Cedar Called a Sherman Oaks Landmark : Residents Ask Board to Spare Tree

A handful of Sherman Oaks residents urged Los Angeles Board of Public Works commissioners Monday to deny a neighbor’s request to cut down a large cedar tree growing in a city-owned parkway.

The residents said the 60-foot-tall tree is a landmark at the intersection of Valley Vista Boulevard and Stansbury Avenue. They submitted photographs of the tree and a petition with 20 signatures, asking that the tree be spared.

But Ronald Schwary, a movie producer, called the cedar in front of his house “a hazard and a menance” and pressed the board to allow him to remove it. If the tree remains, he said, dead branches will hang precariously over the roof of a soon-to-be-completed $400,000 addition to his house.

Schwary also presented pictures--of droppings of needles from the tree. He then submitted blueprints, which he said show how the tree’s branches will get in the way of his remodeling project.

The commission postponed action on the issue until next week so that Commissioner Myrlie B. Evers can inspect the tree.

Because the 50-year-old cedar tree is growing on a strip of city land, the city’s permission is required to remove it. When Schwary applied for a permit to cut down the tree, which has a trunk about 48 inches in diameter, his neighbors decided to protest.

“This tree should not be removed because it adds to the property values of our homes and the overall ambiance of the neighborhood,” said Alan Connell of Stansbury Avenue.

His neighbor, Alice Connolly, told commissioners that she and others are “distressed at the thought of removing the old tree. . . . We have walkers, bikers, joggers through our neighborhood who love this tree.”

Schwary--whose films have included “Ordinary People” and “Absence of Malice”--testified that the tree is “a menance because the continual dropping of foliage . . . makes it almost impossible for a lawn to grow on our property or anything else to grow on the parkway except ivy, which as been known to be a habitat for rats and gophers.”

Dead branches dropping to the ground are a hazard to passers-by, Schwary said. He promised to replace the cedar, which he said has “outgrown its space,” with two large jacaranda trees.

Department of Public Works staff has recommended that the board deny the permit to remove the tree, saying the cedar has not damaged property and could be trimmed.