A little over one month after it passed a six-month moratorium on tree removal, the Plandome Village Board of Trustees on Monday granted a waiver to resident Penni Sodi, who will cut down five trees.
“Cutting down the trees won’t change the neighborhood or the property,” said Donald Richardson, a Plandome trustee. “This village isn’t trying to dictate individual decisions.”
“The board members have all seen the trees,” Mayor M. Lloyd Williams added. “They were ugly and half-dead.”
Sodi lives at 68 Brookside Drive.
Her request for a waiver was the first received by the board since the moratorium went into effect at a board meeting on Oct. 11.
The six-month moratorium prohibits residents from removing more than two trees of 10 inches in diameter or greater from their property.
The board voted unanimously to approve the six-month moratorium at the Oct. 11 meeting, though Trustee Katie Saville did not vote, as she was not present.
Before the vote, Trustee Andrew Bartels proposed a modification to the moratorium that would have allowed residents to remove four trees, instead of two, and would have shortened the moratorium from six months to three months.
Deputy Mayor Ray Herbert aired his opposition, saying he felt the limit of “two trees [was] reasonable.”
“If the moratorium causes undue hardship, residents can come to the village” for an exemption, he added.
Bartels dropped his modification and the moratorium passed unanimously.
“Voice your concerns positive or negative,” Richardson said at the end of the Oct. 11 meeting. “We would like to hear from residents.”
Williams said on Monday the board has yet to hear from any residents about the moratorium, though the first public hearing on the matter has not been held.
