As Gateway royal palms face the axe, debate heats up

POLL: Should palms trees along Gateway Blvd. be removed?

To chop, or not to chop: That is the question.

At issue are 47 royal palms that have graced the Gateway Boulevard median near Stoneybrook for more than 10 years. Nine of the trees will stay courtesy of an agreement between the Gateway Services Community Development District and Lee County.

The remaining 38 are another matter. The Lee County Department of Transportation said they will need to go, while some Gateway community residents are fighting for their survival.

Their possible removal stems from the turnover of Gateway Boulevard, Griffin Drive and Commerce Lakes Drive West from the district and WCI to Lee County. The district owns about 23 percent of Gateway roads while WCI owns the other 77.

Whether the remaining trees will be turned into sawdust, delicately removed and replanted elsewhere in the 13,000-resident community of gated developments or some other plan will be discussed by the five member district board at their 3 p.m. meeting on Thursday.

Rod Senior, a district supervisor, said there is a gentleman's agreement — a legal handshake — that the roads were to be turned over to county control and maintenance. As part of the agreement the county insisted the trees be cut down because they were too close to the road by Lee County department of transportation regulations and pose a safety hazard to vehicles.

Senior said simply cutting the trees down, while certainly a cheaper decision than relocating them, is not in the best interest of Gateway overall or the environment.

Senior, who has worked many years in banking, said he has been investigating different options. He found that cutting the palms would cost about $550 per tree including stump grinding and cleanup, and more than double per tree, about $1,200, to relocate them. Replacing the trees at today's prices would cost about $2,500 per tree or about $95,000 including transplanting and full installation.

"That's the value of what's there now," he said.

The best plan by his estimation? "Leaving them roughly in the area they are in now," he said. "Put them in the right-of-way on both sides."

Senior said there is room to place the trees far enough to be out of the county's 6-foot clearance area on roadways. And, he added, there will be landscaping of a lighter nature replaced where the palms are now.

Senior said Al O'Donnell of O'Donnell's Landscaping Service in Estero provided the information and figures for the plan.

Not everyone involved has the same opinion.

Margaret Fineberg, a fellow district supervisor and secretary of the Stoneybrook at Gateway Home Owners Association, and Joe Mikulka, president of the Stoneybrook at Gateway master HOA, would like to see the palms stay right where they are.

"The agreement (between Gateway and Lee County) is a handshake," she said. "It can still be changed."

Mikulka said he will propose Thursday that the trees stay put and that the median area be widened.

He said removing the trees makes it less safe by taking away impediments for vehicles that might jump the curb since replacement foliage would not stop a car, truck or bus like the palms. "There's no plan in place to deal with that," he said.

"It is much more dangerous and likely with the palms gone to have a crash," Fineberg said.

She added: "This is not about the road turnover, we want to turn it over." As a district supervisor, Fineberg voted for the turnover several times and supports Mikulka's median widening proposal.

Gateway resident Delores Linscott, a member of the road turnover committee, said the development inherited the problem of the trees when the district took over the road from developer Lennar about 11 years ago.

"(Lennar) put them where they wanted to. I don't know if the county approved that or not," she said. "Moving the trees to the outside right-of-way makes the most sense."

Senior said any decision reached Thursday will likely be tabled due to Gary Neubauer, one of the five supervisors, can't be in attendance.

"All the facts and opinions will get out there," Senior said. "I don't care how long the meeting takes."

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