our back yard is dominated by a large, but sickly looking maple. it hasn’t been well maintained, a second trunk has grown out of the base at almost a 60 degree angle, and the whole thing is within 4 feet of the retaining wall that keeps our back yard out of the alley.
the tree is actually on the opposite side of the fence with our neighbor, but it turns out that it’s actually (mostly) in our yard which is irritating on two fronts — we have to chip in on maintaining the tree, and we really need to replace our fence considering it was built about 8 to 12 inches on our side of the property line.
fortunately we love our neighbor(s) so it’s all good.
last week, we decided to take the tree down, so that it doesn’t fall over and doesn’t push down our retaining wall. we had an arborist come out, and he said it’s just under the size (55 inches in girth) where a permit would be required.
when he started actually cutting the tree, however, another neighbor — not on our street, but on the other side of our back alley — came out screaming.
neither the lady sparkler or i were there for the exchange, but the general gist was that she (strongly) believed we needed a permit, and even if we had one, we should let the tree live, let the retaining wall collapse, and then just keep rebuilding everything (wall, yard, fence) as often as necessary to keep the tree alive and well.
so, the city came out to moderate the dispute, and the tree is right on the cusp of needing a permit (of two measurements, one was above the requirement and one was below) so they’ve asked us to apply for a permit.
the bureaucracy/paperwork isn’t that big of a deal — if you complete the form, and have a good reason to take the tree down, you can — but the permit cost will triple the price of removing the tree.
![[]](/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/7253561174_45e4ce566b1.jpg)
the tree is actually on the opposite side of the fence with our neighbor, but it turns out that it’s actually (mostly) in our yard which is irritating on two fronts — we have to chip in on maintaining the tree, and we really need to replace our fence considering it was built about 8 to 12 inches on our side of the property line.
fortunately we love our neighbor(s) so it’s all good.
last week, we decided to take the tree down, so that it doesn’t fall over and doesn’t push down our retaining wall. we had an arborist come out, and he said it’s just under the size (55 inches in girth) where a permit would be required.
when he started actually cutting the tree, however, another neighbor — not on our street, but on the other side of our back alley — came out screaming.
neither the lady sparkler or i were there for the exchange, but the general gist was that she (strongly) believed we needed a permit, and even if we had one, we should let the tree live, let the retaining wall collapse, and then just keep rebuilding everything (wall, yard, fence) as often as necessary to keep the tree alive and well.
so, the city came out to moderate the dispute, and the tree is right on the cusp of needing a permit (of two measurements, one was above the requirement and one was below) so they’ve asked us to apply for a permit.
the bureaucracy/paperwork isn’t that big of a deal — if you complete the form, and have a good reason to take the tree down, you can — but the permit cost will triple the price of removing the tree.
#hippies.