Santa Barbara City Council Upholds Decision to Remove 13 Trees from Milpas Street
Tree Removal Is Part of Safety Overhaul on Second Most Dangerous Street in Town for Pedestrian-Vehicle Collisions
The Santa Barbara City Council is having a tree moment. On Tuesday, for the second time this year, councilmembers found themselves juggling community attachment to a set of mature street trees with the realities of crumbling sidewalks and pedestrian safety.
Unlike their January vote, which sided with the community by retaining the Italian stone pine as the official street tree on East Anapamu, councilmembers this Tuesday went with their staff’s recommendation, denying an appeal of a Parks and Recreation Commission decision to remove 13 trees on Milpas Street for the sake of a safety overhaul.
The vote was 4-1 with Councilmember Oscar Gutierrez abstaining.
The appellant, Claiborne Shank, argued that the city had not considered alternatives such as expanding sidewalks on the streetside of the trees — eliminating parking spaces in favor of making space for people to walk around tree wells without stepping off the curb.
Principal Traffic Engineer Derrick Bailey said that kind of sidewalk design would be difficult to communicate to visually impaired residents, as the sidewalk would essentially divide into two strips.
The Milpas corridor has become a main artery in the city, carrying an average of 23,000 cars and trucks every day. It has also become the second most dangerous street here for pedestrian-vehicle collisions — a fact the city has been trying to address for years.
In 2022, the Public Works Department received an $8 million State Active Transportation Program grant to implement a safety upgrade of intersections between Quinientos and Canon Perdido streets. The project design will include things like curb extensions, high-visibility crosswalks, accessibility improvements (for disabled residents), and Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons.
But the improvements will also entail taking out 13 trees, including eight Indian laurel fig trees that rise, in some cases, 70 feet over the sidewalk, offering both shade and wildlife habitat. Three of these trees block the sightline of pedestrians as they approach the curb to cross the street, as well as of drivers traveling in the north and southbound lanes. The other five Indian laurels have in their growth overtaken the sidewalks to the extent that a wheelchair cannot pass, and they also present a vertical obstruction (with lowish branches) to the visually impaired.
The good news, to some minds, is that the upgrade will include the planting of 37 new saplings — possibly water gum eucalyptus, Sydney red gum eucalyptus, or African fern pine, officials said. And it will leave 86 percent of the existing trees on the street alive and breathing carbon. Those two facts were especially meaningful to Mayor Rowse and Councilmember Mike Jordan.
For Councilmember Eric Friedman, it was the accessibility issue that swayed him. “ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] issues are of extreme importance,” he said. “It’s just not accessible for people,” he said, referring the Milpas sidewalks. “It’s just not.”
“We’re going to go through this on Carrillo at some point,” said Mayor Rowse. “We’re going to be going through this on upper State with the same tree, as we blow up infrastructure and block sidewalks, so it’s something we better get used to,” he said.
Councilmember Jordan brought up the fact that Milpas Street is now an important escape route for people living in the foothills, and that any restriction of traffic flow could impede residents who need to flee in an emergency. But, he added, “This is truly a miserable choice to make.”
