A major violation of Gainesville's tree ordinance restricting the removal of heritage oaks without a permit has occurred at 3536 Archer Road where several oak trees were cut down by an Ocala tree business hired to make room for parking at Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q, shown Monday, January 13, 2014 in Gainesville.

An area restaurant faces a fine of nearly $71,000 for the first significant violation of Gainesville's tougher tree ordinance.

The Sonny's BBQ on Archer Road ran afoul of the city's tree protection regulations in November when live oaks were removed from an undeveloped, treed area between Archer Road and the restaurant's parking lot.

Looking for better visibility from the roadway to stay competitive with other restaurants along Archer, Sonny's ownership obtained a permit to remove a double-trunk sweetgum tree and underbrush, Linda Demetropoulos, the city's nature operations and cultural affairs division manager, said at the December Tree Advisory Board meeting.

But an Ocala company hired by Sonny's also removed three protected live oaks and cut down trees and cleared land outside the permitted area and within a buffer in place to protect adjacent wetlands, according to a code enforcement violation. Today, stumps are all that remain of the live oaks.

Measured at a point 4 feet off the ground, the three live oaks had diameters of 22, 27 and 29 inches. As native trees with a diameter of 20 inches or more, the live oaks were protected heritage trees under the stricter ordinance Gainesville city commissioners approved in June 2013.

Under the old ordinance, the removal of those trees would have required replacement on an inch-for-inch basis.

For the unpermitted removal of heritage trees, the new ordinance says the combined diameter of the trees planted as mitigation must be twice the total diameter of the trees removed.

The new ordinance also includes a cash penalty calculated by a formula that takes into account the trees' trunk area in square inches. When a heritage tree is removed without a permit, that penalty is doubled.

For the tree removal at the Archer Road restaurant, Sonny's Franchise Co. out of Winter Park now faces a $70,945 fine and a land restoration requirement that includes replanting nursery-grown live oak trees.

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Archer Road Sonny's faces $71K fine for cutting trees

ABC Council contractors cut down Morton Bay Fig in Hindmarsh Square after last ditch attempt to save it failed.

Contractors have cut down a 140-year-old Moreton Bay Fig tree in Hindmarsh Square the morning after a decision was made to remove it.

The Adelaide City Council voted in December to remove the tree on the corner of Pulteney and Grenfell Streets after advice that it was a danger to the public.

An arborist's report found the tree was cracking at the base and there was a likelihood of fungal decay in the root system.

The area was cordoned off and a special meeting was held last night after last ditch attempts were made to save the tree.

The council's infrastructure manager Neil Brown says ordered council contractors to cut it down hours after councillors voted not to reverse their earlier decision.

"Our teams have been monitoring the tree since 2012 almost on a daily basis to manage a crack that's been moving in the lower region of that tree," he said.

"Everybody in the council administration is sad to put forward any tree for removal.

"From a public safety and risk perspective, the tree was a significant danger to the public and it had already been in an environment where it had stayed up beyond what we would have deemed safe based on the report we've received."

Mr Brown said the tree had originally been scheduled for removal on January 5.

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140-year-old Moreton Bay Fig cut down in Hindmarsh Square hours after special council meeting

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City of Cedar Rapids worker Dave Elsbury gathers logs into a log loader after an ash tree was cut down at 5616 D Avenue NW in Cedar Rapids in February 2010. 300 ash trees were cut down by the city to try and prevent the Emerald Ash Borer infestation. (Julie Koehn/The Gazette)

Its part of the citys winter landscape now.

City forestry crews on Monday began their winter ash tree removal effort, a program in its fifth year and designed to take down old, declining ash trees in the citys right of way along city streets and replace them with a mix of other tree species.

Ash trees taken down now will mean fewer to take down once the ash killer, the emerald ash borer, shows itself in the city.

Todd Fagan, Cedar Rapids city arborist, on Monday estimated that 18 to 30 percent or 12,000 to 20,000 of the trees in the citys right of way are ashes.

The citys proactive removal program, which started in 2010, has removed and replaced between 1,000 and 1,200 ashes with the plan in the next three months to take down up to another 200.

Craig Hanson, the citys public works maintenance manager, on Monday said the citys number of ash trees in the city right of way probably peaked a decade ago after the emerald ash borer first starting killing ash trees in the Detroit area and the city stopped planting ash trees here. Hanson estimated that the city today has 2,500 fewer ash trees in its right of way than it had a decade ago because of trees taken down from storms and those taken down with the citys ash removal program.

Fagan said he believes that the killer ash borer has arrived in Cedar Rapids now, but it so far has eluded discovery, which is typical of the insects arrival in a community.

In recent months, the killer insect has been found in Mechanicsville in Cedar County, just east of Cedar Rapids and Linn County, and in Creston, southwest of Des Moines. Previously, it was found in two spots in Allamakee County in far northeast Iowa and in Burlington and Fairfield in southeast Iowa.

Its all around us, Fagan said. So to think theres no way its not in Cedar Rapids is not really a responsible way to go about things. But theres no reason to lose our cool.

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Ash borer makes tree removal part of typical Cedar Rapids winter

Heidi Brett, 34, who lives in one of the flats in Walderslade, Kent, said: "It is a nightmare. This is a big tree. It's taller than our three-storey house.

"The owner says as it is now on my land, it is my responsibility to get it moved.

"Surely if you own something and it breaks or damages someone else's property then it's the owner's responsibility to fix it.

"I'm in a stalemate now because my landlord is refusing to pay for it because it's not his tree, which I understand."

Ms Brett said she will not know how much damage has been done to her home until the tree is taken away.

She added: "Bits of bricks are falling off and landing in my garden and the branches are getting droopy and falling off.

"There is water running down inside of the loft space too.

"It's getting more dangerous the longer it is left there."

Sheila Stenning, 61, who owns the land where the tree is, said: "It is not our responsibility because it is in their property and I have spoken to our insurance company multiple times about it.

"Their insurance company has to get it removed and then they can recover the costs."

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Neighbours fall out over removal of toppled tree

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