Neighbors At Odds Over Tree Cutting -- Plan To Prevent Landslides Or Cause Them?

-- NORMANDY PARK

There's only one logical way to reach the 69-year-old beachfront house shared by Michael Stewart and Sharon Taunt. It's been that way since anybody can remember.

You park your car at the top of a hill and walk down a steep path with steps. You pass a gnarled madrona and clusters of maple, alder, oak, locust and wild cherry trees. You keep going until you hear the rhythmic surf and see a hammock stretched out in the grassy front yard.

But Stewart and Taunt aren't resting easy these days. They can't understand the logic of two upland residents whose proposal, they say, could bring the hillside crashing down onto their home and homes of neighbors.

They are trying to overturn a city of Normandy Park ruling that could clear the way for property owners Gary Ohrt and Phil Bradshaw to remove trees and shrubs on the hill.

"There will be absolutely less stability without trees," Taunt said.

Taunt and Stewart, along with six other parties, are appealing a determination by Normandy Park that the Orht-Bradshaw proposal would have no significant adverse impact on the environment.

Ohrt and Bradshaw live in houses at the end of South 219th Street at the top of the bluff. Their proposal calls for removing and trimming trees on a 200-foot-wide strip below their homes, then planting new vegetation on the environmentally sensitive bluff.

Taunt suspects that Ohrt and Bradshaw are merely trying to improve their views, and worries that the root systems that bind the fragile hillside will be reduced or destroyed.

"Why would you take out native vegetation to put in native vegetation?" she asked.

Ohrt said his proposal has nothing to do with enhancing his view. He said he's simply worried that the weight of the trees will cause a landslide similar to those that have occurred to the north and south of the site.

"We're not going to strip this bank," Ohrt said, adding that vegetation should grow back quickly.

Ohrt said his plan, which has yet to be submitted to the city, would call for cutting down most of the trees. Studies commissioned by the applicants and by the city say the trees have to go, he said.

"I'm up on top, so I want this done right," he said. "I don't want to be down on the beach."

Although the trail has run through his property for years, Ohrt said he has no intention of closing it to beach dwellers. However, he said he resents having to get permission from the city to cut down trees on his land.

Stewart, Taunt's boyfriend, said cutting down the trees doesn't make sense to him either. He has lived in the house with the big bay window that looks out on Vashon Island for 20 years.

"And I'm one of the newcomers," he said, adding that most of the nine houses clustered on the beach are passed down from generation to generation.

Normandy Park Planning Director Dale Gredler said the Planning Department agrees with consultants who reported that if the trees and brush are cut down and trimmed and new vegetation planted, the bank will remain intact.

The city imposed mitigating measures that would require the applicants to keep disturbance of the bank to a minimum, use proper erosion-control measures, and leave stumps and root systems in place.

Ohrt and Bradshaw also must submit a plan to the city identifying all trees to be cut and topped and a landscaping plan naming vegetation to be replanted.

--------- ON AGENDA ---------

-- The Normandy Park City Council will consider a dispute about allowing trees to be cut down during its regular meeting this evening at 7:30 at City Hall, 801 S.W. 174th St.