How does the City work to protect Thousand Oaks famous oak trees?
In 1970, the City Council adopted an ordinance protecting all oak trees from indiscriminate cutting and removal. In doing so, the ordinance requires that property owners apply for and obtain a permit from the City before any oak tree can be removed or pruned. The removal of hazardous oak trees or portions thereof are routinely approved. However, the removal of healthy oak trees is only approved in conjunction with new construction under circumstances which justify such action. An architect or designer must make every effort to design a project in order to minimize or eliminate the need to remove healthy oak trees. When reasonable use of the property requires removal of healthy trees, a permit is generally approved with the condition that three (3) new trees must be planted to replace each one (1) tree removed. From a practical standpoint, the entire community keeps a close watch over our oak trees. Many oak trees have been saved because a concerned citizen telephoned City staff to aler
