A North Oakland couple faces a record fine of over $915,135.40 for illegally cutting down 38 protected trees on their property and neighboring land. The City Council voted 5-3 to impose the penalty, with Councilmember Janani Ramachandran leading the charge. The property owners dispute the findings, claiming many trees were already dead or fallen. The fine is one of the largest ever imposed for environmental violations in the city.
A North Oakland couple is on the hook for nearly $1 million in penalties after the City Council voted Tuesday to enforce a finding that they illegally cut down 38 trees on their own and neighboring property.
The council voted 5-3 to impose a record fine of over $915,135.40 on property owners Matthew Bernard and Lynn Warner for removing the protected trees in 2021 and 2022. Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, who represents the area, championed the fine and was supported by councilmembers Noel Gallo, Kevin Jenkins, Zac Unger and Charlene Wang, with councilmembers Rowena Brown, Carroll Fife, and Ken Houston voting to oppose.
"I urge my colleagues to make a statement here about this issue and also to be crystal clear to anyone who wants to come into our city and trash our city and violate our laws and think that you can get away with it," Ramachandran said. "Today, I think we can send a bold statement that the answer is no."The property owners dispute several of the city's findings and allege that roughly 25 trees were already dead or had fallen by the time Public Works staff began responding to neighborhood complaints about the removals, which included coast live oaks and bigleaf maples, among other species.
Bernard suggested that, as a compromise, he be allowed to build a home on the site, located on Claremont Avenue between Stonewall Road and Rispin Drive, but then also replant trees after construction.
"I believe we acted in good faith, followed city instructions, relied on city communications while addressing documented safety hazards," he told the council. Brown said she didn't support the massive fine because it's more than the property is worth, it's for trees on private property, and the city likely would have allowed them to be removed during the normal course of construction, anyway.
"While the drastic change to the landscape is jarring to the community, we must ask ourselves a fundamental question of justice: why are we fining a property owner the full replacement value for the trees the city would have likely authorized him to remove during the standard building permit process," Brown said. Brown said she believes the property owner's behavior was "100% egregious" but also suggested a fine for trees that were only within the buildable footprint of the property.
Jenkins voted in favor of the fine, in part, because approval counters the notion that people can come to Oakland, break the laws and get away with it.
"As a council we have to decided if we're going to enforce our laws and do they mean anything," Jenkins said. Wang said she finds it unacceptable that city law allows people to appeal tree removal fines directly to the City Council, as the property owners did in this case, rather than go through an administrative hearing process in an effort to avoid large penalties.
"I think it's wildly inappropriate, to be honest, in terms of the amount of time this specific case has consumed," she said. Tuesday's was the third hearing for the item after the council deadlocked on the issue at a previous meeting. Fife, who opposed the fine, said the issue has racial implications since Bernard is Black and trying to clear land for construction in a neighborhood that has historically excluded people of color.
"I find it interesting that we can have an entire area of the city of Oakland colonized where probably hundreds of thousands of trees have been felled but the first level of accountability is to a Black man who is cutting trees on his own property," Fife said. She also said, however, that the trees should never have been cut down and supported Brown's compromise suggestion.
Oakland Tree Removal Environmental Fine City Council Property Dispute
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