Next time you’re up on north Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo, I’d like to suggest that you take a little field trip.
Take a gander at the north side of the 1400 block, the gorgeous, hillside former home of Central Coast Brewing and Cambria Bikes.
Enjoy the view of the 54 mature, healthy trees on that hillside and know that, very soon, they will all be slaughtered, sacrificed to a development that just wouldn’t “pencil out,” don’t you know, if the tree-slaughterers had to work around those pesky trees.
Oh, sure, the developers (who once again hoodwinked our hapless City Council by including a small amount of “affordable” housing) will plant “replacement” trees.
In case you’re wondering what a “replacement” tree looks like in our former “tree city,” head to the next block up and observe a “replacement” tree in front of 1531 Monterey. That “tree” (read: twig) has been there for several years and yet scarcely reaches my waist.
For further evidence, next time you’re out at Home Depot, look around at the trees in their parking lot. Those trees were planted in 1979—45 years ago—yet few of them provide enough shade for even one vehicle, not to mention their lack of habitat.
Why? Because San Luis Obispo does absolutely no follow-up on the trees it orders to be planted in the city. If you tour shopping center after shopping center, you’ll notice that most of the trees are dead or dying. The city makes no effort whatsoever to prevent such neglect: There’s no follow-up and no penalty for planting a tree, then letting it die.
And the problem will only get worse because our tree committee rubber-stamped its own demise, gutting the tree ordinance and reducing the committee to a toothless “advisory” role.
Add to the current slaughter the two beautiful ficus trees just destroyed in front of Smith Volvo and at the corner across Toro Street, where another mega-development just wouldn’t “pencil” if the tree remained. And how do you like the gorgeous tree-lined streets in the ongoing Dalidio development? Not!
Now, I realize that time marches on and the state has ordered each city to build tons of housing. But when a city like ours is so shortsighted that it’s willing to help oversee the destruction of us all, in service of projects that just won’t “pencil” unless trees are slaughtered, then we’re all doomed, are we not? We’re just lounging in deck chairs on the Titanic, quibbling about what year the Earth will become uninhabitable.
Finally, how about this irony? The very pencils that developers use to convince the city that their project won’t “pencil” unless 54 beautiful trees are destroyed, are made from trees.
Will Powers
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Apr 4-14, 2024.
Don’t they make houses out of trees? The “slaughter” must continue.
Or do you not live in a house?
Thank you for this information. Is there anything that the community can do to stop the removal of the beautiful, mature trees at this point? What can we do to stop future decisions like this?
Crazy thing, people come to SLO for the beauty, then destroy it with decisions like this.
Its happening County wide. Sure would be nice if those who make decisions could look to other areas to see how the inevitable growth was handled in a way to maintain the existing charm and beauty. But, what it normally comes down to is $$$$ vs looking at the long term impacts.
Home Depot hasn’t been at that location that long. The company started in 1979. The SLO Home Depot store opened in 2003, all it took was a phone call. Those trees in their parking lot is only 21 years old. I’m all about making them plant large trees to replace the ones being taken out. It should be like 2 to 3 to one because some wont survive. Next time you use an example to prove your point, you better get it straight ( you weren’t even close) or it hard to take you seriouly.
Not a surprising complaint from an expert at vexatious litigation, from “protesting” Costco, to parking enforcement to trying to steal his disabled son’s house through attempted lies and slide of hand, having lost his license to practice for misconduct the removal of trees are not the problem, “citizens” that abuse the system and the disabled are the problem, no one knows how to plant seeds only to let them die better than a person constantly trying for a free hand out, for shame! Perhaps get off your soap box, take a hike, and plant a tree rather than complain.
It is not hard to imagine the pitiful weeping of the orphaned little sprouts and saplings as their arboreal parents are cruelly “slaughtered”.
This is a demonstration of the realities facing those who try to put in housing, and why local housing is so unaffordable.
Trees are required to be replaced because they pull in carbon dioxide and use energy of the sun to convert into chemical compounds that feed the trees and produce oxygen. The goal is not to produce shade. Private property owners have rights. Increasing the costs to develop property is not a function of government. Planting replacement trees is already an overreach.