councilwoman teresa real sebastian's petition to southern california edison

Teresa Real Sebastian, J.D. XXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXX March 24, 2014 Via U.S. Mail and email at [email protected] Mr. Ronald L. Litzinger President Southern California Edison Company 2244 Walnut Grove Avenue Rosemead, CA 91770 Re: Edison forces the City of Monterey Park to cut down 112 park trees Dear President Litzinger: Since 1965, Southern California Edison has licensed property to the City of Monterey Park to be used as a park and hiking trail. The area is known as Edison Trails Park. The park s tarts on Garfield Avenue and then proceeds east to the hiking trail. The trail continues in an open space corridor which has residential homes on each side and then ends on Fulton Avenue with another pocket park. A few Edison towers are located in the park and hiking trail. The parks have a playground, restrooms, benches and trees. The hiking trail has beautiful trees, blue jays, hummingbirds etc. and on a clear day you can see Catali na Island. Every year Edis on inspects the property and the City abides by their inspection and trims the trees accordingly. The City and its residents are good stewards of the Edison property. The park and hiking trail area are enjoyed by neighborhood watch groups for their meetings, families, local schools, youth groups, hikers, walkers and joggers. It is eco-friendly, pedestrian friendly and very dear to the community. Every so often you can see an Edison employee in the park enjoying his lunch break under the shade of a tree. This year L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina provided an $80,000 grant to the City of Monterey Park to improve the trail with trees and other landscape, benches and drinking fountains to encourage the community to engage in an active outdoor lifestyle. All in all, the City and its residents have had a very good relation with Edison, until now. Edison has had a change of heart. For example, Edison ’s new setback requirements for their towers have doubled. Instead of a 50 f oot setback, Edison requires a 100 foot setback. In some cases, the new setbacks will require that all surrounding tower landscape located in the park and trail be cleared leaving only bare dirt. In other cases the new setbacks extend into the adjacent residential lots. Those residents will need to clear lan dscaping from their own property to co mply with the setback parameters. Whether expressly or impliedly stated by Edison, the end result is that these new requirements will force the City to cut down 112 trees along the trail and park or the City will lose its right to use the entire property. For almost five decades, Edison, the City and residents have witnessed the growth and maturity of these trees. For almost five decades, Edison has accessed their towers and the surrounding landscape never posed a problem. The irony is that Edison recently donated 100+ trees to the City to promote green living, yet Edison is forcing the City to remove 112 mature established trees from the very same community.

councilwoman teresa real sebastian's petition to southern california edison

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