Illegal Highway 49 Landscape May Stay

AUBURN-

Unauthorized landscaping placed along Highway 49 in Auburn by local businesses may be allowed to stay, pending the approval of an encroachment permit, according to Caltrans.

The owner of Auburn Extreme Powersports installed trees and plants to enhance the busy roadway on what he thought was his land. Later, he said a Caltrans employee told him that it looked nice but, since it was on state property, it would have to be torn out.

I asked him, What can we do? And he said, Nothing, you just have to take it away, Jeff Barbarick said. Seems kind of crazy because all we want to do is make things nicer.

Barbarick said he was tired of the weeds and trash along the road outside his business.

It reflects bad on our community to have it look like this, Barbarick said.

Two doors down, Michael Klemp, the owner of a used car business, said he had a landscape architect design 150 feet of landscaping along Highway 29. His property is apparently overseen by the City of Auburn, but he also ran afoul of Caltrans.

They had said I needed to go to the City of Auburn for a permit and that if the City of Auburn said it was O.K., they would say it was O.K., said Klemp, owner of Automotion.

Residents that FOX40 News spoke with couldnt understand why the landscaping couldnt remain.

I love it, I think its beautiful. Theyve done it voluntarily on their own, they spent their own money, its beautiful. Whats the problem? said Katrina Bilbao, who owns a restaurant on the highway.

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Illegal Highway 49 Landscape May Stay