OAKLAND, CA – Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) filed a lawsuit challenging the City of Oakland, California’s Protected Tree Ordinance.
Plaintiffs Matthew Bernard and Lynn Warner own an undeveloped residential plot in Oakland. In 2020, the Oakland Fire Prevention Bureau ordered them to clear dead and dying trees from their land or face ongoing fines. Now, because the couple removed the trees without a permit from the City of Oakland, the City Council has levied a staggering $915,000 fine, threatened to place a lien on the property, and halted all building permits.
TPPF argues that the City’s actions constitute an uncompensated taking of private property, impose unconstitutional permit conditions without any nexus to actual public harm, and violate the Eighth Amendment’s protection against excessive fines.
“This is the type of arbitrary overreach that gives local government a bad name,” said TPPF Director of Litigation Chance Weldon. “Folks have a right to do basic property maintenance on their own land without risking penalties that will ruin their lives.”
“You can burn down an entire forest in California and the criminal penalty is only $50,000,” added TPPF Attorney Laura Beth Latimer. “But Oakland is fining Mr. Bernard and Ms. Warner over eighteen times that amount for cutting down their own trees on their own property. It sounds like something out of a dystopian novel, but it’s a devastating reality for our clients.”
To read more about the case, click here.
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