Overview
- Crews began removing all 32 palms on Thursday, August 20, and the city says the work could take up to nine days with the plaza barricaded to protect the public.
- A July arborist report found about 15 of the trees dead or dying and the rest in declining health, with some palms leaning and judged at risk of falling.
- City officials declared the removals an emergency so they could bypass the usual two-week protest notice because of imminent safety concerns.
- The cause of the die-off remains undetermined; tissue samples have been sent to a lab and the city forester says multiple factors and the trees' constrained planters over a garage may have contributed.
- The palms, planted in the late 1980s and early 1990s on California Historical Landmark No. 461, anchored a popular downtown gathering space and city leaders have not announced a replacement design, budget, or timeline for rebuilding the plaza.