Commission denies appeal to remove coast redwood at 2420 Villanueva Way

The Mountain View Parks & Recreation Commission voted unanimously Thursday to deny an appeal and uphold staff’s decision refusing removal of a heritage redwood at 2420 Villanueva Way.

Staff urban-forest manager Russell Hansen told the commission the tree, a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) about 30 inches in diameter, appeared in “good health and good structure,” and that damage shown in submitted photographs could be managed through corrective root or canopy pruning rather than removal. "Our findings was that, you know, its overall health and structure is good," Hansen said.

Appellant and property owner Jose Marquez said the tree has damaged shared fences, interfered with secondary power lines and pushed against a concrete pad that houses his neighbor’s pool equipment. "The damage has already been done… the tree continues to grow," Marquez said, and asked the commission to overturn staff’s denial and allow removal. Neighbor Philip Landau, who said repairs related to the tree had already cost him about $15,000, characterized the tree as “a nuisance tree” in the wrong place and urged removal.

Commissioners questioned staff and the parties about the quantity and location of roots exposed in the applicant’s partial excavations. Hansen said an excavation near the pool pad revealed a single 4–6 inch root down about 24 inches and some smaller feeder roots; staff concluded the limited roots observed made root pruning a potentially viable mitigation and that there was not yet evidence that removal was required under the city code’s tree-removal criteria.

After public comment — which included a resident urging preservation of canopy and neighborhood tree networks — the commission discussed the heritage-tree ordinance’s emphasis on preservation. Commissioners said they sympathized with the property owners’ costs but that, based on the record before them, the removal criteria were not sufficiently met and mitigation options existed. The commission voted to adopt staff’s recommended resolution denying the appeal and denying removal.

The resolution (as adopted) includes an administrative correction to the code citations listed in the staff attachment.

Ending: The decision preserves the redwood for now; commissioners and staff noted that property owners remain able to proceed with targeted mitigations and that the city’s permit rules allow property owners to seek reconsideration if materially new evidence is submitted under the code.