Pacific Grove couple frustrated they're not allowed to cut threatening trees
PACIFIC GROVE -- When Christie Monson and Tim Calvert bought their dream home in Pacific Grove, trees were a big part of why they loved the community. That is, except for four large Monterey Cypresses that tower over their house.
Monson and Calvert say their 60 foot trees pose a threat to their safety.
"They're almost at the top of the hazard scale," Calvert said.
They're so afraid of getting crushed, they moved out of their bedroom and are sleeping on the opposite side of the house from the trees.
"Tim sleeps on the couch and I sleep on the sofa bed and that's the farthest end of the house we can get," Monson said.
The couple says the simple solution is to chop the trees down but they are finding out how hard that is to do legally in a city that's named after these very trees.
"These are our trees and another person is telling us they have to stay standing, ready to crush somebody," Calvert said.
"It feels un-American to me," added Monson. "This feels like communist Russia or something to me. It's just ridiculous."
The root of the problem lies where the trees were first planted.
"They were planted under the (utility) wires, this is after 1985 when the previous owners were here and they should have never been planted under the wires in the first place," Monson said.
The trunks were spaced only about seven feet apart, which led to crowding.
As the trees grew, some limbs were repeatedly sawed off by the utility company to keep them from interfering with the wires and, now, the trees are lopsided. Some of them lean toward the house and repeated pruning might have exposed them to diseases and pests.
"When we came here in 2018, we had them inspected by professional arborists and they were declared unsafe and needed to come down," Monson said.
Last month they paid for another arborist's opinion and he agreed the trees were dangerous but the couple's removal permits have been denied twice.
The city has sent its own arborist to inspect the trees and he came to the opposite conclusion.
In a statement, the city's public works director told KPIX:
"The results of the field inspection determined the trees are sound with no noted deficiencies that were visible at the time of the inspection."
Monson and Calvert say they will appeal the city's decision and take it to the city council if they must.
They've also hired a lawyer.
For now, they say they can't enjoy their home in safety and have stopped inviting visitors.
"We're tree lovers and we want to plant trees. If we can ever get these out, we want to plant trees that are going to follow the safety guidelines," Monson said.
In a town where trees are loved and protected, Monson and Calvert wonder if the same protections also apply to them.
Their appeal hearing with the city is scheduled for March and the couple hopes to get the denial of their tree-cutting overturned.
