Yucca Trees Will Continue to Stand

The Manhattan Beach City Council voted Tuesday night to uphold the Parking and Public Improvements Commission’s recommendation to allow yucca trees that are well over 42 inches at 228 7th Street to remain in the city-owned land [the walk street] on which they are planted.

They also conceded that they lack the viable guidelines they need to enforce the city Municipal Code’s height restrictions of 42 inches for landscaping in the Sand Section, where residents enjoy ocean views, and directed city staff to study the issue and make recommendations Council could apply to future disputes.

“This is not the first such issue of this kind before the Council and it won’t be the last," said Council member David Lesser. 

The landscaping height limit issues that need to be addressed are: whether or not landscaping of non-conforming improvements should be grandfathered; to what degree compliance should be complaint driven, as it presently is, except when safety issues are at stake, and does it matter if the owner of the property making the complaint is the resident or not.

The yucca trees officially have been a source of scrutiny since Donna Howell, the property owner at 300 7th Street filed a complaint on Feb. 18, 2011, stating that the Yucca trees at 228th 7th Street impaired her tenant's view of the ocean.

Frank Wattles, who owns the property at 228th 7th Street does not have an encroachment permit on his walk street property as required by the MB Municipal Code when plants exist on city property. Wattles did not want to attend a mediation recommended by the city, according to a staff report, because he believed that Howell's position to have the yucca trees cut to 42 inches was unwavering and instead filed a lawsuit against the city. The court upheld the city's position and Wattles appealed the decision.  

The Parking and Public Works Commission determined that a eucalyptus tree next door at 619 Highland Avenue, which stands taller than the yucca trees, was the primary culprit blocking an ocean view from an upstairs window, not the yucca trees, and that safety was not a concern.

At a Nov., 2010 council meeting, council voted to allow the same eucalpytus tree to remain as long as pruning was done on a regular basis and other plantings on the property met code.

At that 2010 meeting, there was an outcry from both sides, but primarily from neighbors who supported allowing the tree to exist.

No one appeared at council Tuesday night to comment on the Wattles vs. Howell yucca tree issue. Council went ahead and unanimously supported the 4-1 vote of the Parking and Public Works Commission, in favor the of the yucca trees.

Editor's Note: Donna Howell's property is inland across Highland Avenue. The eucalyptus tree is across the street from her property, closer to the ocean, and the yucca trees are next door to the eucalyptus tree as you move closer to the ocean.