Heritage sycamore trees won’t be enclosed in new fence design
The tree fight is over in Willow Glen’s upscale Sycamore Glen neighborhood.
At its July 10 meeting, the San Jose Planning Commission granted permission to move a fence at the southwest corner of Dry Creek Road and Sycamore Glen.
The approval ended a two-month argument between the property’s owners, Patrick and Becky DiManto, and some of their neighbors, who had been worried that the new fence would enclose two landmark sycamore trees in the DiMantos’ yard and threaten the neighborhood’s beauty and safety.
The DiMantos revised the fence’s design in June to address the neighbors’ concerns. Tony Tomeo of Los Gatos Horticulture said the extreme excavation necessary to install the fence would remove half of the surface soil in which the trees have extended their roots.
“Construction of the fence and landscape as planned would be extremely detrimental to the health of the trees and is consequently not recommended,” said Tomeo in his three-page assessment paper.
But after reviewing Tamura’s modified design, Tomeo said the two sycamore trees’ roots will be secured because no soil cuts more than one foot deep would be made in the mound closer than 10 feet to their trunks.
“The new design is excellent,” he said.
Full article: http://mytown.mercurynews.com/archives/wgresident/20020717/wgrcity-beat.html