Baltimore officials are considering seeking increased regulation of private trees after close to 20 historic trees were chopped down or pruned excessively in the Marble Hall Gardens apartment complex in Northwood.
The trees, which stood in a courtyard in the 4200 block of Kelway Road, were mostly oaks and were probably 60 to 100 years old, said City Arborist Rebecca Feldberg. In the past two weeks, seven were chopped down and about 10 were pruned to the point where they were damaged, Feldberg said.
The changes to what had been a commanding group of towering trees caused an outcry from apartment residents, neighbors and officials with the city Departments of Planning and Recreations and Parks.
"This is terrible," said resident Tekesha Martinez, 29, last week as she and her children surveyed the courtyard blanketed in pieces of trunk and leafy branches. "We look like we had a natural disaster."
The trees were cut and pruned so that security cameras could be installed for a group of Morgan State University students who are moving in before the start of the school year, said Mark Gold, the apartment complex's owner representative. They also cast so much shade that criminals could hide easily, Gold said.
City officials said the apartment company did not violate Baltimore's forest conservation regulations because the rules only apply to development proposals affecting land areas of 20,000 square feet or more, said Environmental Planning Supervisor Beth Strommen.
"In effect, there's really a gap in our regulation," she said.
The Department of Planning does not have the power to regulate work on trees outside of development proposals, but Strommen said the department would work with the Department of Recreation and Parks' Forestry Division to try to expand the city regulations.
"It would have been our goal to save those trees," Strommen said. The Planning Department and Forestry Division are partners in TreeBaltimore, an initiative to significantly expand the number of trees in the city by 2036. "We're trying to double our tree canopy, and it's sort of counterintuitive to have people cutting trees down," Strommen said.
The written plan behind TreeBaltimore includes a recommendation that the city increase its authority to regulate trees on private property. The plan recommends a policy requiring private property owners to get the city arborist's approval before removing or damaging trees of a certain size or historical value, or trees maintained to meet landscaping or environmental requirements.
Similar laws exist in cities around the country, Feldberg said, but not in Baltimore.
City Councilman Robert W. Curran, whose district includes Marble Hall Gardens, said he is considering whether to introduce legislation. He would like to propose increased regulations but is still researching the specifics, he said.
"I feel the pain, and my neighbors feel the pain, of what happened, and I would like to prevent that from happening again," Curran said.
Curran has lived since 1959 across the street from the courtyard where the trees were downed, he said.
Residents told Curran what was happening to the trees, and when he saw some down and more damaged, he was devastated, he said.
"It looks so terrible just to see the trees like that," he said. "It brings tears to your eyes."
Standing in the courtyard last week, residents mourned the loss of the shade that covered their children as they played outside in the summer heat and allowed the whole court to comfortably barbecue together.
"During the weekend we're like a big family out here," Martinez said.
Gold said his company, Marble Hall Holdings, took over the apartment complex about a month ago and that the plan to cut down the trees was made by the previous owner, Northwood Apartments.
Although about 60 trees around the whole complex were initially targeted for cutting, Gold said he and the previous owners had only discussed removing trees in the courtyard, and he stopped the workers from cutting the rest.
Gold said some of the trees had dead wood and branches that grew dangerously close to the apartment buildings, but Feldberg said all the cut branches she saw were still alive. Feldberg also said some of the trees had been overpruned, suggesting that the complex had not hired a state-licensed tree expert to oversee the work.
Under state law, anyone hired to work on trees must be a licensed expert. Feldberg said she plans to contact the state Department of Natural Resources to investigate whether the apartment company broke the law.
Gold said he did not know which company was contracted to work on the trees. Northwood Apartments representatives could not be reached for comment.
The complex is in the Northwood Historic District, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1998. Before the land was developed, it was a gently hilly forest of elm, maple, pine and cherry trees, as well as oaks like the ones in the courtyard, said Dean R. Wagner, 71, a neighborhood resident who nominated the district to the National Register.
The complex and community were designed starting in the 1930s by architect John A. Ahlers, who made it a point to disturb existing landforms and vegetation as little as possible, Wagner said.
"It was an absolutely historic example of land development," Wagner said. "You use what you've got. You don't go in there with a bulldozer and start making something phony like, you know, White Marsh."
alia.malik@baltsun.com