Old oak tree coming down in Rehoboth

The clock is officially clicking on a specimen oak that has stood in Rehoboth for more than a century.

During a meeting June 25, the Rehoboth Beach Parks and Shade Tree Commission voted 4-0 in favor of allowing the owner of 50 Park Ave. to remove an oak tree on the property. Sussex Tree owner Jeff Meredith has estimated it is at least 150 years old.

The Park Avenue property used to be home to the Corner Cupboard, but that property was sold, the building torn down, and the lot split in two several years ago. The tree is in the southwest corner of the original lot. Meredith said its root system covers the entire smaller lot. A new house has already been built on the second lot.

City Arborist Liz Lingo said the oak tree had a 51-inch caliper, which she said city code defines as the diameter of the tree measured at one foot above the ground. She recommended saving the tree.

Meredith, who has 31 years of experience, attended the meeting on behalf of the property owner. He said even if an attempt was made to save it, the tree would not survive construction because the tree’s feeder-root system near the surface would be destroyed.

The tree may have a 51-inch caliper one foot off the ground, but not too much higher it splits into two, each trunk a specimen oak in its own right. One of those trunks leans toward where any new structure would be built.

Meredith said he would want the tree removed if it were his property.

Lingo said no official plans have been submitted to the city, but she said the property owner had shown her possible construction scenarios, none of which included the tree.

Rehoboth-based attorney Vincent Robertson, representing the property owner, said as long as planning designs were reasonable and met city code related to setbacks, the property owner should be allowed to remove the tree, or, he said, the city should be prepared to buy the lot.

The old oak tree was one of five whose fates were up to the commission during the meeting.

For a property at 57 Columbia Ave., the commission voted to allow the property owner to cut down two diseased wild cherry trees, one with a 12-inch caliper and one with 24-inch caliper, found in the city right of way, but required him to replace them with one tree, at his cost.

The commission also approved the removal of a diseased silver maple, with a 26-inch caliper, on Scarborough Avenue for the property at 229 Laurel St.

The one tree not approved for removal was a honey locust with a 10-inch caliper in front of Nicola Pizza at 71 Rehoboth Ave.

Owner Nick Caggiano Jr. said the tree is blocking all the restaurant’s signage. He offered to plant four trees anywhere in the city if his request was approved.

Prior to the vote denying the request, committee member Marcia Maldeis said she would think about it if a smaller business were making the request, but, she said, people will find Nicola’s.