Mailbag: New trees near field are a hazard District meetings should be televised

I wish to raise my concerns about the recent landscaping around the Laguna Beach High baseball field.

Although abatement of the fire hazard of dead trees and debris was achieved, the issue is not resolved with the choice of planting eucalyptus trees, which are also a fire hazard and damage view sheds.

Does Laguna Beach need another eucalyptus tree? They should be banned on private and public property. They are non-native, noxious and ruin views and property values.

The city has a View Equity Committee, and I bet this tree has caused more contention than any other in our community.

The landscaping issue is illustrative of recurring disconnect of the school district, city values and objectives. The Laguna Beach High baseball field is another example. Baseballs continue to pummel St. Ann’s Drive, causing damage and potential injury. The sound system and music from both the baseball field and football stadium blast into the neighborhood without regard to our sensibilities.

I enjoy the patina of sound, sports being played, the band practicing, people having fun and the joy of life.

Since the upgrade of the athletic complex at Laguna Beach High there has been an insensibility to the surrounding neighborhood. Something fundamental has changed and not for the best.

More than a few of us in the surrounding neighborhood share similar concerns but have quietly endured. I am asking the school district to align with community values. Rules that apply to views, safety and noise are but a few.

My daughter graduated from Laguna Beach High in the 1980s, and hopefully both my granddaughters.

Alexander Mendivil

Laguna Beach

*

Re: “District considers televised meetings,” Coastline Pilot, Jan. 30.

Laguna Beach Unified School District trustee William Landsiedel’s comments on the proposal to televise meetings of the school board meetings are arrogant and irrelevant.

Transparency is the issue, and it is important. Kudos to Trustee Dee Perry for pursuing this issue.

Anne Frank

Laguna Beach

*

View Preservation Policy is unreasonable

Another example of bad policy by the Laguna City Council is the View Preservation Policy. This new policy is intended to protect prior views, including from hedges. There is no maximum height for hedges under the policy.

Step 1: It requires the person filing the claim to fill out an intent form, show proof of contact with the foliage owner to resolve the issue, provide proof of a “before” view and pay a $500 initial, minimum fee (plus any additional actual costs) for a nonbinding arbitration. There is no incentive for the other party to settle.

Step 2: If this is not successful, then the claimant must file a view restoration claim and pay another $630 and have a public hearing with a committee. So far, the claimant has paid a minimum of $1,130 to have a hedge or a tree trimmed.

If successful, the claimant must then obtain three bids from certified arborists and pay a deposit and the final total arborist cost (which may be later apportioned at a hearing) and be liable to replace the plant if it dies within two years even though it was trimmed by a professional. So the final costs are about $1,500 or more depending on how much foliage needs to be trimmed.

Step 3: If either party wishes to appeal the committee decision, they must pay $2,500 to have a hearing with the City Council.

Is this prohibitively cumbersome and expensive policy at all reasonable? Where is the incentive for the person not filing the claim to settle?

Why not just have an initial step where a simple application is filed, a small fee paid, and a code enforcement officer looks at the issue and makes a binding determination — this would undoubtedly resolve most cases. The loser can then use the current policy, or hopefully a simplified one, to appeal his decision if they wish.

Louis Leo

Laguna Beach

*

What to do with excess harvest

As all transplants know, the first winter snow storm is heavenly, but the next 10 are less so. So it is with harvest time in many of Laguna’s residential orchards.

What a joy frolicking through oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes or apples. What a feeling of pride gracing your kitchen, dining room, hallway, bedrooms and bathrooms with bowls of fruit. And your gazebo, laundry room and kid’s preschool classroom.

Before long, however, you notice your infernal trees keep bursting long after the novelty has worn off. You long for a trip to Pavilions to buy a manageable number of lemons, maybe three. You remember with fondness walking to your car without stepping on something rotting, not to mention swatting tiny flying things.

What to do? We have a wonderful suggestion: Share your bounty with our shoppers at the Laguna Food Pantry. They will be as happy and grateful as you were after your first day’s harvest. And if it is too difficult to gather your fruit, call us and we’ll come get it.

Andy Siegenfeld

Laguna Food Pantry