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# Council to tackle trees
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/council-to-tackle-trees/
- Published: 2007-08-14T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T02:34:39.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Government & Politics, Downtown, #archive-import

CITY HALL Normally mild and mundane, generating little public chatter, the first hour of the City Council meeting tonight could take a more animated turn.

The City Council is expected to award an approximately $7.6 million contract for a project to improve both Second and Fourth streets in downtown, a project that includes the controversial element of removing more than 70 mature trees and replacing them with new, young ginkgo bilobas.

The high-profile project is slated to be approved in the beginning of the meeting — around 5:45 p.m. — in one fell swoop, along with nine other items in the consent calendar, before the City Council heads into closed session.

The proposal to remove 54 of the ficus trees lining Second and Fourth streets has mustered quite a bit of public dissent over the past few years, but especially in recent months, after City Hall went out for bids to find a contractor to execute the project. City staff has in the past cited maintenance and business sign blockage as some of the reasons for the removal of the shade-heavy ficus trees, looking to lighten up the streets.

“I’ve received some correspondence from some people who were unhappy about the fact that we’re removing some of the trees and replacing them with young trees,” said Mayor Richard Bloom on Monday.

Of the 54 ficus trees set to bid downtown good-bye, 31 will be replanted elsewhere, perhaps the Santa Monica Airport and Palisades Park, city staff stated in May. The remaining 23 ficus trees have been identified as diseased and will be converted to compost.

The tree removal is only one piece of the overall streetscape improvement project, which covers eight blocks between Wilshire Boulevard and Colorado Avenue. The project also calls for the enlargement of tree wells, upgrading electrical service, installation of new light fixtures and decorative lighting on the remaining ficus trees.

Council member Kevin McKeown, who originally voted against the schematic design for the project in October 2005, said he plans to present an amendment tonight that would eliminate the tree removal element of the proposal.

If the council does approve the amendment, it would jeopardize City Hall’s ability to secure grant funding. If the final project design, which was already approved by Caltrans, is modified, the grant funds will be forfeited, the city staff report states.

Approximately $1.8 million of the project is funded by the Federal Transportation Enhancement Activities fund, which must be awarded by Aug. 30.

“I feel backed into a corner,” McKeown said on Monday.

Because of previous funding delays, Bloom believes the council should act now rather than later, adding the current proposal is a compromise from the original proposal which would’ve eliminated all the trees in the project area.

“I think it’s important that, unless there’s been some sort of change in circumstance, that we stick with the plan,” Bloom said.

If approved, the contract will be awarded to the Griffith Company.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 14, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/081407.pdf?ref=smdp.com)