Ficus trees’ pending historic designation to wait a month
By Daily Press staff
CITY HALL The Landmarks Commission postponed a public hearing on Monday to determine whether 153 ficus trees along two Downtown Santa Monica corridors should be designated as landmarks.
The decision stalled attempts by a group of environmental activists that are trying to prevent City Hall from transplanting and destroying more than 50 trees as part of a larger streetscape improvement project.
The request to postpone the public hearing came from peace activist Jerry Rubin, co-founder of the Santa Monica Treesavers, who asked the commission to grant him more time to compile research for his argument as to why the trees on Second and Fourth streets would warrant landmark status.
Though the streetscape project, which would overhaul both Second and Fourth streets by enhancing lighting and improving pedestrian accessibility, commenced last month, the tree removal portion has been held up pending the decision by the commission as to whether it should file a landmarks designation application.
Both city staff and city consultant PCR Services Corporation are recommending the commission not move forward with a landmark designation because the trees do not meet any of the six criteria required for designation.
The commission rescheduled the hearing to December, denying a request by Rubin to push the hearing until February in order to give the Treesavers adequate time to prepare their defense of the trees. Rubin noted that Marcello Vavala, president of the Santa Monica Conservancy, has volunteered to help the Treesavers with their research, but is taking a neutral position on the issue.
If the public hearing on the trees was postponed past December, it could jeopardize funding and affect financing for the $8.2 million project, according to Assistant City Manager Gordon Anderson.
But it shouldn’t matter if the hearing was rescheduled to February since construction for the streetscape project is expected to be on hiatus soon in order to accommodate the expected increase in traffic from holiday shoppers, Rubin said Tuesday.
“We should’ve at least gotten a January meeting,” Rubin said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 15, 2007. Read the original PDF.