A San Francisco bakery owner trimmed trees by his business. Now he's being fined $4,500.

[Demovictory9]

For months, Keith Truong had become increasingly frustrated by speedy drivers who kept whizzing by his San Francisco business, Ambrosia Bakery, with no regard for the stop sign near his storefront. After realizing the traffic sign, at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and Woodacre Drive, was camouflaged by excessive foliage from two trees in front of his shop, he started viewing them as a liability and decided to take measures into his own hands.

“I had a lot of complaints from the customers who said it was a hazard to cross the street,” Truong told SFGATE. “I told the gardener to trim the trees to make sure the stop sign was visible.”

Truong paid $550 out of pocket for the service, but the move would end up costing him more: He was fined $4,500 by San Francisco Public Works. Truong said that the unsupervised tree trimming occurred three months ago, but he didn’t realize it was unlawful at the time. He was shocked when he received a notice in the mail with no warning beforehand. The foliage had likewise obstructed his own business sign, but Troung said that his greatest motivation in cutting the trees was to protect neighborhood residents. Now, he’s concerned about the steep fee. ABC7 first reported the story.

“The pandemic was difficult already,” Troung said. “That’s a lot for a business that was struggling. They must consider that.”

Rachel Gordon, the spokesperson for San Francisco Public Works, told SFGATE that the agency evaluated the trees last year but “determined that urgent pruning was not warranted.”

--------------

“Removing more than 25% of the canopy from a tree is extremely damaging,” Gordon said. “If trees are excessively pruned, the tree can run out of stored energy and die. If the trees do survive, they will require much more intensive pruning care going forward to ensure proper growth.”

https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/San-Francisco-bakery-fined-for-tree-trimming-17075901.php

[Pachamama]

1. I don't believe this explanation by the owner for a minute.

He cut them so his store would be more visible from street. There are parking spots in front of his business lined up along the street - that has nothing to do with the visibility of the stop sign for drivers from the “canopy”. He could have called the city and spared himself the cost of hiring someone. San Francisco Public Works or whatever dept would have happily done this and they regularly maintain all the trees in this area and around town.

They weren’t done professionally - at least not by an arborist - those trees were butchered.

They should have fined him more if they could.

[Demovictory9]

2. you provide insight... I hadn't considered he had another reason for chopping tops off those trees

[Pachamama]

3. The business streets and residential areas in San Francisco have the streets tree lined like this

I don’t know what tree these are but they are never large or taller than what you see pictured here. And similar to this particular street, there are parking spots, either parallel or at a slight angled horizontal and then you drive along the street. There will always be clearly marked in large painted letters on street STOP for a car to see.

Go to google maps: you can clearly see that directly in front of his bakery on street it is painted STOP on street and a crosswalk - which the fines are steep if you didn’t stop.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/2605+Ocean+Ave,+San+Francisco,+CA+94132/@37.7317271,-122.4733796,3a,75y,184.42h,84.31t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s-VFb5FOSg3izojySgBX_Jg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x808f7db935055673:0xf33078694c8200ec!8m2!3d37.7315244!4d-122.4734815?hl=en-us

The bakery owner is a liar.

[Silver Gaia]

4. I agree!

Those poor trees! They were damn near murdered.

[OneBro]

5. I'm more offended by the lie.

It won’t be cheap, but the trees can be replaced if they are too butchered to survive. Fine him and make him cover the cost to nurse the trees back to health/replace them.

That big whopper of a lie about doing it for the good of the community is such Trump-level bull that he should be taken to the town square and suffer complete nose hair removal by tweezer.

[Demovictory9]

7. I hope no one starts a gofundme for him. The article was so sympathetic

[Midnight Writer]

6. Those trees were plainly not obscuring a STOP sign.