By Daniel Archuleta
Daily Press Staff Writer

DOWNTOWN It looks like the ficus trees on Second and Fourth streets won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

The ad-hoc environmental activists group trying to thwart the city’s plan to remove and relocate the trees in question — The Santa Monica Treesavers — have been successful in their attempt to have the city’s Landmarks Commission consider designating the specimens along the two busy downtown corridors as historic landmarks.

The latest move may have bought the targeted ficus and palms another two months in their present downtown digs.

The group had secured an injunction against the removal of the trees earlier this month, but that expires on Oct. 26. At that time, the city will present its reasoning for removing the trees to a Superior Court judge in downtown Los Angeles.

The ficus as landmark represent a unique situation for the commission due to the fact so many individual trees are being considered, said Roxanne Tanemori, associate planner for the Landmarks Commission. She believes this particular set of applications — one for the trees along Second Street, the other for the specimens on Fourth Street — will present some unique challenges to city staff.

“We need to review it first because the request to save multiple trees has never been accepted by the city to the best of my knowledge. This is simply a new question the we are facing,” Tanemori said Tuesday. “Our landmarks ordinance specifies that no permits can be issued for work on these locations until a final decision can be made.”

This latest development essentially stalls any work on the trees until the Landmarks Commission brings the matter up during one of its scheduled meetings anytime within the next 65 days. Tanemori guesses that the commission won’t hear the matter until its December meeting. City staff will immediately begin to review the pair of applications, dispatch consultants and gather information to gauge whether or not the trees fit any one of six criteria the city requires before a landmarks designation can be made.

Thomas Nitti, the Treesavers’ attorney, said that he helped advise on the application process, but that the application was a “collaborative effort” between he and the rest of the group.

Jerry Rubin, the unofficial leader of the Treesavers, was ecstatic about Tuesday’s development, but tempered his enthusiasm.

“We are still being very cautious. We aren’t going to take anything for granted. We feel we have a very reasonable request and that we have the support of the community,” Rubin said from Nitti’s office Tuesday.

Rubin hopes this latest development will raise awareness regarding the city’s handling of trees in general, and that it could change the way the city handles these types of situations.

“Don’t take our trees. Let’s not have an expanded tree-relocation policy. Let’s have a new tree-planting and nursing policy,” Rubin added.

While city staff is reviewing the landmarks applications, the Treesavers have a busy schedule ahead of them. Rubin said the group will meet this Saturday at 10 a.m. at 201 Broadway to rally support for saving the ficus trees of Second and Fourth streets. He said there is a particular tree located there that a private arborist said should not be removed. The city has marked it for removal because it is structurally unfit.

“We need to bring back tree-hugging by popular demand,” Rubin said.

Among the many features Rubin believes makes the trees historically significant are the many carvings people have made in their trunks over the years. Rubin sees the etchings as a historical record of Santa Monica.

“You could see all those carvings on there — lovers and the many people that visited Santa Monica. I don’t think it is good to carve on trees, but in some way, that history is what has been documented on these scores of ficus trees,” Rubin said.

“I don’t want to sue the city I love, but sometimes something just needs to be done to preserve our identity.”

daniela@smdp.com