Homeowners Association Can’t See for the Trees

Dan Callahan, it seems, can’t win no matter what he does.

The Donegal Lane resident wanted to plant pepper trees on his property in 1988, but his homeowners group, the Connemara Property Owners Assn., instructed him instead to plant queen palms.

Those palms have since grown a story high, and the association, fearing they had grown too tall and obstruct the views of other residents, ordered him to pull out the trees.

But when Callahan went to get a city permit to remove the trees in October, Daniel Gee, the city’s tree inspector, rejected his request.

So now the homeowners group will appeal the inspector’s decision to the City Council at the council’s meeting tonight.

“I don’t want to be a bother to our neighbors,” said Callahan, who wants to keep the queen palms. “If the trees were bothering someone’s views, I’d pull them.”

Callahan said his neighbors have supported his wishes to keep the trees. He said he submitted the request for a city permit only because the association directed him to remove them.

In his report denying the permit, Gee said that the trees “do not meet criteria for removal. . . . Trees should be preserved.”

The city code lists 10 factors to be considered when deciding whether to remove a tree, but none of them mentions obstructed view or height as a determining factor.

In their written appeal to the city, the association argues that its declaration of restrictions provides for view protection and that the association “has an obligation to enforce height restrictions per recorded Declaration of Restrictions.”

But a city staff report asserts that city ordinances take precedence over restrictions imposed by homeowners groups. Even though the association may consider height a factor in deciding whether to protect a tree, the city’s ordinances “must be considered first in evaluating a particular tree removal permit application,” the report states.

The City Council meeting starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 32400 Paseo Adelanto.

Information: (714) 493-1171.