Trees vs Curbs – Altadena Deserves a Better Plan

Altadena Trees (Photo – Jennifer Hall Lee)

On June 16, the LA County Chief Sustainability Office released a press release announcing the County had received the Award in Excellence in Sustainability. The same day, LA County Public Works held a meeting to explain the “Marengo et al Pavement Preservation Project,” which includes the removal of 15 mature trees in Altadena.

By Susan Campisi

The OurCounty Sustainability Plan deserves the accolade. Developed with community input and centered around equity, the robust plan includes goals for increasing the urban tree canopy, residential stormwater capture, and integrating climate resilience and adaptation into planning and infrastructure.

In the Public Works meeting, people expressed concerns about losing healthy, mature trees, stating the benefits they provide: cooling the air and reducing the urban heat island effect; improving air quality by filtering out pollutants; and mitigating climate change by storing carbon. We asked if this project could be paused to consider alternative solutions that map to the sustainability goals and provide additional benefits (such as cool pavements, bulb outs for saving trees, the use of decomposed granite for water capture and tree health and other opportunities for capturing stormwater runoff). The response from Public Works was that this is a maintenance project that lacks the funding for more ambitious multi-benefit solutions.

But numerous funding opportunities for sustainability projects are available (such as Measure W and the Active Transportation Program). Lack of funding is not a valid reason to forge ahead with a maintenance project.

OurCounty Sustainability Plan Strategy 2A states: “The County will consider climate adaptation and resilience in all future planning and development decisions… Every action we take now to protect our homes, communities, and infrastructure should better prepare us for the future and protect us against climate risks and their disproportionate impacts.”

The “Marengo et al Pavement Preservation Project” does not live up to that promise. If the County is really committed to the Sustainability Plan, every County project should be considered through the lens of the climate emergency. Where’s the disconnect in the County organizational structure that this is not happening? If County departments are not implementing projects in a way that maps to the sustainability goals, the award-winning plan will just be a pipe dream.

Altadena deserves better. We have an opportunity to take this pavement project and transform it into a plan that meets the moment of the climate emergency. The County just needs to bust out of their old paradigm and work with us to develop a new one – a paradigm in which building climate resilience is a core foundational principle.