A 70-year-old sequoia in Southeast Boise is not long for this world. This is why
Developers will cut down a 60-foot-tall sequoia tree, at least 70 years old, to make room for 14 new townhouses in southeast Boise.
The decision to fell the tree followed months of discussion between the developer, California-based Tim Hachman, and the Southeast Neighborhood Association. The parties tried to work out a way to save the tree at 211 E. Highland St., east of East Parkcenter Boulevard, while still building Hachman’s proposed Greenheads End subdivision.
It’s not clear when that tree will come down or when construction will start, Southeast Neighborhood Association President Erik Berg told the Statesman in a phone interview.
Sequoias grow to become the largest trees in the world by mass. The General Sherman Tree in California’s Sequoia National Park is the most massive tree on Earth.
They aren’t common in Boise, but there are a few. In 2017, St. Luke’s Health System relocated a century-old tree — the largest in the state — from the grounds of its downtown hospital at Avenue B and Jefferson Street to nearby Fort Boise Park. The tree, just shy of 100 feet tall, is doing well. It has become iconic in the park and now even appears as a specific destination on Google Maps, where it has a 4.6-star rating and is marked as “Good for kids.”
It’s not clear if relocation was an option for the sequoia in southeast Boise, but St. Luke’s said in 2017 it spent $300,000 to relocate its giant tree.
The neighborhood association discussed several potential options with the developer to save the Highland Street sequoia.
One would remove common lots between buildings and put all the units together into a single, large building. That option was deemed infeasible, because it would block fire department access in case of emergencies.
The second option would rotate the garage on the western-most building, giving drivers access from a different street. That also was deemed infeasible, because the street would not be long enough to allow for parking.
Neighbors were “really interested in saving the tree,” Berg told the Boise City Council in July.
Nearby residents are “willing to do whatever it takes to get there,” he said. “If we have to make taller buildings or if we have to do variances, that’s not an issue.”
But the two sides reached an impasse.
Berg told the Statesman that his “biggest disappointment” was that the developer didn’t bring a workable solution to the table. A representative of WHPacific, a development-consulting firm with a Boise office that is representing Hachman, could not be reached for comment.
The impasse meant the Boise City Council had to decide the tree’s fate.
The council split on the decision, with Council Members Holli Woodings, Patrick Bageant and T.J. Thomson saying the tree should come down.
“It would likely impinge on the structure at some point in the future and need to be cut down anyway,” Woodings said.
Bageant said the developer had come before the city three times to try to get the project approved, adding a lot of time to the project’s development.
“I don’t want word to get around that the easiest way to get your subdivision approved in the city of Boise is to clear cut trees, then apply,” he told the council. “And I don’t want word to get around that the city of Boise will tie you up for months to years of procedural wrangling up and down our administrative process if you leave a tree standing on your property.”
Council President Elaine Clegg and Council Members Lisa Sánchez and Jimmy Hallyburton disagreed.
“I’m not convinced we can’t do anything to save this tree,” said Clegg, who earlier this year proposed a plan to plant 100,000 trees in Boise in the next 10 years. “This developer hasn’t proposed anything other than the exact same design that came to us the very first time.”
Sánchez called it “another opportunity for someone to be creative.” Hallyburton argued that taking down the tree would “take value away from that neighborhood.”
That forced Mayor Lauren McLean to cast her first tie-breaking vote since becoming mayor in January. McLean votes on council matters only to break ties.
McLean said one of “the most infuriating things” during her prior tenure on the City Council was the clearing of trees by applicants before they proposed to develop their properties. She said that the city needs ideas to curb tree removal. But ultimately, she supported cutting down the tree.
“We’ve had due process here to consider it,” McLean said. “I don’t want to inadvertently create an environment in which people think that they ought to just start clearing before they come to us.”
Since that vote, other opponents have spoken up. The North End Neighborhood Association posted about the decision and encouraged people to reach out to the mayor and city council. Members of an effort to recall McLean held an event to sign recall petitions at the tree for several hours one Saturday.
“I hope in the future we can make better decisions, or at least ones that allow us to make homes for residents and keep homes for trees at the same time,” Berg said.
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