Arcadia residents and people from nearby cities packed the City Council meeting on Tuesday to oppose a proposal to remove 34 protected native oak trees at Santa Anita Park for a temporary Olympic equestrian course, with more than a dozen speakers urging the city to press for alternatives before any permits are approved.
The proposal, tied to Santa Anita Park’s role as a venue for the 2028 Olympic Games, would remove the mature oaks and encroach on the root systems of 45 additional trees. The current plan also calls for the planting of 34 new trees.
“Once they’re removed, the replacement trees cannot immediately provide the same beauty and majesty and the same habitat and shade benefits,” one resident told the council.
Pete Siberell, director of special projects for Santa Anita Park, said the venue takes its stewardship seriously and announced a community meeting on the tree plans scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 27 at 5 p.m. in the track’s Chandelier Room.
City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto said the plans are posted on the city’s website and that the course is intended to remain in place for use over the next generation.
“If you have a way to make this course better, to save more trees, the city’s always gonna be interested in looking at those,” Lazzaretto said.
The tree removal was not on the evening’s agenda, and City Attorney Michael J. Maurer repeatedly cited the Brown Act, the state open-meetings law that requires items to be noticed before the council can discuss them, to block Councilwoman Sharon Kwan from responding to residents.
Kwan, who represents District 2, accused Maurer of trying to silence her.
Maurer responded that the restriction was procedural, not an attempt to silence anyone.
“The public can absolutely come here at public comment and discuss anything that’s under the council’s jurisdiction,” he said, but council members cannot state a position on an item that is not on the agenda.
Kwan later asked to place a discussion of the tree removal on a future agenda so residents could return to City Hall after the Aug. 27 community meeting, but the request did not receive enough support to move forward. Councilman John Han seconded Kwan’s request, but the council Mayor Paul Cheng, Councilman Michael Cao and Mayor Pro Tem David Fu did not offer the required third.
Several of the more than 10 speakers opposed to the tree removal framed the oaks as irreplaceable habitat.
“My backyard is the racetrack,” said a public commenter. “I go out every night. I hear owls. I hear the hawks. There’s orioles. There’s tanningers. You have to think about the wildlife that all of this is gonna affect as well.”
An Arcadia resident who said she was 17 years old described coast live oaks as a keystone species supporting hundreds of species of birds, mammals, insects and fungi.
Another speaker recounted the 1999 demolition of the Baldwin estate, which she said clear-cut its oak woodland, as a cautionary precedent for the current proposal.
More information on the oak removal plan is on the city’s website, arcadiaca.gov/government/development_services/planning_zoning_services/oak_trees_at_cross_country_course.php.
The AI platform Civilio assisted this report.