tree
What do you do if you’re trying to put up a building next to a city park and some pesky tree branches get in the way? If you’re David Angel and the address is 639 Sixth Avenue, you amputate now, ask questions later. To bad for him that a neighbor who happens to quite like Mayrose Park and the old sycamore tree that has stood in it for decades. The Parks Department has handed out a summons already (which can go on the wall next to the outstanding DOB violation for work without a permit), but the really rub is that for the building to reach its full height the canopy of the tree will have to be substantially destroyed. We’re a little hazy on the rules and procedure in a situation like this. Anyone case to fill us in?
Illegal Tree Pruning [Flickr] GMAP DOB


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  1. Tree or no tree, this guy is bad news and has a reputation for not only poor quality construction, but for properties that flood with sewer back up, bad roofing which leads to huge leaks with the first rain fall, bad electrical, heating systems that do not work and much more. Anyone who buys from this guy has much more to worry about than trees.

  2. developers don’t get enough credit. i’m not talking about your local shoe repair man that saw an opportunity to build condos and profit. I’m talking about the ratners of the world making huge improvement across the country, creating jobs, creating housing, etc. a true developer understands the value of a tree and a community and they serve to enhance and be part of that. however, its the narrow focus of some community leaders that seek to alienate them, and make difficult their great work.

  3. “so you cut down 1 large sycamore and plant 5 or so pear trees..isn’t that enough? what more can a developer do? let a tree get in the way or progress or profit..unfortunately that isn’t a viable proposition.”

    Well, it is when it’s the community’s tree and the developer’s profit. I don’t think you’d be quite so keen on “profit or progress” if I decided that I had a great idea for a venture but to do it, I had to clean out YOUR bank account.

    Simply put, there’s no inalienable right to do whatever you want as long as it generates profit for someone. Our society has laws and boards and regulations to give the parameters of your profit-making endeavors. And there’s no reason to put yourself in the position of judging progress for everyone else.

    And echo on everyone who is tired of developers who simply see fines as a cost of business to be ignored.

  4. I called 311 repeatedly about the problems with the Greenhouse developers chopping down the tree limbs on Carlton and on Greene Ave. to make it slightly easier for them during construction (that point is theirs and it’s arguable.) I went so far as to pull my car over one day, and make them stop while I called the local parks dept. offices in Prospect Park. They came out immediately and made them stop. So that felt great. Also they took pix of the current conditions of the trees so they could document it in case they cut the limbs anymore. Nobody without a permit from the park’s dept. is allowed to cut limbs of street trees and even then you are only allowed to cut them without using a ladder or any other type of device to get higher up. Union workers do the higher branches for safety’s sake (public, tree and property.) Alas the jerks running this construction site HATED HATED HATED the neighborhood and its residents and they cut down all of the branches they could the very next day. I called the parks dept. and they came out and said they issued tix. But still they were gone. I hope that those workers were more considerate of the needs of the future residents in that building when they did the work on it!

  5. Interesting thing about trees, I like ’em, enjoy their shade and yet they can cause so much damage. Two asides, if the sidewalk responsibility law was changed and homeowners, not the city, were liable for trip and fall accidents on their sidewalks how many trees would be felled by homeowners to level their sidewalks? Think of all the uneven slate slabs in Carroll Gardens or Cobble Hill, stately trees yes, liability as well. The other situation is this: my landlord wants to cut down a tree in the backyard because it is causing foundation damage, my neighbor is fighting the work order because he likes the tree, none on his property mind you, not really particulary stately either, but a nice enough tree. Should they, my neighbor, be able to prevent my landlord from cutting down the tree?

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