Community Corner

Homeowners Appeal Tree Warden's Decision

The fate of 22 trees on West Road is headed to Superior Court.

Residents of nine households on West Road have appealed the Tree Warden's decision to remove 10 trees and severely prune 12 others on their street to Superior Court.

Tree Warden John Howe is named as a defendant along with Assistant Tree Warden and Assistant Director of Public Works Tiger Mann, Public Works Director Michael Pastore, and all three members of the Board of Selectmen.

The plaintiffs claim the removal of the trees, all of which are along a stretch less than half a mile long, would spoil the beauty and animal habitat of the area and therefore negatively affect their property values.

The appeal calls Howe's Nov. 6 decision on the 22 trees that he had deemed a public safety hazard as, "arbitrary and capricious". The plaintiffs go on to argue that the removal and pruning of those trees constituted "selective enforcement" and accuse Howe and Mann of "abuse of power" by "knowingly ignoring immediate hazard trees" along New Canaan's roads and in the parks.

At the hearing before Howe rendered his decision, Bill Christopher, whose wife is among the plaintiffs, identified several trees in Waveny and Irwin parks as posing a risk to the public. Howe said at the Tree Committee meeting Tuesday, Nov. 17, that five trees in Waveny have been removed in response to Christopher's presentation. The inspection of the West Road trees was triggered by several calls from observers about the failing arbors, including one from police after a branch fell.

Mann has said that the Tree Warden has been chasing after hazardous trees the way firefighters do fires, responding to calls rather than conducting systematic management.

In the appeal, the plaintiffs charge the selectmen with "failing, neglecting, and refusing" to adequately fund the office of Tree Warden. They argue that the Tree Warden doesn't have sufficient resources to inventory, inspect, care-for, and replace the estimated half million trees in town.

Tree replacement was put on hold due to town budget constraints until the Board of Selectmen approved a plan in October to spend $25,000 on about two dozen new trees around town. At the Tuesday meeting, Tree Committee member Keith Simpson noted that the allocation, "was not a commitment of $25,000 to West Road." There’s currently no funding set aside for an inventory.

At the earlier hearing, Christopher and others called for a cogent tree management plan. The Tree Warden, Tree Committee have echoed that call.

The appeal asks that the Tree Warden's decision on the 22 West Road trees be declared null and void.

The case will be heard in Stamford Court Dec. 8. It could be months until the matter is settled. In the meantime, the trees on West Road will stand.


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