By Eliza Ridgeway

The question of whether to allow eucalyptus trees in Los Altos Hills continues to be contentious.

In a July amendment to the town’s landscaping ordinance, the city council banned five species of eucalyptus tree, mandating their removal from private property at the time of site development permits.

Planning Director Debbie Pedro said that thus far, only one resident has had to remove trees to comply with the revised ordinance. As more cases come before the planning commission, the effect of the ordinance will become more clear.

But Eric Andrews, who is building a home on Newbridge Drive, experienced some of the raw emotions surrounding the new tree ban when he brought a landscape screening plan to the town for approval.

“We ran into this political storm,” Andrews said. Neighbors concerned about the fire and limb-dropping hazard eucalyptus pose suggested the trees be razed.

Because his permit had been approved before the ban, Andrews was required to remove only those eucalyptus evaluated as unhealthy - a potential public nuisance - by the planning commission. He vastly preferred this to a wholesale condemnation of his trees, he said.

“I think the staff was very fair, they did their job,” Andrews said. Evaluating individual trees will always be subjective, he said. But subjectivity is preferable to having no say at all, which is a consequence of the ban.

“If this ban had been in effect, we would have never bought this property,” Andrews said. “We would have had to clear-cut it.” He speculated that other town property values may be affected.