Monday, March 4, 2019

Say Good Bye to our Friends- Decimation of Oaks for 'Oak Creek' in full gear

Oak Creek-- never was there a more wrongly named development. The decimation of the Oak Trees is in full swing as you can see if you drive on Felicita Road near the Park. The chainsaws and bulldozers are hard at work, indiscriminately destroying hundreds of oak trees on site.
It is too late to save them.

The former Mayor and Council majority (Thank you Olga Diaz for voting no) refused to even examine modest changes to the plan that could have saved many of these trees. This is happening in Escondido in Mike Morasco's district, who supported it.

Even the staff agreed with us that a bike path alignment that reduced the tree cutting was possible.  But Abed and his supporters Morasco, Gallo, and Masson ignored it all.

So, while (under new leadership) we develop a new climate plan that calls for planting of new trees, Oak Creek developers are busy cutting down established, threatened, and healthy oaks on their site and in the park. Neighbors downstream are concerned about flooding with good reason. It is a terrible result from a bad process to facilitate an ill-advised development.

So, please take a moment to say good bye to these beautiful trees who have offered their air, beauty, greenery, and carbon sequestration for us for so long. Our neighborhood will be forever degraded as a result.

All we can do is bear witness and remember this legacy of Mike Morasco and John Masson and former elected officials Sam Abed and Ed Gallo.





Please send your photos and videos to us.  We may need them in the future.
esconeighborsunited@gmail.com    Video below


4 comments:

  1. So sad. This poorly designed subdivision called "The Oaks" was steamrolled through approval process by City officials at that time who refused to respond to strong public opposition, or good suggestions for alternative subdivision with lower density.

    This subdivision is an embarrassment because it diminishes unique rural character, in process that allowed developer choices to dominate, and cause demolition of high value mature oak trees to build an artificial gated community that does not 'fit' here.

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  2. This is such a travesty! Wish you had an environmental lawyer! New trees cannot compare to old interms if water �� recycling from root depth and soil stability. The amount of time to “replace” their function in the environment, not to mention their habitat, shade and beauty. This is wjy people chain themselves to trees, when reasonable people cannot be found in power.

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    1. Totally. We need to remember this in 2020 with the new elections coming up for Escondido District 4.

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