|
Mission Hills Historic Trees in Peril
By Janet O'Dea
March/April 2025
 Historic tree-lined Sunset Boulevard in Mission Hills. Photo by Janet O'Dea |
Editor’s note: Janet O’Dea is a current SOHO board member. Read her full bio.
The City of San Diego Community Forest Advisory Board (CFAB) held a crucial meeting regarding the designation of heritage trees along Sunset Boulevard in Mission Hills in February 2025. It was the latest chapter in an ongoing battle to preserve the iconic trees planted by pioneering nurserywoman Kate Sessions that have defined the neighborhood for generations.
In 2009, after the establishment of the Mission Hills Historic District, I nominated the Kate Sessions California pepper tree and palm trees along Sunset Boulevard for heritage tree designation. According to City Council policy 900-19, trees qualify for heritage designation if they are “50 years or older or have a connection to some historic event, building, district, or were planted by a historically significant individual.” The CFAB in 2009 approved this heritage tree nomination.
The benefits of the heritage tree designations include using special techniques for extending the life of the aged trees, such as disease control, and, importantly, inclusion in all required CEQA environmental review. The trees’ protected status is a factor in determining a proposed project’s potential significant impact on visual quality and community character.
In 2023, the City removed the Kate Sessions pepper tree, disregarding its heritage status and the City’s mandated designation review process. This brought to light City staff’s failure to properly document and coordinate heritage tree records, and revealed the vulnerability of vital protections for the remaining trees. There was a personnel change in the City arborist, the official responsible for maintaining these records, and no documentation of the 2009 designation remained. My inadequate evidence was a personal calendar notation and a former CFAB’s member’s vague recollection of the meeting. The disarray in the City's records resulted in a complete loss of accountability.
The Council policy calls for protected tree resources to be recorded in City computer databases, on Geographic Information System maps, or on other hard copy maps available to plan checkers in Development Services. The department never received the 2009 designation, so it was like it never happened.
Current City staff encouraged me to renominate the remaining trees. I did this and included trees from the expanded Mission Hills Historic District that continues down Sunset almost to Ingleside Avenue; I was informed that the board would hear the nomination on February 12, 2025. However, staff preemptively stated they would not recommend designation. Their reasoning included maintenance and a preference for shade trees over new palm trees, despite the trees qualifying as heritage trees and no policy that prevents palm tree designation. In addition, there is no precise wording in the policy that requires an exact replica of the heritage palm trees.
Staff’s resistance has to do with palms that provide less carbon capture than other species. While they are not wrong that most palms do not capture as much carbon as shade trees, it makes little sense to remove fully grown, healthy heritage specimens. Instead, the city should replant with other species only as a palm ages out. Palms are naturally beneficial in other ways, supplying much of the diet of birds and other urban fruit-eating animals and their flowers attract various pollinators. Instead, the preferred mitigation that the City could provide if the palms were designated would be a proactive plan for replantings with a consistent species as the palms age out.
At the February meeting, it became clear that the City’s mishandling of past records had jeopardized the protection of the renominated trees. The staff’s presentation failed to acknowledge the previous 2009 designation or the bureaucratic failures that led to the pepper tree’s destruction. The pepper was worthy of designation in 2009, but when it didn’t receive the protections of heritage designation, such as disease control during many drought years, it was left to decline without benefit of any preventive measures. Further, the board was not given the full nomination package. I brought one copy on a flash drive but had no on-site means to share it during the meeting.
Despite these challenges, the majority of board members seemed to support the designation. Since staff opposed it, the board opted to delay the decision until its next meeting on March 12, 2025. This delay underscores the ongoing struggle to ensure that heritage trees gracing our historic communities get the necessary protection and care they deserve.
Without heritage designation, iconic tree-lined Sunset Boulevard is at risk of becoming unrecognizable. While the remaining palm trees are currently standing tall, the lack of a coordinated plan means their removal could occur at any time. One CFAB member suggested planting an understory of trees now to prepare for the eventual loss of the older trees—a proactive measure that could be implemented under heritage designation.
I am grateful for the support of Kate Sessions Commitment representative Anne Fege, who raised key concerns about the heritage tree designation process at the February meeting. I was otherwise alone in representing the neighborhood.
How You Can Help
Our community must rally to protect these trees before it is too late. Please attend CFAB’s next meeting March 12, 2025, from 10am to 11:30am at the Valencia Park/Malcom X Branch Library, 5148 Market Street, San Diego 92114, and lend your voice for trees that have few advocates. A strong turnout in support of the Mission Hills heritage trees designation will enable these handsome sentinels to receive the recognition and care they need and clarify the next steps in the City’s future planning.
If you cannot attend the meeting in person, please send your written support to the Community Forest Advisory Board.
The cultural heritage and character of Mission Hills depend on heritage tree designation. This is also true of Kensington, where in recent years the City has chopped down at least six California pepper trees planted c. 1910 and throughout other San Diego historic communities. Thank you in advance for your help!
Learn more about CFAB online.
BACK to table of contents
|
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
|
