City of Plantation

Stupid Trees

 July 7th 2005

Robert trimmed two trees in his yard on Sunday July 3rd in preparation for the hurricane season.  The trees in question had touched the homes, and in a previous storm (Charlie 2004), they banged up against the roofs.

When Robert came back from vacation, he received 2 letters in the mail on Saturday July 9th.    Nasty letters always arrive on Saturday.

Click on each picture to make it bigger, then back to return here.

The way the community is set up, there is a homeowners association, that works with a property management company.  In the newsletter sent earlier in the month, the president of the homeowners association encourages people to trim trees.    He doesn't mention anything about the strict laws the city has (called hat racking), neither does the media.     The 2nd picture is what the property management company sent to me, they seem happy to tattle tale to the city.   In fact, Robert heard a rumor that the city wanted the association to report people.    When Robert asked the city inspector if this was true, they denied it.     The 3rd letter is from the City of Plantation saying trees were removed, when in fact they were trimmed short for the hurricane season.  The city considers any tree trimmed more than 25% as being removed.   

In the first picture, you can see the olive tree that was trimmed between the houses.   It's the exact same kind as the one in the foreground.  The tree in front was trimmed after Charlie came thru in 2004, because it fell over.     In the 2nd picture, is a trimmed bottle brush that was hitting the house.   This tree went above the roof line, and knocked against roof tiles when the wind blew.   Therefore, both trees were trimmed short for the upcoming hurricane season. 

In picture 3, you can see a olive tree, which is the same as the trees in picture 1.   This tree is literally taller than the roof of the house.   If left untrimmed, the branches reach out over the driveway and over the truck.    These trees fall over in storms.  Last year, a tree like this one fell into a house.   

On 07/11/05, I confronted the president of the homeowners association.   He told me he was there when the property management company came for a walkthru.  He says they asked him who cut the trees, and he told them it was me.   I told him it was wrong that they tattle tale to the City of Plantation, with no warning.   He didn't say much and went back inside his home.  

Taken 07/10/05 after Dennis passed thru.   The association and city have enough time to come after me for trimming my trees, but when I walk to the back of the neighborhood, to a common ground, I find branches that are down.  This happens because trees are not trimmed.    

Also taken 07/10/05.   These trees are literally touching power lines near the street.   You can find these trees between 98th and 99th avenue on Cleary Blvd.   To get here, take Broward Blvd west to Pine Island, go north to Cleary, then west 2 stop lights and you'll eventually see the Quatraine III entrance at 98th avenue on the north side of the street.   From here, look up above the sidewalk.    When I mentioned these trees to the city inspector (Diana Berchielle), she said they were the problem of the homeowners association and FPL.  The city has nothing to do with taking care of them.

After these pictures were taken, Robert sent a letter to the property association company saying it was wrong to report him with no warning, that power lines were touching trees, and that he wanted a new manager.    When Robert went to the HOA meeting on 07/26/05, he found out this had been done, a new property manager had been put in place. 

http://www.plantation.org/landscape/city-ordinances.html

The above link has information about the tree ordinances.  Robert didn't know about the strict laws the city has, most people don't.  It's 40 pages of legal speak, so complicated, the city needs another page to explain it in human terms.  The problem here, is that they tell people simple terms, but if someone does something wrong, they come after them with legal speak, very complicated directions. 

When I spoke to Diana Berchielli (city inspector) on the phone, she told me this is a county rule that the city is following and she can't give me a warning.    When I told her the trees were trimmed for the hurricane and they touched the houses, she didn't care.     When I told her about the power lines touching trees, she said that's FPL's problem.  

Taken on 07/25/05.  This is what the neighborhood looks like after a rain shower comes thru.  Look at the streets and sidewalks.  They are covered with olive tree droppings.   Look at the 4th picture, the drain is clogged.  The city cares more about the canopy (trees above the roof line), then they do about how the streets look and whether the drains will work.   When I spoke with Diana on the phone, that's all she kept talking about, the canopy.  

On 07/26/05,  The city says that people must have a permit to remove a tree.   To get a permit, one must meet with the city inspector, who works from 08:00am to 04:30pm..       Robert met with Diana Berchielli at 8am to pick up paper work.   This is a pain in the butt, because to meet with Diana, one must make an appointment, and take time off work.    Diana talked for half an hour, about what types of trees could be replanted, saying that only Florida #1 trees can be used.  These are very expensive trees, costing $300 each to be installed.    Diana has a degree in trees (I'm not kidding), and our meeting basically turned into a science lesson on what type of tree is needed to be replanted, how it is to be replanted, and all kinds of technical terms you wouldn't want to know about. 

07/26/05, The homeowners association meeting happens on the last Tuesday of each month at Volunteer Park in Plantation.   Robert attended the meeting, where he found out a new property manager had been hired (Mike Leeds), and that the previous manager (Christina Beebe) would no longer be representing Quatraine III.   Apparently, Robert's letter to the property management company did something.  

In the first picture, is the city permit, in the 2nd picture, is a listing of trees to use.   The city is not fining Robert for what happened, but wants him to get a permit for each tree, which costs $25 each for a total of $50.        Instead of making Robert replant a smaller tree between the houses, they want big trees put in to keep the canopy.       They still want a tree that's 12 feet tall, 5 feet wide, and 2 1/2" in circumference.   This is where Diana talked about Florida #1 trees saying these are the only ones she will accept.     Diana told Robert he would have plenty of time to work with the city to correct the problem, but it had to be done this exact way. 

These tree laws are ridiculous.     Diana said they were put in place because improper trimmed trees die and cause a hazard to postal trucks and kids playing (branches falling down).        Yet, the problem is now the opposite.   Trees in Plantation are left to grow too big, touching power lines, and then falling over in storms.  

Diana told Robert, that if he went to the hearing, she would be there to say the trees were removed, and the judge would simply follow the law and say they needed to be replaced.  Therefore, it seems Robert doesn't have a case.   Diana told Robert she doesn't go looking for these violations, but if someone reports it, then the city follows up.   

Robert will now have to spend over $600 to correct the problem by removing the existing trees and having new ones planted.    Robert is frustrated with the strict laws the city has regarding trees, when people are trying to prepare for the hurricane season.   The laws also make it so people don't trim trees, because when you mention trimming a tree to a fellow neighbor, their jaw drops, and they say, "You don't trim trees in Plantation."    Then they grow big and fall over in storms, leaving a mess behind.      It boarders on absurd and everyone needs to be made aware of it.   

08/13/05,  Robert wanted to make the problem go away.  So Robert and Laurie visited nurseries along Flamingo road.  You'd think buying two trees would be easy, right?  Wrong.    The first nursery on Flamingo road was called Everglades.  Robert showed the man the tree list and what was needed.   The guy said to wait while he had to go take care of something.   He didn't return for 30 minutes, and we were waiting in the hot sun.  He just vanished.   Robert told Laurie it was probably racism because the guy is black and we're white.  We went to a place next door, but they didn't have what we needed and said Everglades was about the only place to get trees.    So we left and I e-mailed Diana saying we were having problems finding a nursery.  She wrote back with 5 numbers to call.   1 on the list was no longer in business, another was a yard maintenance company, 1 was wholesale and wouldn't deal with the public.   So Robert and Laurie went to visit the other two.  One was on Flamingo and we had the same thing happen here as the first.  The guy came out to help us, then had to go "do something."  We waited 30 minutes in the hot sun, and finally his helper showed us some trees.    The boss was calling him the entire time saying he needed him to come and "do something."   They didn't have what we needed, and didn't seem to want to help us.       We left and went to one more nursery called Landworks which is located at 195th ave and Griffen road.  The person there said they don't work in Plantation, that fast, we're done.      So now I know what was happening, the nurseries don't want anything to do with Plantation. 

08/20/05, Robert e-mails Diana and tells her what happened and that no nurseries want to work in Plantation.  She writes back with one more number to call, Getting Greener in Davie.  I call and ask them if they will work in Plantation, even if it's for the city.  They say yes, they won't run away.  But they tell me they won't work in Weston.    You see, the tree laws are so complicated, that the nurseries don't want anything to do with these cities.  

08/25/05, Hurricane Katrina hits South Florida and knocks out power to Plantation. 

Look at this olive tree that smashed into a house.  The same thing happened to another house the previous year when Charlie hit.  The trees fall over because they are never trimmed.

The city is very quick to cut trees that have fallen over, the tree above was cut the next day on Friday.  They probably do this because they don't want people seeing downed trees.

The above picture is more proof of what happens every time a storm comes thru.  The trees drop branches making a mess everywhere.

The Publix shopping center had no power and neither did the homes about a mile down the road.  This was really frustrating, because the Winn Dixie shopping center across the street had power, homes a mile down the road had power, yet the homes in Quatraine3 did not.   Do you know why the homes in Quatraine3 didn't have power from Thursday 08/25/05 at 5pm to Sunday 08/28/05 at 01:30pm (3 days)?   Because of a tree branch that fell into the power lines.   In picture 1 you can see the tree branch on the ground.   In picture 2, you can see the box on the power poll.   Was there any damage to the power lines?  No.    It seems the tree branch simply caused the circuit breaker to trip in the box shown in the picture.   In picture 4 you can see where the branch came off the tree, it's just to the left of the power poll in the middle of the picture.  In picture 5, you can see the FPL truck parked.   The guy didn't even touch the box.  He simply looked up, called back to his office, and magically the power came back on.  But everyone had to wait 3 days for this to happen because FPL was helping other people.   In picture 6 you can see how the tree branches for a "U" around the power lines.   This is against the cities' own code, this is never supposed to happen.

So the city, in the quest to have a tree canopy, is causing more problems.   Hundreds of people, and a Publix shopping center went without power for 3 days, just because a tree branch fell into power lines.    Even with a generator, life is still hell without power.   Most generators can run a fridge, a small TV, and a fan.  But unless you buy a 3k home generator system wired into the fuse box, they don't run the AC.   Living in a home with no AC is hell.  Many people in the neighborhood left, to go stay with others.   The inside temperature of the house rises to 87 degrees, sweating all day is the norm.   Writing about it can't describe what it feels like. 

The city needs to trim all the trees under the power lines and stop the "U" thing where the power lines go thru the branches.   Other cities don't have trees around their power lines, they don't let this happen.

The City of Plantation has a cartoonish pamphlet they give out to people, the main characters are Marge and Fred.  On one of the pages, they say that trees under power lines are a problem, yes they are and the City of Plantation has many of them.    Marge and Fred need to go look at all the trees near power lines and do something about it so the residents don't lose power for 3 days.

10/19/05, Robert planted a Crape Myrtle and a Japanese Fern.  Pictures coming soon.   Dania Bercheielli came out, and passed them.   The ordeal had finally ended.

10/24/05, Hurricane Wilma came thru and knocked my new trees over, but lucky for me, I was able to replant them.   There were many trees in the neighborhood that were blown over into houses (pictures of the destruction coming soon).    Do you know why this is?   Because trees are never trimmed, so when the hurricane comes thru, they fall over knocking down fences and falling into homes.   Quatraine3 went for an entire week without power.    Thank you Broward County for caring about the tree canopy while we live on generators for a week.   

End of Report.   Thanks for reading. 

Email me at robvia@bellsouth.net.

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