A contractor has begun replacing a couple dozen trees that lined
Christopher High School’s campus because the trees are notorious
for splitting roads and sidewalks. The Gilroy Unified School
District will not pay for the work
– already under way Monday morning – because the district warned
the contractor not to plant them.
A contractor has begun replacing a couple dozen trees that lined Christopher High School’s campus because the trees are notorious for splitting roads and sidewalks. The Gilroy Unified School District will not pay for the work – already under way Monday morning – because the district warned the contractor not to plant them.
A “communications breakdown” between the architect and contractor building the new high school at the corner of Day Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard led to the planting of about two dozen liquidambar trees along the campus’ Santa Teresa perimeter, said Superintendent Deborah Flores.
Several residents wrote into the Dispatch’s Red Phone column noting the presence of the young trees that shade many stately neighborhoods in Gilroy.
“Sweet Gum trees (Liquidambars) have just been planted on Santa Teresa Boulevard at the new high school?” inquired one resident. “Have the planners or whoever oversees the plans gone mad? How does this happen? Especially with all the news over the last at least 20 years on Sweet Gum trees damaging, lifting up streets, curbs and sidewalks! There are so many better choices (but not Pears please). Our streets and future need your help.”
Liquidambar is a deciduous tree the city required residents to plant in the 1970s and ’80s that has since wreaked havoc on roads and walkways. The tree’s shallow, strong roots push up sidewalks and roadways, causing them to crack and become a danger to pedestrians, bikers and motorists.
When reviewing the new high school’s landscape plans in January 2008, the City of Gilroy advised the district against planting liquidambar trees between the curb and the sidewalk for lack of space, according to city spokesman Joe Kline. The city asked the district to substitute a more appropriate tree for the liquidambars.
In an effort to comply with the city’s recommendation, the school district revised its landscaping plans to substitute ash trees instead of the liquidambars. However, the contractor building CHS “did not note that change and put in liquidambars,” Flores said.
“Somehow the contractor did not get the word that the trees had been changed,” she said. “We’re still trying to track down how this occurred.”
The trees are being replaced this week, but the cost is “clearly not the district’s problem,” Flores said. “It was not the district’s error.”
The city has waged its own battle against the trees, doling out $374,000 to fund 51 sidewalk repair projects. The projects, the cost of which the city splits about 80-20 with residents, remove the trees and smooth over ruined walkways.
However, the City Council voted 5-2 earlier this month, with Mayor Al Pinheiro and Councilman Peter Arellano
voting against, to take an additional $500,000 from the city’s reserve fund to fast-track additional sidewalk repairs. The current wait list for sidewalk repairs is 141 residents long and stretches to 2012. The city is expected to contribute about $458,000 to these projects.
Reporter Chris Bone contributed to this story.
