Landmark
oak trees to be saved in Agoura Hills
By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

TREES SAVED--From the beginning of the city when it incorporated, Agoura Hills has made a priority of saving trees. Mayor Louise Rishoff, lower right, has followed in the footsteps of former city councilwoman and mayor, now state Assemblywoman-elect Fran Pavley, in making preservation of trees a top priority. Thanks to Rishoff's efforts and those of others, two landmark trees near the intersection of Agoura and Kanan roads will be spared from being uprooted or even replanted.

Two large oak trees at the northwest corner of Kanan Road and Agoura Road in Agoura Hills got an 11th-hour reprieve when the city council reversed itself and voted last week to keep the trees in place.

The council had decided last year to remove the trees to accommodate the widening of Agoura Road and for construction of two new restaurants, Islands and Chuy’s.

After hearing conflicting testimony as to whether the trees could safely be moved, the council voted 5-0 to keep the trees where they are.

A plan by city engineer Jim Thorsen to allow for a wider, safer road while not hurting the trees made the decision possible.

"Short of jumping up and down, I think it’s just great that there’s a reconsideration of moving those oak trees," said Mark Dixon, the spokesman for a group of homeowners that actively sought to keep the landmark trees in place.

The two Valley Oaks are hundreds of years old and would have cost $63,000 to move, according to estimates.

One expert said the success rate of relocating oak trees can be as high as 95 percent, but Kay Greeley, the city’s oak tree consultant, disagreed.

"As far as transplanting these trees, I just can’t agree," Greeley said. "The benefit of moving these trees is likely to be very short-lived."

The oak tree matter came back to the table when Mayor Louise Rishoff appealed last July’s planning commission decision to approve the two restaurants.

The conditions of their approval included removal of 14 oak trees to allow the two 5,000 square-foot restaurants to be built.

Rishoff thought the two Valley Oaks at least should be relocated. Thorsen told the council that Agoura Road could be widened and provide access to the restaurants while keeping the trees in place.

Rishoff presented a letter from Rosi Dagit of the Santa Monica Mountains Resource Conservation District (RCD) to the Calabasas City Council, which pointed out that several oak tree transplant projects in that city had failed.

Dagit said a large Coast Live Oak was moved 50 feet in 1993 at a cost of $120,000 to make way for the Valley Circle freeway interchange improvements, but that during last summer, the tree finally died after losing most of its root system.

Dagit quoted an RCD study that showed only half of the 100 oaks trees transplanted at the New Millennium Homes development in Calabasas appear to be surviving.

"The best way to save oak trees is to leave them where they are and work around them," Dagit said. "Saving an oak does not mean sentencing it to years of slow decline and eventual death by transplanting it."

Other changes are also in store for the restaurant projects.

The council told KMI developers of Woodland Hills to reduce the size of a retail building at the Chuy’s site to make the project less dense. Developers also must build a secondary driveway to provide access to the restaurants and to the existing Kanan Village Shopping Center.

"Clearly this project now is significantly better that I remember seeing it before," said City Councilman Dan Kuperberg.

Scott Yorkison, a KMI spokesman, said grading for the restaurants should begin in February and construction completed by July.