There is little doubt about how committed the community of Rossmoor is about delicately caring for its urban forest of more than 5,000 trees.
So seriously, in fact, that its Board of Directors often must act as a Jury of sorts, hearing evidence most recently from residents who cut down a 50-year-old tree without permission, even if it had begun to cause problems.
Homeowners Mark and Sharon OberJuerge, who own the home in question along Davenport Drive, have long since moved to nearby Long Beach. They allow their adult daughter to live in the home, they testified to the Rossmoor Board of Directors at their July meeting.
They appeared before the board to appeal a fine of more than 56,000 for cutting down a mature Jacaranda Mimosifolia tree earlier this year without permission,
Arborist Mary Kingman, who literally maintains and double-checks a database of every tree in this urban forest and monitors it regularly, noticed it was missing earlier this year.
“It was during a routine inspection of the block that I discovered that the tree was not there,” she told the board at the meeting.
“Of course, I have an inventory on my phone of all the trees, so when I go through each tree, I can see the history of the tree and see the tree where they’re supposed to be,” Kingman said.
She and Interim General Manager Sharon Landers then proceeded to fill in the board about the series of citation and events that led to the ObenJuergers appearance before the Board. “This tree was removed, and so they did receive the citation for the removal. That was the administrative citation according to the Rossmoor tree policy,” said Landers
The homeowners, Mark and Sharon ObenJuerger did receive a citation for $1,000 for violating our tree policy, said Landers, which they contested, she said.
“They live in a different city, so they were not aware, according to their testimony, of the rules regarding the tree policy,” Landers told the board. Under the policy, the citizen has the right to appeal the $1,000 citation, which they did, she said.
Following a formal appeal on June 17, hearing officer Mark Raneses affirmed the $1,000 fine as valid under the Rossmoor code,” Landers told the board.
“But there’s a second fine that has been issued,” said Landers, “which is for the value of the tree that was removed, which is $6,080 and that appeal comes to the board,” said Landers.
“So it’s up to this board to make a determination,” she said, “if the board will uphold the full amount or consider some lesser amounts the resident may want to address you to give their view of the situation,” the Interarm GM said.
“There may be some facts that you would want to consider that would cause you to address the additional $6,080 fine,” said Landers.
The couple then presented their evidence to the RCSD Board.
“I lived there for 41 years, and that tree had been there for 41 years,” Sharon OberJuerge told the board. She said before the tree was cut, it had already claimed more than 4 inches onto the sidewalk, a problem that had to be fixed by the Orange County Public Works department.
She hinted that the aged Jacaranda tree was grandfathered in before the rules, providing examples of other trees taken out where “nothing was done.”
Moreover, however, Mrs. OberJuerge appealed to the common sense of the Board for relief. She said they understood the citation, but charging homeowners $6,000 for a tree?
“I think $1,000 is way more appropriate,” OberJuerge said, “if that’s what you want to do by spanking our hands. But $6,000, c’mon, we’re not going to make this budget by fining the people of Rossmoor,” she said to the Board.
“We develop policies to protect the trees but I’m just going to come out and ask, what do you want from us,” the director asked OberJuerge.
Mark OberJuerge said while the $1,000 policy citation hearing was “cut and dry,” but he pleaded that the value of the tree hearing is different.
“We are asking the Rossmoor Community Service District’s Board of Directors to rescind or substantially reduce the demand to pay damages,” he said.
“The tree was not planted by the Rossmoor CSD, it was planted by my deceased mother-in-law close to 50 years ago. Life expectancy of a Jacaranda tree is 50 years. We believed this was our tree and our responsibility,” he said to the board.
“We’re willing to donate a couple of trees, or three, to rectify this,” he said. “We’re not anti-tree, we were just anti this Jacaranda tree, which was causing some major damage and causing a problem,” he said.
Director Tony Demarco, a longtime member of the community’s tree district committee, said the district invests heavily in its urban forest to provide excellent quality of life for all residents.
“We talk about it at this on the board, and we have an Arborist, and we spend, you know, over $100,000 taking care of our trees and stuff like that,” said Demarco.
“We know you’ve already paid the $1000 fine,” said Demarco. “I’ve been on this tree committee a long time, but every situation is different, okay?”
“And certainly, I understand the particulars here and it’s (tree) not going to be replaced. However, it was a tree that again, that we have maintained,” Demarco told the couple, asking Arborist Mary Kingman for an opinion.
She explained that there was some difficulty in determining and locating the owners of the property, since it was a rental, and that the financial value of the tree was determined by industry standards developed by the International Society of Agriculture and the American National Standards Institute (ANS().
“There are circumstances,” acknowledged Demarco. “What if I just threw out a number like $1000, and again, I don’t know who up here is with me, but I’m just trying to cut to the chase here.”
“I see the cut and dry, the $1,000 fine,” said Director Mary Ann Remnet. “The fine is there. “You didn’t know,” she said to the homeowners, “it’s okay.”
“When I look at the $6,000 value of the tree, that really is $6,000 less in our asset inventory for trees, but it was an accident,” she said.
“It was kind of like when the neighbor’s kid breaks your window. It’s an accident, but there’s still damage. So I can see doing something,” said Remnet, as the board began to coalesce behind Demarco’s proposal of a $1,000 fine, allowing a $5,080 reduction.
RCSD President Nathan Searles said, “My comment would echo those to the board. I would say, thank you for coming in tonight. Currently, we can see you have rapport with Mary, and that makes it a lot easier,” he said.
“I would support the recommended $1,000 assessment,” said Searles.
“But that said, I think $1,000 would be enough to deter anyone from willfully doing it, just to do it, but at the same time, knowing your circumstances diminishes that greatly,” the board President said.
After a bit of legal wrangling between Demarco, Landers and legal counsel Tarquin Preziosi to work out the language and technicalities of the reduced fine, the board unanimously voted to reduce the tree value to $1,000, which will be dedicated to planting three additional trees in Rossmoor’s Urban Forest.
