During Thursday night's Templeton Area Advisory Group (TAAG) meeting, community members expressed concerns over the removal of three oak trees from downtown Templeton.
The vacant lot at 99 Main Street is currently home to three of Templeton's historic oak trees. However, a project developer proposed to build a two-story hotel on the same lot.
While the project is currently on hold with the SLO County Planning Department, Thursday marked the community's first opportunity to voice their concerns.
Kelly Reed Daulton, President of the Central Coast Heritage Tree Foundation, voiced her firm opposition to the removal of any oaks.
"We do not remove healthy oaks in historic downtown Templeton," Daulton said.
Project Architect Thom Jess said the developers had an arborist look into the trees in accordance with Templeton's Community Design Plan which encourages the retaining of existing oak trees.
"[The] arborist indicated that two of the three have poor structure and are at risk of falling down,” Jess said.
The team proposed planting new oaks instead.
"We are mitigating those three trees with six new trees around the perimeter," Jess said.
Daulton argued the trees don’t need to be removed.
“Poor structure is something that is improved by proper pruning," she said.
Jess insisted that they are within their rights to remove the trees, according to both the arborist's report and the community design plan.
“A tree may be removed when it obstructs existing or proposed improvements that cannot be reasonably designed to avoid a need for tree removal. So unfortunately, that's the situation we're in," Jess said.
He added that the developer plans to plant larger trees in front of the hotel where they’ll be more visible to the public.
“We're moving them from behind the building to in front of the building where they're going to line the street and add to the character as we're going down Main Street," Jess said.
The hotel won't be up for discussion again until SLO County provides TAAG with project updates.
