A 200-year-old Monterey cypress tree in Carmel is creating division as officials and private property owners haggle over whether or not the towering, 60-foot-tall marvel should be allowed to live. 

The city takes its arboreal protection and preservation seriously: It has a special commission that provides oversight to the town’s canopy. But Carmel is now caught in a debate over the fate of the magnificent specimen located in the heart of the oceanfront city’s historic residential zone. 

Last month, the Carmel Forest and Beach Commission met specifically to discuss a request from the homeowners who own the lot where the tree is located. They recently rebuilt their home on the lot, and asked to tear down the cypress, which the city defines as a “significant” tree. 

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“They brought up the concern of the tree,” Justin Ono, Carmel’s city forester, told the commission during the Feb. 19 meeting. Ono examined the tree for the first time last spring while the property owners were building their new home on Carmelo Street. “I looked at the roots and I wasn’t overly concerned.”

The Lone Cypress located between Cypress Point Golf Course and the Pebble Beach Golf Links in Carmel, Calif., June 24, 2018.

The tree species has a special place in the hearts of locals and visitors. Another Monterey cypress, the Lone Cypress on 17-Mile Drive, is stitched into the region’s lore as its unofficial mascot. That tree has become a world-renowned landmark and the logo for nearby Pebble Beach. 

Don't let Google decide who you trust.

When Ono examined the Monterey cypress on the Carmel property, it was, “still alive and still had a lot of green, so we had talked with the architect ... and I think a landscaper about retaining the tree and what we could do to keep it,” he said. 

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The city forester also noted that when it came to the homeowners’ concerns about the tree, he “didn’t feel it rose to the level of risk that was said. I thought the tree was relatively healthy.”

He also pointed out the tree was rated “significant” and thereby eligible for protection “two city foresters ago.” His recommendation: deny the owner’s initial request at the time to eliminate the tree. The homeowners appealed that recommendation in November.

However, property owner John Brookes disagreed with Ono’s assessment at the commission meeting. He said that an independent arborist, Albert Weisfuss of Monterey Bay Treeworks, had told him that the tree was “in decay and in decline.”

A neighbor also requested that the tree be pruned back from his own home, Brookes said, which he had done. That has also raised questions about the tree’s viability and possible danger it poses to the neighborhood should something happen to it.

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“We are very concerned about the safety of our neighbors and ourselves to be honest,” Brookes said, referring to recent storms that had drenched the Central Coast in rain. “We just built a brand new house, and after a night like last night, where I literally slept with one eye open. ... The tree has survived two significant storms, one last year and one this year. But, you know, we just don’t know how long our luck is going to hold out.”

Tree protection ordinances in Carmel-by-the-Sea have been around for more than a century. But recent storm activity and climate change have given rise to a reexamination. 

Brookes also pointed out that the tree does not impact his home’s views due to its high canopy, though he did note the tree’s removal would “leave a big hole” in the sight line. Mostly, he said, his concern was about the prospect of legal action by neighbors. 

“We don’t want to have a lawsuit by our neighbors,” he said. “They haven’t threatened that and I don’t know if they would do that, but we do feel exposed.”

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Some commissioners agreed with Brookes. “It’s time for this one to go,” Commissioner Sarah Berling said emphatically after hearing Brookes and Weisfuss speak. 

Others struggled with the decision. “I’m torn, because, you know, Justin, we have to trust our city forester with his opinion,” Commissioner Harry Ross said, before asking Ono whether he thought the tree, even with some noted decay, was stable. 

“Yes,” Ono replied, with a caveat. “I can’t answer for how long.”

A tree in Carmel-by-the-Sea gets a post-storm pruning. 

“This conversation is so sad,” Carmel resident Linda Smith said during the public comment portion of the meeting. “Yeah, this is the conundrum that Carmel has been going through. I just, having been grown up here and watched this forest just disappeared by a thousand cuts, is particularly poignant to have a story like this. Because a tree like that adds, well, carbon sink, its habitat, beauty, etcetera. I guess I just have to speak for the tree.”

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“It’s a very nice tree,” commission Chair Tamara Michie said. “It sits in the corner and I think gives you some interest and depth in that corner.” 

In the end, the commission voted 2-2, with Commissioners Berling and Ross voting to uphold Brookes’ appeal and for the tree’s removal, while Michie  and Commissioner Neal Rutta voted to deny the appeal.

For now, the tree lives on.

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The committee will reconsider the appeal at their next meeting on March 12, when the committee’s vice chair, Kelly Brezoczky, who was absent from the February special hearing, will presumably rejoin the group and act as the tie breaker. 

“It’s not a ‘yes,’ it’s not a ‘no’ at this point,” Michie said after the commissioners voted 3-1 to reconsider the appeal at their next meeting. “I think we need some more information.”

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