HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/10/2022 Item 4a, Christie
Delgado, Adriana
From:Santa Lucia Sierra Club <sierraclub8@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, October 4, 2022
To:Advisory Bodies
Subject:10/10/22 Tree Committee meeting: Sierra Club comment on proposed tree removal
at 1422 Monterey St.
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Dear Members of the San Luis Obispo Tree Committee,
The Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club, the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization, represents the
Club’s 3,000 members and supporters in San Luis Obispo County. We are submitting this comment in regard to the proposal by the
Housing Authority to remove 54 trees, including three coast redwoods measuring between 30 and 52 inches in diameter, as part of the
project at 1422 Monterey St.
Last year, we submitted a comment to the City Planning Commission on their review of a tentative tract map that would entail the
removal of 17 trees in a riparian corridor and 3 redwoods elsewhere on site to accommodate an applicant’s project. We pointed out
then, and point out now, that trees play a vital role in mitigating climate change, sequestering millions of tons of carbon. According to
the National Climate Assessment of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, trees absorb and store the equivalent of 16 percent of
all carbon dioxide emitted annually by the combustion of fossil fuel in the United States. The role of urban trees in stormwater
management via runoff and pollutant reduction and in protecting city residents from excessive heat and helping to improve air and
water quality has been well documented.
We note that Save Our Downtown has provided you with an alternate site plan preserving a dozen large trees on the site and
references the work being done by Seattle activists and Trees for Life Oregon in promoting development that preserves the urban
canopy. We refer you to the work of California ReLeaf in promoting preserving, protecting and enhancing California’s urban and
community forests. Also worth reviewing: Green Infrastructure, the website of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and
Making Urban Trees Count by the Center for Watershed Protection.
In short, San Luis Obispo should approach trees not as an inconvenience to be removed but a public necessity to be preserved, and
begin the practice of asking permit applicants to integrate on-site trees into their projects. We hope your committee will urge the City
to start with this one.
Thank you for your attention to this issue.
Andrew Christie, Director
Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club
P.O. Box 15755
San Luis Obispo, CA 93406
(805) 543-8717
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