Housing plans put Napa 'moose' tree in limbo

The most famous animal within Napa city limits is no beast, but a misshapen bulge from the side of a 50-foot-tall eucalyptus off Dry Creek Road.

It takes only a bit of squinting at its broad trunk to see a snout and antlers, and countless unknown passers-by have used spray paint to fill in the picture, or to create their own images.

Over the years, this three-dimensional Rorschach blot has sported the rainbow colors of the gay-rights movement, or an orange-and-black pattern after yet another San Francisco Giants world championship or the eyes, nose and mouth that complete its usual image, the head of a moose.

Soon, however, the wooden animal head well enough known to merit its own Facebook page may need a new home, as a developer seeks the citys blessing to build 14 houses near the tree bearing the moose head not to mention a sidewalk directly through where the tree stands, weathered and weakened.

Edenbridge Homes, a Cupertino firm, has filed plans with the city for a cluster of houses just east of Dry Creek Road, south of Trower Avenue. To make room for the three- to five-bedroom dwellings, and an extension of Napier Court to access them, builders plan to remove trees from a 3.5-acre plot including the moose tree.

Where many residents see a cheeky canvas, a lighthearted town symbol, Napa parks and planning officials instead see an aged and fragile roadblock.

The moose tree is in bad health, its destructive to the ground, its fire-prone, and it has heavy branches prone to breaking and some of those branches are 2 feet thick, Michael Allen, the city associate planner, said minutes before the Planning Commission met Thursday night to comb through the housing plans, including the future of the woody moose.

A handful of near neighbors to the moose tree were among the 15 people present at City Hall. But their questions were far more mundane, mostly having to do with how to enter the new subdivision, not what might or might not adorn it. Homeowners weighed in on where to build entryways to an extended Napier Court from Alexander Street as city planners wanted, or directly onto Dry Creek Road? but the wooden moose went unmentioned.

Finally, after poring over tree replacement, the removal of a buried fuel tank and filling a sidewalk gap along Dry Creek Road, the commissioners turned their attention to the moose head. They recalled the varied opinions neighbors had shared in a late-October forum on the housing plan, some treating the moose-painting as a fun tradition, others dismissing it as a garish nuisance and vandalism target.

This is a real head-scratcher, said Commissioner Paul Kelley. I understand the dangers of that eucalyptus, but theres got to be some way to preserve the character feature of that tree.

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Housing plans put Napa 'moose' tree in limbo