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Magistrate orders five‑year monitoring plan after city accepts arborist restoration for Alhambra Place trees
Summary
The special magistrate accepted the city's arborist‑backed restoration plan for two damaged trees at 231 Alhambra Place, ordering five years of monitoring with annual arborist reports due March 1–5 each year 2027–2031 and enforcement if terms are not met.
The special magistrate approved a multi‑year tree restoration plan for 231 Alhambra Place after the city's landscape planner and a contracted arborist concluded the damaged trees can recover with a structured restoration and monitoring schedule.
Joseph Lapurna, the city code officer assigned to the case, presented the arborist’s report and told the magistrate the restoration process would take approximately 1,825 days — about five years — and would require annual written assessments from a licensed arborist. The city asked that those yearly reports be submitted March 1, but no later than March 5, beginning in 2027 and ending in 2031, and said city landscape planning staff would conduct annual site inspections to verify the reports.
Owner James Gray acknowledged the timeline and asked questions about how compliance would be handled if the property changed hands; the city confirmed that the respondent (the property owner) remains responsible for the restoration regardless of future transfers and that an affidavit of compliance will be completed if landscape planners verify restoration early.
The magistrate found the property in violation of the cited tree‑trimming and tree‑abuse code sections, accepted the city's restoration plan as the method for bringing the case into compliance, and set the five‑year monitoring schedule and annual reporting requirement. The order notes that if the damage is later deemed irreversible, the city may present evidence at a subsequent hearing seeking fines or tree replacement remedies.
The city will collect the annual reports and perform yearly inspections; failure to submit reports or to meet restoration milestones can prompt renewed enforcement action.
