Last updated December 21, 2010 9:00 p.m. PT
Eight mature trees were wrongly removed last summer from the site of a new University of Washington dormitory because of an error, a UW official said Tuesday.
Staff members at the university's Capital Projects Office incorrectly thought that a demolition permit allowed removal of the trees from property on Northeast Campus Parkway, said Jon Lebo, director of student-life projects in the office.
"We were mistaken," Lebo said when contacted about the tree-cutting. "When we removed the trees we did not actually have a permit to remove the trees. We were very embarrassed."
Lebo's admission contradicted an earlier claim by the UW that it had a valid permit to remove the trees.
The eight trees included several mature maples and three Yoshino cherry trees at the site, which lies between 12th and Brooklyn avenues northeast. They were taken out when several buildings were removed from the site so a new dormitory building can be built there. One tree, an 80-foot tall American elm with branches extending over the street, was left standing.
The lack of authority for the cutting was revealed in a document issued during an appeal of one of the permits needed to build the dormitory. It came after a UW spokesman said the university had a permit authorizing cutting of the eight trees.
The city's current tree ordinance requires city approval for cutting trees of "exceptional" size and shape, and limits to three the number of "non-exceptional" trees cut on a property each year. The city has a stated policy of trying to protect trees and increasing the size of the city-wide canopy, though there are differences in thought about how that should be accomplished.
Lebo said the demolition permit directed preservation of exceptional trees during the demolition work, but UW staffers incorrectly interpreted this to mean just the elm tree.
"We made an assumption and it turned out to be wrong," Lebo said.
The city is considering an enforcement action against the UW, though it has not yet said what that will be. Lebo said his staff has been retrained to better interpret the language in city permits.
The city Department of Planning and Development approved a separate master-use permit for the project, also needed before the dormitory can be built, that sanctions removal of the eight trees. But that permit has been appealed by a Seattle tree surgeon, who is trying to ensure better protections for the remaining elm tree.
The appellant, Michael Oxman, said new building footings will be dug 30 feet away from the tree but the roots need a space extending 48 feet from the trunk in order for them to continue to grow and be healthy enough to resist Dutch elm disease. Oxman's appeal is pending.
Lebo said the UW has inoculated the elm tree against the disease and will repeat the process again to protect it. He said the new building will leave about 30 percent of the block open around the tree, creating a small park in the southeast corner of the property.
Lebo said the UW will plant more than three-dozen new, mature trees around the site to compensate for the loss of the eight that were removed. Oxman called the replacements "inadequate."
"You're talking about (losing) huge trees," he said. "Plants and saplings are not an adequate replacement."
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