Buckhead Property Owner Fights Tree Removal Fine

North Buckheead property owner Evan Hardin faces a $52,770  fine for trees removed from an undeveloped lot at 680 Mountain Way, although he had no knowledge of the trees' removal.

Although he believes unknown thieves took  the 39 trees, he is responsible for their loss under a city of Atlanta ordinance that he calls “Draconian,” "unconstitutional" and “blatantly unfair.” Hardin, who lives in North Buckhead at another location, says he first learned of the trees' removal several weeks ago when he received a certified letter from the city notifying him of the fine.

“I don’t live here,” Hardin said at the site. “Nobody is saying I cut the trees, and nobody is saying I gave permission to cut the trees.”

The site, with a steep bank facing  Mountain Way and adjacent to the Ga. 400 overpass, is nearly inaccessible, Hardin said. He said he hadn’t even been on the land for a couple of years before receiving the notice of the fine.

He has appealed the fine, and will have a hearing at 6:30 p.m. June  15 before the city’s Tree Conservation Commission, composed of volunteers who are not city employees.The hearing will be at 55 Trinity Ave, Committee Room 2.

Hardin’s undeveloped land sits next to a home construction site at 688  Mountain Way, being developed by Jaya Momaya. Hardin believes that construction workers at the site observed the trees on his land and saw the chance to make money by selling them. "That's the only rationale for it," he said. 

He believed the thieves trespassed on his land during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays last year, when construction stopped, to illegally remove the trees.  “Somebody saw the opportunity to harvest the trees  and take them to the mill,” he said. 

Contrary to some reports, Hardin said he doesn’t cast any blame on the 688 Mountain Way developer. “I don’t think the homeowner or builder had any knowledge” of the trees’ removal, he said. 

Lanii Thomas, public information officer for the Office of Planning and Community Development, said the city tree protection ordinance requires property owners to obtain a permit to remove trees on their property. She said that Momaya obtained a permit to remove a certain number of trees from the lot at 688 Mountain Way, but that a city arborist found more trees had been removed than authorized. Momaya was reportedly fined $41,190. The arborist when inspecting the site also discovered the trees removed from Hardin’s property at 680 Mountain Way, she said.

“There were no permits on record for the trees that were gone” at 680 Mountain Way,  Thomas said.

About Hardin’s theory that thieves took the trees, Thomas said “We can’t comment on Mr. Hardin,” and cited his appeal. “All we’re doing is enforcing the ordinance. It’s not our position to say how the trees were removed or who removed them.”

Hardin, who’s hired an attorney, an arborist and a surveyor, says he obtained through the open records law the arborist’s document that led to the fine, and that photos included are of 688 Mountain Way and adjoining properties, but not 680 Mountain Way. He said the some of the stumps shown are of trees that fell years ago.

He said he’s very familiar with the city’s tree law, having removed trees from the property where his home sits and  taken down fallen trees over the years. He says he's consistently received the necessary permits and paid the required compensation for tree removal.

“I have a long history of doing the right thing,” he said.