl White filed a Trees, Scenic Views and Sunlight application, asking the city to help restore their views.
The Planning Commission agreed that five of the trees pose an unreasonable obstruction, and worked with the owners to carve out a 5-year pruning plan that would reduce the largest tree by 40 percent and the others by 20 percent.
View from Whites' deck in Ranch & Coast magazine
Three days later, a limb broke off the biggest tree, effectively reducing its live foliage by 40 percent - but not in the right place to open up the eclipsed view. The neighbors, Michael and Angela Deftos, appealed the pruning plan, saying the limb break needed to be considered.
An arborist for the Deftos said 90 percent of the tree's foliage would have to be removed to restore views, while the Whites' arborist said pruning this trimming cycle could harm the tree.
There's only one way to restore the view fully, as the Deftos see it: remove the tree. At a meeting on November 14, the city council agreed, with Mayor Dwight Worden and council member Dave Druker opposed.
"I disagree immensely - the decision to remove a protected tree," Druker said. "I believe we have made an incorrect decision."
Last week, an attorney for the Whites told the city there was no notice of the possibility that the city would suggest removing the tree.
"It is absolutely necessary for the city to re-open the matter in full," said attorney Scott Williams, calling for a new public hearing. An environmental review is needed, he added. "The CEQA exemption simply does not apply to removal of a healthy mature tree."
Despite being one of the most critically endangered pines in the world, Torrey pines receive no federal protection. Threatened by the loss of genetic diversity, beetles, and climate change, they grow naturally only on a sliver of San Diego coastline and on Santa Rosa Island.
Comments