New trees, errant balls concern baseball field’s neighbors

The Laguna Beach High School baseball field is on residents’ radar again, and not just because of the errant balls that continue to be a neighborhood hazard.

Also at issue are the trees planted on a surrounding hillside.

St. Ann’s Drive residents at last week’s joint meeting of the Laguna Beach Unified School District and City Council said they were alarmed to learn that 80 trees, including 10 eucalyptus, had been planted on a slope that runs along portions of that road and Wilson Street.

The lemon gum eucalyptus trees can reach heights of 45 to 90 feet, said landscape architect Ann Christoph, who selected them. Foliage of a lemon gum is not as thick as its often-maligned cousin, the blue gum, she said.

Concerns center on potential view blockages if trees reach maturity and the danger of fire, particularly with the eucalyptus, said resident Stephen Crawford, who was landscape director at the La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad. He lives just beyond the left-field fence.

“Eucalyptus is an oily-leafed tree that I saw in the 1993 [Laguna] fire explode into a torch,” Crawford said Monday. “From our house you can see the ocean. If you plant trees at the top of the bank, you’re going to lose an ocean view.”

Christoph said she tried to minimize the threat to sight lines.

“It is easier to see through the canopy of a lemon gum, and the canopy is usually quite high, usually above eye level,” Christoph said. “I made a plan so that people would have lovely trees to look at. Most of the houses [along St. Ann’s Drive] look straight into a bank.”

In addition to the eucalyptus, 10 coast live oaks, 30 toyons, 12 dragon trees and 18 red flowering gum trees were planted on the 60,000-square-foot bank area.

Live oaks can grow to 20 to 70 feet, while flowering gums, which have red blooms, can reach between 18 and 45 feet, according to the 2012 Sunset Western Garden Book. Toyons average 8 to 15 feet, while dragon trees can reach 20 feet.

Christoph said trees can be kept below maximum heights. The oaks will probably grow slower because of the drier and shallower soil in that area, she added.

District Facilities Director Jeff Dixon, the district’s landscape contractor and Christoph will walk the site and develop a maintenance plan, Dixon said.

The district cleared trees and overgrown brush from the hillside last spring after residents and Laguna Beach Fire Department officials noticed an uptick in the amount of dead material on the slope.

The district then embarked on a plan to revitalize the bank. Last August the school board approved hiring Christoph — for $4,000 — to select plants and their locations.

In October the board agreed to pay Landscape Support Services Inc. $122,000 to replant the slope.

“A lot of people were incensed [the trees] came down,” Christoph said.

Crawford said 80 trees is too much.

“Maybe half won’t grow to 30 feet, but the fact is there are 80 trees on the bank,” he said. “We don’t need a forest in the middle of the village.”

*

Baseball concerns

Meanwhile, district officials will schedule a study session with school board trustees to discuss safety concerns related to baseballs flying over the outfield fence and landing close to pedestrians and cars, Dixon said Tuesday.

Residents told trustees and the City Council last week that balls continue landing near their houses and cars, echoing concerns raised at public meetings in 2014.

David Nelson, who lives on St. Ann’s Drive beyond the left-field fence, said he has collected hundreds of balls since the field was reconfigured eight years ago.

“When I take out the trash or walk to my car, I shouldn’t have to worry about being hit in the head by a baseball,” Nelson said.

Last year, school officials required batters to practice hitting in an enclosed cage or with a shell placed around home plate to catch balls.

“The only time during practice when players are in position to hit balls out of the park is when they mimic game situations,” former Principal Joanne Culverhouse said at the time.

The batting cage nets aren’t holding all balls, according to a district facilities staff report. Balls are escaping through holes in the netting. But district staff is placing a second, stronger layer of netting on the cages.

The outfield fence, which is 30 feet tall, could be raised, though that could block views, the report says.

According to the report, other options likely to be discussed during the study session include: shifting the field to its previous position, so balls hit over the left-field fence would land near the high school track; or relocating the baseball team to Alta Laguna Park and redesigning the high school field to accommodate the softball team.