Tree In SF Backyard May Be Granted Landmark Status, Despite Homeowner Wanting To Chop It Down

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS/AP) -- The fate of a tall and slender pine tree in the backyard of a San Francisco house at the center of a dispute among neighbors is now in the hands of the Board of Supervisors.

Supervisors will decide Tuesday whether to grant landmark status to a one-hundred-foot-tall Norfolk pine hybrid estimated to be a century old even though it's on private property and the owner wants to cut it down.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports neighbors have been rallying for a year to save the tree, saying the pine is an important part of the street's landscape and the single-story Italianate house's history.

The lawyer for the owner of house says the tree it's an ordinary pine that poses problems for the home's infrastructure.

Only 16 trees in the city have landmark status, because they are old, historic, or especially important to the environment.

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