Tree Removal Case Makes Its Way Through Sag Harbor Justice Court

Last March, the Sag Harbor Village Board passed a new measure outlawing the removal of any tree larger than 12 inches in diameter at breast height without a permit issued by the Building Department.

On June 4, the law saw its first test when workers for Augusta Folks, who owns the property at 11 Meadowlark Lane with her husband, Jack, removed a massive elm tree that had a diameter of approximately 48 inches from the village-owned right-of-way, and a second, smaller tree of unknown type, from her property.

Village code enforcement officer Bruce Schiavoni issued a citation for the removal of the trees, and the matter made its way last month before Village Justice Carl Irace, and again on Tuesday, August 6.

Folks told Irace that she had the trees cut down because she planned to install a modern wastewater treatment system when she builds a new house on the property. She said she had been told by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, which oversees the installation of wastewater systems, that she needed to provide 50 feet of clearance from the tree to the system for it to function properly.

She said she received a similar directive when she sought a permit to install a nitrogen-removing wastewater system at her home at 32 Glover Street last year before the new village code went into effect. “The Health Department demanded that I take the tree down,” she said of that project.

Folks also said she was unaware the village had tightened the code to restrict the removal of large trees because she had been in Florida most of the winter and had not been informed by the village that a permit would be required.

Irace seemed skeptical of that, noting that Folks seemed well-versed in other code requirements. He suggested she might be better served if she hired an attorney instead of representing herself.

Folks said she was going to present a landscaping plan that would include a number of arborvitaes and other screening when she brings an application before the Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review to build a new house on the Meadowlark Lane parcel this Thursday, August 8.

But village prosecutor Lawton Wakefield told Irace the village wanted Folks to replace the tree that was cut down on its right-of-way. Along with a maximum fine of $1,000 for a first offense, the law gives the village the authority to demand that a mature tree be replaced by a single tree of equal size or a number of others whose total diameter at breast height equals that of tree that was illegally cut down.

Irace adjourned the matter until September 10 to give Folks time to work on a landscaping plan that meets the village’s requirements.

In an interview after her court appearance, Folks said she would work with the village to resolve the matter, but she questioned the village’s priorities and pointed out how last year it had allowed the owner of a historic house at 59 Howard Street to demolish it instead of rebuilding it.

“The thing that gets me is how can they tear down a 250-year-old house and bring me to court over a tree,” she said.