A large banyan tree (opposite tree on right) was cut down on North Atlantic Drive,
causing a furor among residents who said the tree should have been protected.
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Mary Thurwachter
Sections of Atlantic Drive, Hypoluxo Island’s main street, resemble a tree-shaded country road. Many who have lived on the island for years treasure the trees and shudder to think that any could be cut down.
But that’s exactly what happened recently to a large banyan tree at North Atlantic Drive at the corner of East Ocean Avenue. The tree was cut down as part of a renovation project being filmed for Vanilla Ice’s (aka Rob Van Winkle’s) television documentary for DIY TV Productions.
As limbs fell to the ground, the phone began ringing off the hook at the Hypoluxo Island home of Richard Schlosberg and his wife, Judy Black, environmentalists and council watchers who addressed the issue at the Nov. 10 Lantana Town Council meeting.
“It was a travesty to remove that banyan tree,” Schlosberg said. It was, he said, an important canopy tree that provided habitat for small wildlife and birds who winter in Florida.
His wife called the tree loss “unfathomable.”
Could anything have been done to stop the tree from being cut down?
Apparently not, the couple was told.
“It’s not a protected tree,” said Mayor Dave Stewart, who lives on North Atlantic Drive. “Trees come down just like houses come down. People have their personal property rights. … New trees will be planted.”
Stewart said the banyan didn’t fit into the new owner’s landscape plans. Getting a permit is a formality, he said, “to see if the tree is protected.”
Schlosberg argued that the tree was an aura banyan, native to the state, and should be protected.
According to Town Attorney Max Lohman, five species of banyans are prohibited and the aura banyan is on neither the protected nor the prohibited list.
Exactly how old the banyan tree was is not known.
“It’s not in any of the pictures we have from the late ’40s,” Stewart said. “But it was a big tree.”
But the banyan wasn’t the only tree cut down on the property, and some of the trees, several oaks, were protected.
A Landscape Review Application was approved on Oct. 22 for removal of 12 dead palms and four mango trees. Owners submitted another application on Oct. 29 to remove a large banyan in the front yard. That application triggered a tree survey.
“We know of at least two large oaks that were probably specimen trees per our code,” Town Manager Deborah Manzo said. “Since they were already cut down, we are not sure of their diameter. Our code requires one and a half times the diameter to be mitigated. On Friday, Nov. 14, the contractor brought in the tree survey and David (Thatcher, the town’s development services director) approved it. The plan provides for one and a half times tree replacement for the two oaks that were removed; therefore, no fines will be assessed.”
Work on the renovation and filming is expected to continue through April 30.
Comments