The Tree Question

If you're rebuilding in Altadena right now, you've probably hit this moment: the architectural plans are coming together, the permit process is in motion, and someone — your architect, the county, your own conscience — raises the question of trees.

Where do they go? Which ones? How many? Do they meet the requirements?

It's one of those questions that seems like it should have a simple answer, and doesn't. LA County requires specific quantities, specific sizes, canopy coverage relative to your frontage, and a plant palette that's at least 80% native or drought-tolerant. The right answer also depends on your lot's orientation, its slope, what's left on the ground, what fire zone you're in. Two properties a block apart can have very different answers.

I've been walking these neighborhoods since January. The rebuild is real and it's moving fast. What I keep seeing is that the tree question gets deferred — or answered quickly and incorrectly — because there isn't an easy place to take it.

So we built one.

It's called a Tree Placement Study. You submit your site plan and address, we do the work — species, placement, sizing, county compliance — and return a single sheet you can use. Seven business days, flat rate. A blank plan is fine. We start from the site.

If you're in the middle of this and that question is still open, craft-la.com/treeplan is where to take it.

— Stephen