 Neighbors of the city’s first ever solar-powered housing
development are complaining that Chris Coté, the local
environmentalist responsible for the project, has ignored the
welfare of old-growth oak trees on the site of his project. Coté
counters that he has gone out of his way to protect the t
rees – and city officials seem to agree.
Gilroy – Neighbors of the city’s first ever solar-powered housing development are complaining that Chris Coté, the local environmentalist responsible for the project, has ignored the welfare of old-growth oak trees on the site of his project. Coté counters that he has gone out of his way to protect the trees – and city officials seem to agree.
Tracie and Brent Lotten wrote a five-page complaint to city planners earlier this month, detailing concerns over the project under way at 8541 Wayland Ave., just south of Las Animas Park. City Council approved the project last November, after officials scaled back the development from five to four houses.
The Lottens were among a group of neighbors who raised concerns about six oak trees on the site during the approval process. Now, they say their fears have become reality.
They claim that construction crews working for Coté have repeatedly flouted arborist recommendations intended to protect the trees. Their concerns center on the cutting of a thick root just feet away from the patio of their home, which lies in a housing community to the west of the project. Lotten said the root was cut in spite of her efforts to alert the city and Coté about ways to preserve it, based on arborist recommendations.
“As a responsible developer, one who touts himself as an ‘environmentalist,’ the appropriate thing to do, upon being notified of the root discovery, was to enlist the aid of his own arborist and the City of Gilroy to ensure that the appropriate measures be taken,” Tracie Lotten wrote in her complaint. “He should have placed a call to his project engineer to communicate the severity of the situation and await further recommendations. Instead the root, through whatever means, was allowed to be cut.”
The complaint also asserts that construction crews have repeatedly failed to obey recommendations to keep tractors and other heavy equipment at a healthy distance from the trees. The Lottens say their attempts to alert Coté and city officials to the violations have met with inadequate response.
Coté countered that he has spent more than $10,000 on tree surgery and other efforts to preserve the vitality of the oak trees.
“To my knowledge, my (contractors) have followed all the arborist’s recommendations and we’ve complied with the regulations of the city of Gilroy,” Coté responded. “I respect (the Lottens’) opinion, but I’m trying to build a very environmentally sensitive project. I respect people may not want a new project next to their home, but I really feel those trees are going to be in better shape because of all the recommendations of the arborists that I have followed.”
City Planning Manager Bill Faus said he has visited the site twice in recent months based on the couple’s complaints, while another city planner has started making weekly visits. Faus said the cutting of thick roots is unavoidable in development projects, as well as the occasional removal of protective fencing around the trees.
“We don’t discount what they have to say,” Faus said of the Lottens. “We take every part of their letter seriously.”
But he said the differing opinions of Coté and city officials over the implementation of the arborist report boils down to perspective.
“When they read the report, they’re looking for an exact interpretation and letter-of-the-law application of those measures,” Faus said. “We always look for the spirit of the mitigation measure, and we feel that’s been met.”
