info Protecting Port’s Trees


Please click on the attached link to read the Patch.com Article from September 2010
Patch.com Article about new trees being planted

The letter below was sent to the Port Washington News and Patch.com
An unfortunate pattern is emerging at the Monfort Plaza Shopping Center next to the Post Office on Port Blvd.  Several months ago, Residents for a More Beautiful Port Washington and the greater Port Washington community were shocked to find several mature trees chopped down in the back parking lot adjacent to Schreiber High School’s playing field as redevelopment of the shopping center commenced.

The Town responded to the tree removal by issuing a temporary stop work order and Residents immediately arranged a meeting with the shopping center owner to express the community’s outrage over the lack of public notification and opportunity to comment on the tree removals before they occurred and to request that the development be appropriate for the Port community’s sensitivity to native plantings and landscaping.  To that end, we presented the shopping center owner with preliminary schematic designs for a project that would be in keeping with our community and asked that he work with a landscape architect who is sensitive to the environment, works with native species and has experience with tree selection and plantings as the redevelopment progresses.  While the shopping center owner agreed to consider our requests, no firm commitments were made.

Today, all of the trees lining the front of the shopping center on Port Blvd. were cut down as part of the redevelopment process.  There has been another outpouring of community anger over these tree removals.  Our phones have literally been ringing off the hook all day.

When five stately trees on Main Street in front of the Knowles Funeral Home were cut down by the Town Highway Department without prior notice in May 2008, Residents led a 100 person march from the Port train station to Blumenfeld Family Park to advocate for adoption of a Town tree ordinance introduced by local Council Member Pollack to provide advance notice of any Town tree slated for removal by posting a notice on the tree that is slated for removal.  The ordinance, subsequently enacted, provides the community five business days to phone 311 to object to the removal.  If objections are raised, the affected Town Council member and Supervisor must be notified.  Either the affected Council member or the Supervisor may request that an independent arborist be retained to inspect the tree and make recommendations.  No tree can be removed until a report is made to Town officials.  An exception exists for immediate removal without public notice if the public health, welfare or safety is immediately endangered.

This morning when Residents saw the destruction of the street trees on Main Street in front of the shopping center, Residents immediately contacted the Town and shopping center owner.  Since Port Blvd. is a State road, the street trees are not covered by the Town ordinance.

Residents was informed that permission to cut down these trees was issued by the State Department of Transportation.  We are seeking information on the process under which permission was granted by the State.  The shopping center owner claims that the trees were not healthy and were in poor condition.  Had the Town ordinance applied, there would have been a mechanism in place for prior community notification and for verifying the health of the trees prior to their removal.

The shopping center owner informed us that he is intending to replace the trees in front of the shopping center in the Fall with twelve Ginko Bilobas that are 12 ft high with a 2 to 2 1/2” diameter and to add five Ginko Biloba’s of the same diameter at LuEsther Place between the shopping center and the Post Office.  We do not understand why the existing trees needed to be removed now, if replacements aren’t intended to be planted before the Fall.  We do not believe that the proposed replacement trees are substantial enough and have requested that Zelkova deciduous trees with a 3 ½ to 4” diameter be planted instead of Ginko Biloba’s. This will cost the shopping center owner substantially more money, but will more closely approximate the size of the trees that were removed along Port Blvd.

Certain streetscape elements for the proposed redevelopment will further enhance the character of our community, including the use of brick pavers in front of the shopping center.  However, the community deserves the right to notice and an opportunity to comment before trees are removed.  Residents will continue to reach out to the shopping center owner and to State and local officials.  We will post updates on our website, www.presidents.org,  as we gather more information.  Residents is also offering to host a community meeting if the shopping center owner agrees to participate with an open mind,  listen to the community’s concerns, and share with the community how he plans to address those concerns.

Too many mature trees have been removed in Port Washington without notice and an opportunity for community input.  An end must be put to this practice. Residents will be working with our elected State, County and Village representatives to introduce legislation modeled on the Town ordinance so that all of Port Washington can have the protections included in the Town ordinance.

Curtis V. Trinko, Chairman              
Rick Krainin, Co-President                  
Dan Donatelli, Co-President                          

Residents For A More Beautiful Port Washington