The city of San Francisco recently fined a longtime homeowner $50,000 for trimming trees located right outside his home. To say the homeowner was surprised by the fine would be an understatement.
The city claims Paul Dennes had no right to trim the trees that were overgrown and touching the building and electrical lines above the street in San Francisco’s Panhandle neighborhood.
“I got an email from my broker saying in order for you to qualify for insurance, you need to trim the trees so many feet from the property,” Dennes told ABC 7 News.
He figured after getting the email, “I’ll just take care of that.” Big mistake.
“You see that? I wanted to get them out of the power lines. I didn’t want to be responsible for that,” Dennes said while pointing to the trees during an interview on the property he has called home since 1988.
Until 2017, it was the homeowners’ responsibility to trim trees outside their property. That year, the policy changed, but he says he was unaware of it.
“I’ve never seen the city trim these trees, never!” Dennes said.
Beginning last December, the San Francisco Department of Public Works began fining him $10,000 for each of the five trees that he trimmed. The city claims the trimming forced the removal of the five trees.
“Shocked. I’m like, are you kidding me? It’s just brutal, you know?” Dennes continued. “It feels like bullying. I don’t want to start a big war!”
The San Francisco Department of Public Works told ABC 7 News that it is its “job to hold people accountable when they harm or damage a street tree.”
Dennes tried to appeal the $50,000 fine. Public Works said that after further review, they “recommended reducing the fines to $12,950, or $2,590 per tree.” This week, they lowered the fine even further.
“We will cut the reduced fine in half, to $6,475, if the property owner follows through with a pruning plan, requiring that the property owner brings in a certified arborist to properly prune the impacted trees over the next five years,” they stated.