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

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