Trees Demand Equal Rights

‘Don’t it always seem to go,
That you never know what you’ve got till it’s gone –
They paved paradise, put in a parking lot.’

— Joni Mitchell, 1970, “Big Yellow Taxi”

Even as a 130-year-old valley oak hangs onto life in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, the City’s Planning Commission approved construction of a proposed parking lot at a resort on the north end of town that would remove more than 100 blue oaks. 

Two weeks after the Healdsburg Planning Commission voted to approve a new parking lot at Montage Healdsburg, members of the citizen group Climate Action Healdsburg (CAH) filed an appeal that will take the decision to the City Council for reconsideration.

The formal appeal, dated June 7 (10 days after the May 28 Planning Commission meeting), was filed on Monday, June 10; the delay caused by the City’s recurring closed offices on alternate Fridays. Planning Director Scott Duiven confirmed in advance that the filing would be effective.

Ty Benoit signed the appeal “on behalf of Climate Action Healdsburg.” Other members of CAH who worked on the appeal included local arborist Martha Hunt and Janis Watkins, an attorney.

The proposed removal is for 107 blue oak trees on a .64-acre parcel next to a current parking lot at Montage Healdsburg resort, to make room for 44 new parking spaces. These, plus another 13 “infill” spaces, will add 57 spaces to the resort’s parking area, which will then total 269 parking spaces.

The problem is, blue oaks are not as large as other oak species: When fully mature, they may not even reach 24 inches DBH (diameter at breast height), yet be 250 years old. Native-plant expert Hunt points out that blue oak woodland is one of the key ecosystems of the area we all live in: Sonoma County.

Of the Montage parcel, she said, “We’re not just talking about a few trees. We’re talking about an old woodland. That is a whole ecosystem, a keystone habitat.  Oaks are the most important tree for habitat value. They support up to 257 species of other insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals—they are just so important.”

The Planning Commission heard the major design review for the Montage Resort Parking Lot Expansion Project on Tuesday, May 28. It was “properly” noticed, in that the agenda and accompanying packet were published five days earlier, on Thursday May 23. But as an irate former mayor Brigette Mansell pointed out during her comments at the meeting, it was poorly timed.

“They only gave us five days to read a 357-page report over the Memorial Day weekend with the FAA parade and fair. Plus, tonight’s our first Tuesday night [of music in the Plaza],” she complained to the commission.

“Look, this isn’t about tree hugging,” Mansell said. “This is about our city having a plan and noticing its public when you’re going to cut down that many trees.”

CMS

The plan she referred to, the Climate Mobilization Strategy, was officially adopted by the city in October, 2023. It states that the city values preserving trees—not just for aesthetic reasons or shade, but because old trees increase carbon sequestration, something it takes “mitigation” trees decades to accomplish.

“The city has a climate mobilization strategy that we all work very hard on, and we worked collaboratively,” pointed out Benoit, a key member of the Climate Action Healdsburg. “We want to make sure that this is something that’s informing the decisions that are coming down from the Planning Commission and the City Council. In other words, we don’t want it to just be a document that sits on a shelf somewhere.”

In the absence of the larger onsite parking lot, Montage has asked its employees to park at the Healdsburg Community Center, in the city’s overflow parking on the south side of the facility. From there a resort shuttle takes them to work (and returns them at the end of their shift).

“The resort schedules their parking needs with us in advance and pays a daily parking lot use fee, currently $82.67/day,” said Community Services Director Mark Themig. “Their parking needs don’t conflict with our daily facility users who generally park on the north side of the facility.”

Although the commission entertained much discussion of the relative value of 57 onsite employee parking spaces versus 107 trees, in the end the major design review application passed by a 3-1 vote. However it should be noted that only four of seven Planning Commission members were present—enough for a quorum, but the “Yes” vote did not reflect a majority of the full body.

The Appeal

Following the May 28 meeting, Climate Action Network shifted into gear, gathering legal ammunition and mobilizing to file the appeal that would take the Planning Commission’s vote to the City Council.

The cost of the appeal was more than $1,600, an amount raised by contributions from members of CAH, Benoit said.

In the words of the Blue Oaks Woodlands Appeal, “CAH believes the environmental review of this project is flawed. Alternatives were not demonstrated and appropriate mitigation measures were not applied. The Addendum relies on inaccurate information in the tree inventory, misapplies EIR policies intended to protect open space, woodlands and trees, and does not address or apply current standards for protecting vital resources amidst the climate crisis.

“The project should be denied,” stated the appeal. “Or, at a minimum, the council should require a supplemental EIR.”

The City Council and other city offices are about to embark on a month-long hiatus for July; the next council meeting is scheduled for Aug. 5. Duiven said that due to the office closures, the appeal would be heard by the council at that Aug. 5 meeting.

“I think that we look at these oak woodlands because we happen to live in the middle of them,” Hunt said. “We begin to treat them like they are ubiquitous. And they’re not. We just happen to live in a very rich environment in which oak woodlands predominate.”