A 75-FOOT REDWOOD TREE has shaded a corner of Santa Rosa for generations. Now nearby landowners have a city-approved permit to cut it down, but hundreds of neighbors and supporters are behind a formal appeal asking the city to stop the removal.
The tree, which neighbors call “Rosie,” stands on Spring Street in the McDonald Historic District. Rosie is tall enough to clear the surrounding rooflines and has roots that have cracked and lifted the sidewalk beside it.
Many of the houses on this block, built around the time it took root, were framed from redwood themselves, according to Tom Murphy — a retired reporter and media executive who lives in the neighborhood and leads Friends of Rosie, the group started this spring to oppose the permit.
He says the group now has around 300 supporters: roughly 200 petition signatures to preserve the tree, 60 letters sent directly to City Hall opposing the removal, and more following along on social media.
Arborists cite infrastructure damage and safety risks
The city says the case began with a complaint about the sidewalk’s condition, which led to an investigation finding the redwood’s root zone had grown over the adjacent driveway, encroached into the public alley, cracked and lifted the sidewalk, and grown vertically through overhead utility lines.
Because sidewalk maintenance falls to the adjacent property owner rather than the city, that opened a code enforcement case. The city said the owner was given two options: apply for tree removal or redesign the sidewalk around the roots at their own expense.
Realignment was deemed uncertain — root depth couldn’t be confirmed without tearing out the sidewalk first, cutting roots risked harming the tree, and any fix would only be temporary since the roots would keep growing.
The owner cited those uncertainties, along with the driveway damage and utility-line growth, in choosing removal instead, and once that happened, the city said, its code no longer allowed staff to require a redesign.
“He bought this property and immediately filed for a permit to destroy a tree that people have been watching grow up for generations,” Murphy alleged.
Murphy said the owner lives outside Santa Rosa, so many in the neighborhood have yet to interact with him. He met the owners once, he said, and tried to arrange a compromise sidewalk design, but they ultimately chose to proceed with removal.
The owners did not respond to requests for comment.
Santa Rosa’s Tree Ordinance protects heritage redwoods — older, large trees given special legal protection — like Rosie except in cases of storm damage, disease, or structural failure, and that’s the basis of the formal appeal to preserve Rosie now before the city’s Planning Commission.
In a news release announcing the appeal, Friends of Rosie alleges the city’s decision reflected bias and procedural error, on top of violating the ordinance.
Two competing arborist assessments sit at the center of the dispute. The appeal includes a report from certified arborist Arcangel Martinez, who found “no evidence of significant defects, decline, or phototropic growth” and wrote that with proper precautions the tree “can be successfully preserved” during construction of a new walkway.
The city’s own report, prepared by arborist Marcus Baker of the International Society of Arboriculture, similarly describes the tree as “vigorous” with no signs of disease or decay but goes further, flagging overhead utility lines running through the canopy that could be “knocked down” if the tree fails, and a lack of scaffold branches higher up that leaves it “top heavy” and more prone to failure.
Baker’s report concludes the tree should be removed given its location in a densely populated area and its potential to endanger nearby homes and pedestrians; the appeal counters that Baker’s report contains “false and speculative statements.”
Community efforts to preserve Rosie
The appeal lays out an eight-point plan to save the tree, including immediate removal of the broken pavement and a working group of residents, the property owners and others to design a cost-effective sidewalk fix, along with a broader city policy on protecting heritage trees and fixing sidewalks “without placing undue financial burdens on property owners.”
It asks the Planning Commission to deny the permit outright rather than send it back for a redesign.
Asked if this seems like a lot of fuss over a cracked sidewalk, Murphy said, “the idea of taking down a heritage redwood tree that’s beloved in our community goes against everything that our neighborhood wants. More than 300 people have voiced opposition to this, and the planning department didn’t listen.”
Kathleen Flanagan Childs uses a wheelchair and told the city the cracked sidewalk has become genuinely hard to navigate, yet she still doesn’t want the tree removed. She and her husband wrote in their letter to the city that it was “painful” to have already lost two heritage trees and stated a sidewalk “bump-out” built around Rosie beats losing another one.
The city, in its statement, said it recognizes the community’s interest in the heritage redwood and has sought to balance tree preservation with public safety, accessibility, infrastructure upkeep, and the property owner’s rights.
It confirmed the appeal was received Monday and said staff have been in contact with the property owner. No tree removal can occur while the appeal is pending, and no hearing date has been set.