Uptown Trees Fate Decided
Roughly 10 weeks ago, on Dec. 12, 2023, a decision was made by the Whittier City Council to put the Greenleaf Promenade Plan into action, a plan that has been in the works for years, which includes the cutting of mature Ficus trees along Greenleaf Ave. This plan is said to stretch over three blocks, from Hadley to Wardman St., removing a total of 113 trees.
On Feb. 20, a recent town meeting on the matter began with City Manager Brian Saeki opening with a presentation including the plan and the details which included images that showed the Uptown district in 1883. It was not until the 1960s when the first ficus trees were planted. On Oct. 1, 1987, the Whittier Narrows Earthquake truck, causing the city to think about the reconstruction of Uptown Whittier. In 2006, the Uptown Whittier Specifics plan was processed and approved in 2008, which prompted the discussion plan for the ficus trees on Greenleaf and Philadelphia St.
While going through each section of what the plan included, Saeki mentioned what trees would replace the ones standing and stated that, “What we found to be most interesting in this section is the requirement to replace a mature tree with a 15 gallon tree. That’s in the specific plan, absurd in our opinion, I think we would all agree that is absurd.”
Later in his presentation, he noted that instead of 15 gallon trees, they will be using a 24–72 inch box replacement instead.
While there were roughly 50 speakers who spoke up and gave their opinion on the matter, there were two notable sides to this discussion. Some argued that the plan was necessary and that it was what the public needed, while others shared the same anger as the last meeting, arguing that this was not necessary and urged the Council to rethink their decisions.
In a previous meeting on Jan. 23, the city councilmen made it clear that they would not be answering questions or taking any comments related to the Whittier Promenade Plan. That did not stop residents from making public comments displaying their anger and frustration for all to see, stating that the problem was that the council voted to implement this plan in the middle of December while people were distracted by the holidays.
However, “they underestimated how much Whittier people care about trees and they tried to sneak this plan through during Christmas season,” former mayor Allen Zolnekoff states in an interview with reporters. Zolnekoff mentions that, “The mayor was rather flustered, they were surprised, they were shocked and all these people showed up to tell them that they were making a mistake.” A mistake indeed as over 200 people showed up to that meeting.
During the interview Zolnekoff warns that, “City Hall is going to try to spin things tonight to make them look good. Reality is, they have at one anything to take themselves look good physically with the ficus trees, other than give them a trim here and there for the last 20 years.” According to Zolnekoff, when the Promenade Plan was originally discussed, the estimated cost was around $2.9 million and is now it is estimated to cost $20 million. Zolnekoff stated that 20 years ago he proposed that every other tree, or every third tree get removed. However, he claims that the Council ignored his idea and thought it simpler to remove 113 trees in all.
“We have had city councils for the last 20 years who have been spending enormous amounts of money planning on Greenleaf, but not actually physically making changes on Greenleaf…There has been a…lack of leadership in our City Council for 20 years…If they had implemented their own plan, and done something with the trees for the past 20 years on a mass scale, we wouldn’t be in a crisis today. [It feels like,] they’ve just spent more money on planning and right now it looks like $800,000 has been spent just on planning.”
For more information about the visiting Uptown Whittier as it undergoes the Beautification Plan, visit cityofwhittier.org.
Photo Courtesy of Keith Durflinger / Whittier Daily News
