After Wrightsville trees felled, residents raise concerns

Developers of the former Babies Hospital property have cut down five trees lining its Wrightsville Avenue location, angering some residents who weren’t aware the trees would be removed.

Chris Bailey, president of the Bailey and Associates, the firm developing the Grand View Apartments on the location, said the trees were removed because of the manner in which Duke Energy trims trees around the power lines. The trees included cedar, Darlington and Southern live oaks.

Wilmington city planners granted approval to remove the trees in April. Bailey said he asked for permission after seeing how the trees had been trimmed in Wrightsville Beach in April by Asplundh Tree Expert Co., contracted by Duke Energy.

“When they butchered the trees at the beach, it made us think about what they were going to do there,” Bailey said of the Grand View Apartments site.  “If you cut the tops out of the trees, then what do you have?”

The removal was approved after the developer agreed to upgrade the landscape to trees that were “more appropriate to that location,” said Aaron Reese, Wilmington city arborist, adding that the city will approve removal if trees have to often be trimmed to clear power lines.

“It’s not good for the tree if that’s the way they have to do it,” Reese said, adding that several local residents had registered complaints with the city over the tree removal.

One of those, Jim Smith of Wrightsville Beach, sent an email to Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo and City Council leaders urging for a stronger tree ordinance.

“They could have pruned them or saved them,” Smith said. “Our ordinance isn’t strict enough.”

On Tuesday, Wilmington City Council member Neil Anderson was critical of both the developer and the arborist, and said he didn’t understand how the trees could be cut down without the council’s knowledge.

“Do we have an arborist who is more prone to cut down a tree or more prone to save a tree?” Anderson asked. “This is what gives good developers a bad name.”

Wilmington City Council member Laura Padgett said that it seems common for some projects to cut down the trees after the development is underway.

“Could you have designed it a little different?” Padgett asked rhetorically.

Padgett was critical of Reese, who she said was “too quick to cut down trees.”

“I married a botanist so I have some experience in these areas,” she said.

Both Padgett and Bailey were critical of Duke Energy’s tree trimming policies.

“They cut a 6-foot radius around the power line, leaving a 12-foot hole in the middle of the tree,” said Bailey. “It would not have been our intent to remove the trees, if not for Duke Energy.”

Padgett said the trees and powerlines can coexist.

“They can trim and treat the tree,” Padgett said. “But only if we can get some cooperation from Duke Energy.”

But Duke Energy said it uses a tree-pruning standard that is endorsed by the American National Standards Institute.

“If you’re not in the tree care industry, it may not look like a healthy prune, but the standards we use are to protect the trees’ health as well as allow it to grow within the path of the powerline,” said Duke spokesperson Paige Layne. “It promotes it to grow away from the line.”

Bailey said at the Grand View site, workers cut off the tops of trees as they had at other locations on Eastwood Road and on Wrightsville Beach. He said the new landscaping plans called for smaller growth plants, as Duke Energy won’t allow for tall growing trees under the lines. Both Bailey and Reese said the city has approved those plans.

Additionally, Bailey said that there will be other trees preserved on the lot, including trees by the lake behind the buildings and the foliage along the Cross-City Trail that runs by the apartments.  Bailey also said the development would preserve a large tree by Summer Rest Road, but not without pruning and trimming it first.

“The problem with the big tree on the corner is that it is so heavy,” he said. “The concern is that it’s diseased and going to split down the middle.”

Residents in Wrightsville Beach and the Wrightsville Sound area have voiced concerns about tree trimmings and the tree ordinance laws earlier this year. In early April, residents protested tree pruning on Live Oak Drive and Causeway Drive. Later that month, the developer of the former Galleria shopping center site on Wrightsville Avenue cut down mature trees on the site without the approval of city planners.

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