Laguna Beach council workshop probes public tree pruning after residents raise view and safety concerns

Laguna Beach officials and residents spent the council's study session discussing public tree management, pruning standards and complaints that municipal eucalyptus and other trees are blocking ocean views and posing safety risks.

City Arborist Matthew Barker told the council the Public Works and Utilities Department manages roughly 3,300 public trees and follows an inspection-and-pruning cycle intended to "promote tree health, ensure public safety, and maximize the economic, human health, societal, and environmental benefits" of the urban forest. Barker said the city uses a web-based GIS platform tied to the city's authorized tree-care contractor, divides the city into three pruning sections (downtown, north and south) and aims for every tree to receive a health-and-risk inspection and appropriate pruning at least once every two years; downtown trees are inspected and pruned annually.

Barker described the pruning strategies the city uses and the limits on certain practices. "Crown cleaning," he said, "involves removing dead, broken, poorly attached branches from the crown," while crown raising clears canopy over sidewalks and roads. He said crown reduction can be used in condition-driven circumstances but "should not be performed on healthy, structurally sound trees for aesthetic reshaping or to improve a view." Barker also warned against tree topping, calling it an outdated, damaging method that "removes excessive live tissue without regard for a tree's structure or physiology," and said topping has not been performed on any public trees and is not compliant with the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) or ANSI A300 standards the city follows.

Residents told the council they remain dissatisfied with how some public trees have been maintained. At least a dozen speakers described blocked ocean and Catalina views around Glen Eyrie, the Montage resort frontage and Maryland Drive; some recounted fallen limbs or whole-tree failures on or near public right-of-way. Richard Plavatich, a Los Robles resident, said the Glen Eyrie eucalyptus are "now blocking" views of the Hotel Laguna and Whitewater and that when residents contact the city they are told those trees "will not be replaced or topped" and have "zero recourse to appeal this direction." Several speakers said trees near the Montage were trimmed in 2022 and again minimally in 2024 and that delays or limited trimming have allowed new growth to block views.

Other public commenters raised related points: a consultant who helped draft the city's earlier tree guidance said some species listed (for example, Torrey pine on parts of Coast Highway) were not part of the vetted 2018 street-tree list; a longtime resident said irrigation after the Montage was built has increased some trees' size; and others urged more frequent inspections and better-quality pruning rather than what they described as minimal lacing.

Council members and staff discussed several strands of follow-up rather than taking a formal vote. Council members asked staff to return with more detail on an urban forest management plan (scope, recommended practices, cost), to review Montage-related conditions of approval and the associated tree guidelines, and to provide an audit or inventory of prior tree decisions that would clarify how maintenance choices were made in recent years. Public Works Deputy Director Reza Jafari and Barker said the Montage maintains some trees on its property and that the city provides specifications and quality control for that work; council members asked staff to confirm whether the Montage is meeting its conditions of approval. Staff also said they would continue follow-up with the Festival of the Arts operations team about declining Torrey pines on the festival parcel and recent diagnostic results for those trees.

The discussion repeatedly balanced residents' desire for restored views with arboricultural best practices and public safety. Several council members said they favored prioritizing tree health and public safety while seeking ways to increase resident input and make tree-management policies more consistent with the city's private-tree view-preservation ordinance. No formal motions or votes were recorded during the workshop; council members asked staff to return with recommendations for additional analysis and possible changes to policy and permitting language.

Background and context: Barker said the department follows ISA best-management practices and ANSI A300 pruning standards when issuing specifications to contractors. The city's pruning program divides the town into downtown (between Broadway and Park, Forest Avenue to Coast Highway) and north/south sections; some species (for example, palms) receive annual maintenance because of species characteristics. Several residents told the council some specific trees have not been inspected or trimmed on the schedule described in the staff report, and asked for clearer procedures for inspections, sample-tree approvals and Caltrans permitting windows for work near Coast Highway.

Council members and staff said more work is needed. The council asked staff to return with a more-detailed urban-forest management plan and cost estimate, to examine Montage permit language and past trimming practices, and to provide an audit of tree-related decisions and maintenance records so the council can consider policy changes that address both view equity and tree health. The council scheduled the issue for additional staff follow-up rather than a decision at this meeting.