A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has issued an injunction against the city of Pasadena preventing it from enforcing stop work orders and the tree protection ordinance against Pasadena Unified School District’s ongoing soil remediation and tree removal work.
Judge Joseph Lipner issued the order after a Wednesday morning hearing. The order listed nine school where the city could not enforce its stop work orders they included:
-Blair High School
-Cleveland Elementary School
-Field Elementary School
-Jefferson Elementary School
-John Muir High School
-Longfellow Elementary School
-Octavia E. Butler Magnet
-San Rafael Elementary School
-Washington Elementary STEM Magnet School
“Enforcement of the stop-work notices prevented the district from completing remediation, leaving impacted areas unfinished and jeopardizing students’ access to safe outdoor space when the new school year begins,” PUSD said in a statement provided by spokesperson Hilda Ramirez Horvath. “Put plainly, the city was asking to stop the district from making its schools safe and usable for children.”
Pasadena spokesperson Lisa Derderian said the city was disappointed with the court’s ruling and that any future removals done by the district will be relying on state law and the court’s order to do so.
“While this is not a final ruling on the merits, the court’s order permits PUSD to remove trees and prohibits the city from enforcing the tree protection ordinance on nine campuses and most of the Education Center pending trial,” Derderian said. “The city has not contested PUSD’s right to exempt classroom facilities from local zoning ordinances such as the tree protection ordinance, and the primary issue before the court was whether some properties are classroom uses for the purposes of PUSD’s resolution.”
At a previous court hearing the judge declined to issue an injunction against the city. According to the district, that decision was based on Pasadena’s assurances that it would not attempt to enforce stop work orders or require permits and that the city has since said it wanted to do both.
PUSD has yet to provide a list of district sites that will not be able to fully reopen before the new school year begins this month. Prior to the city stepping in, local advocates have protested at campuses and district headquarters in an attempt to save trees from removal.
The district has blamed those protests and the city’s intervention as delaying students from returning to safe campuses, an argument that tree advocates say is a false framing of the situation.
In May, PUSD announced the now controversial plan to remediate soil found to be contaminated in the wake of the Eaton fire included the removal of 193 trees. In the face of public pressure district officials said for protected trees it would work to find alternative methods for remediation other than removing the tree.
To date, advocates say about 115 trees have been removed.
The next court date is scheduled for Oct. 30 at 9:30 a.m., according to Lipner’s order.