A costly cut
City officials said the trees were located within a public right-of-way and therefore fall under Public Works’ jurisdiction. Under San Francisco’s StreetTreeSF program, which took effect in 2017, the city is responsible for maintaining more than 125,000 street trees and repairing related sidewalk damage, funded by a voter-approved parcel tax. Damaging or improperly pruning a street tree – including “topping,” where large branches are cut back to stubs – is prohibited and can result in fines.
