WELLINGTON, Fla. — Village Walk's nearly 1,000 oak trees create a stunning canopy that drew many residents to the Wellington community. But now, those same beloved trees have become the center of a heated debate over safety and maintenance costs.
The homeowners association board is considering removing some of the oak trees due to problems caused by their roots, which are buckling sidewalks and infiltrating sewer lines. The situation has divided both the board and the community.
WATCH WPTV'S COVERAGE BELOW:
"You can see now that they're making this tunnel of trees," said Steve Brandes, an HOA board member who chose to live in Village Walk partly because of the trees.
However, Brandes and other residents are concerned about what they see as a push to remove many of the oaks.
"We've got concerted effort to basically remove many of our oak trees," Brandes said.
The board president emphasized that no final decisions have been made and no contracts have been signed. The board brought in Coulter and Harring, the original tree installers, to present options and gather community input.
"We're all here to get educated," Board president Bruce Ciarlariello said at the start of Monday night’s meeting.
The proposed solutions range from removing or replacing the oaks with easier-to-manage trees to simply increasing maintenance efforts. Despite assurances that options were being explored, many residents arrived at the meeting worried that clear-cutting had already been decided.
"This is a lot of hogwash," one resident said during the meeting.
However, others left feeling more optimistic about the process.
"I am absolutely delighted. I don't know how you convince this board to actually let you talk about alternatives and to actually present that there are other methods other than just completely eliminating all these trees. That's exactly what we've been asking for," another resident said.
Regardless of their position on the trees, residents agreed on one key point: community input should drive the decision.
"I think everybody here should have a voice on that and a vote," one resident said.
decisions are expected to be made soon, but an exact date is, at this time, unclear.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
