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Treeguys - I'm in violation (1 Viewer)

tkrull

tkrull

Footballguy
I'm in violation of a city code that requires all trees overhanging public sidewalks to be trimmed back to a clearance of 7 feet.  Because I'm not an anal retentive psychopath, I was unaware of this bit of legislation.

I didn't plant this tree (previous owner did).  Frankly it's too close, but trimming it back 7 feet is going to murder the tree.

The thing that pisses me off the most is them going directly to the city.  I realize most people are cowards and won't knock on my door to have a polite chat with a neighbor of 10+ years, but even an anonymous note could have corrected the situation without involving the Man.

Anyway I don't really have any questions, mostly just ranting off some steam.  Probably going to passive/aggressively carve an exactly  3'x7' passage through the side of the tree canopy.

 
I get wanting people to come to you 1st but the reality is if a neighbor came to you about this you would have posted a thread about how absurd this was and your plans to grow them out to 15'.

Confronting neighbors about their stuff sounds easy in theory but people don't really like being called out and get territorial, real quick 

 
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comfortably numb said:
I get wanting people to come to you 1st but the reality is if a neighbor came to you about this you would have posted a thread about how absurd this was and your plans to grow them out to 15'.

Confronting neighbors about their stuff sounds easy in theory but people don't really like being called out and get territorial, real quick 
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I trim it back to what I thought was a reasonable degree every spring.  Not 7' and not sidewalk edge to edge.  But it's not like people can't get by.  In my mind (and I could be wrong) now the city will have a guy come by and measure it to verify it meets code.

 
tkrull said:
I'm in violation of a city code that requires all trees overhanging public sidewalks to be trimmed back to a clearance of 7 feet.  Because I'm not an anal retentive psychopath, I was unaware of this bit of legislation.

I didn't plant this tree (previous owner did).  Frankly it's too close, but trimming it back 7 feet is going to murder the tree.

The thing that pisses me off the most is them going directly to the city.  I realize most people are cowards and won't knock on my door to have a polite chat with a neighbor of 10+ years, but even an anonymous note could have corrected the situation without involving the Man.

Anyway I don't really have any questions, mostly just ranting off some steam.  Probably going to passive/aggressively carve an exactly  3'x7' passage through the side of the tree canopy.
Click to expand...
I would look into consulting an arborist if you truly feel trimming it back to code will kill the tree. Perhaps they can suggest ways to do it that will keep the tree alive, or (with the caveat that I don't know fact one about any of this) even ways of suggesting to work with the city if abiding to code will kill the tree.

I would suspect, however, that the city cares not one bit if the tree up and dies, and their ordinances take precedence over killing vegetation. 

 
I agree with STC above.  An arborist will help you get to the root of the matter.  It is very possible your city employs an arborist who would be willing to leave you some feedback regarding options.

 
My buddy bought a house a few years ago. Got a letter from the city his fence was something like a foot too close to the sidewalk. 

He had to move like 50 feet of fence 18 inches.

 
The General said:
My buddy bought a house a few years ago. Got a letter from the city his fence was something like a foot too close to the sidewalk. 

He had to move like 50 feet of fence 18 inches.
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he needs to find the person that reported this and find a way to get his money back

money or satisfaction ...

 
tkrull said:
I didn't plant this tree (previous owner did).  Frankly it's too close, but trimming it back 7 feet is going to murder the tree.

The thing that pisses me off the most is them going directly to the city.  I realize most people are cowards and won't knock on my door to have a polite chat with a neighbor of 10+ years
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I am going to go out on a limb here and say you just need to cut the tree down.

Tree is 10+ years old, and it still has branches that hang <7' over the sidewalk?  If trimming them back will "murder" the tree - then the tree does not belong there....

 
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Just set the tree on fire while screaming at the top of your lungs over and over again... "SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO NEIGHBORS????!!!!!"

No one will ever report you for petty stuff again.

 
comfortably numb said:
I get wanting people to come to you 1st but the reality is if a neighbor came to you about this you would have posted a thread about how absurd this was and your plans to grow them out to 15'.

Confronting neighbors about their stuff sounds easy in theory but people don't really like being called out and get territorial, real quick 
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To quote my daughter's favorite TV show.

"Lucky, youre not mad that he didnt talk to you. Youre mad that its happening at all."

 
parasaurolophus said:
To quote my daughter's favorite TV show.

"Lucky, youre not mad that he didnt talk to you. Youre mad that its happening at all."
Click to expand...
I'm just perturbed that nobody wanted to wait until spring when I prune back everything.  Cripes we just had an ice storm yesterday, of course the branches are hanging low.

 
tkrull said:
I'm just perturbed that nobody wanted to wait until spring when I prune back everything.  Cripes we just had an ice storm yesterday, of course the branches are hanging low.
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Just make sure nobody in the area is getting any work done before you get too upset at a neighbor. I got a similar violation last year and it was because the inspector had to come out to my neighbors house for a water hookup issue and he noticed it as he was walking up to their house.  

 
tkrull said:
I'm just perturbed that nobody wanted to wait until spring when I prune back everything.  Cripes we just had an ice storm yesterday, of course the branches are hanging low.
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we have tree nazis in Portland i'm very familiar with this process.

so what i did was petition the city arborist to remove one tree (it was a Hawthorne, which is the worst possible tree on earth IMO) because it wasn't "native".  They said yes.   I bulldozed the ####er down to the core of the earth,  then made sure to cut it all into firewood so my neighbors could see.   I then planted grass  over the crater.

2nd tree was burnt in a fire.   While not technically dead, i used the clause in the city code that says if you have a tree that is damaged/dying and you percieve it to be a safety hazard, you can remove it without a permit for no fine.      I also pulled the entire root system out of the earth and burned every inch of that tree (maple).  I then filled the crater in with grass.

 
Mrs. Rannous said:
How is trimming the tree like that going to harm it at all?  I kept an oak tree trimmed like that.  It seemed quite happy with the arrangement.
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It's kind of a short & wide flowering tree.  I'm going to have to take off a bunch of the lower limbs to bring the bottom to 7ft.  Basically the lower half of the folage.  It'll have a crazy top-heavy bonsai look to it when finished.

 
tkrull said:
It's kind of a short & wide flowering tree.  I'm going to have to take off a bunch of the lower limbs to bring the bottom to 7ft.  Basically the lower half of the folage.  It'll have a crazy top-heavy bonsai look to it when finished.
Click to expand...
Oh, I see.  That sucks.  What kind of tree is it?  Maybe if you trim it to 61/2 feet, no one will notice.

 
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