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# City Council gives SM trees the ax
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/city-council-gives-sm-trees-the-ax/
- Published: 2007-08-16T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T02:35:14.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Government & Politics, Downtown, #archive-import

CITY HALL More than 70 trees in the downtown area will soon be just a memory.

City Council has awarded $8.2 million in construction deals that will include a controversial project in which more than 50 mature ficus trees and more than 20 palms along Second and Fourth streets will be uprooted and either turned to mulch or be replanted elsewhere in Santa Monica, their empty plots being filled with two ginkgo biloba trees.

The call to grant a contract worth $7.6 million to the Griffith Company generated a lot of public debate for a normally routine City Council matter — packaged along with the nine other items in the consent calendar. Taken up in the beginning of Council meetings, all items in the consent calendar are usually approved under one sweeping motion.

Councilmember Kevin McKeown was the lone vote of opposition to the project, introducing an amendment to eliminate the removal of healthy downtown trees. The motion ultimately failed.

“I am opposed on principle to using public funds to removing e x i s t i n g, h e a l t h y, m a t u r e shade trees,” McKeown said.

The issue of pulling out 54 ficus trees — 23 of which have been identified as diseased and near death — from the downtown streetscape prompted close to a dozen Santa Monica residents and business owners to band together against the proposal.

Tensions were high in the City Council chambers Tuesday night as many of the residents called into question why the elected officials were moving forward with a contract when so many residents have publicly expressed their disapproval of the plan. Many of the residents said they understood removing the diseased trees, but questioned the necessity with relocating the healthy ones.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 16, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/081607.pdf?ref=smdp.com)