2 Million Dollars in Insurance

The original landscape design sets out the number of trees and bushes, the type, and the general location. Most of the trees were planted in groves to simulate a natural environment much like an urban forest. The bushes were mostly rhododendrons and variegated dogwood, the ground was covered with plants like St Johns Wart and Cotoneaster. All of which proved to be extremely low maintenance - until the new millennium - when strata corporation management began disregarding owner concerns over funding being diverted from landscaping into other interests - allowing weed control via toxic chemicals to poison the soil, untrimmed bushes to smother and destroy ground cover leaving the ground bare, eroding top soil, and tree roots exposed to the sun, topping trees destructively - leaving plants stressed with root weevils, birch borers and other uncontrolled pests, cutting down trees, tearing out bushes, building extra decks and fences - and retaliating against those who complained - all of which took priority over the strata corporation's duty to maintain the common property and assets for the benefit of all.















The Strata Property Act, the Coquitlam Tree Cutting Permit bylaw, a Restrictive Covenant that runs with the land, and the registered strata bylaws should have stopped or prevented approximately half of the 282 trees that were planted by the original landscape architect from being cut down - if all the laws were not ignored. Approximately 150 trees were cut down in spite of owner protests and the replacement price for each mature tree being an estimated $15,000 with no guarantee of survival and the fact that only about 6 trees were identified by the arborist as high risk.

Section 71 of the Strata Property Act requires a 75% approval vote of the Owners for any significant change in the use or appearance of common property. That is the law. The terms of the contract for the building envelope project specifically protected trees, yet only the two trees in front of unit 409 were protected - following my numerous phone calls and letters. About 150 were eventually cut down. The trees I saved were among them - cut down without authority. The strata records show trees cut without a vote, by council or otherwise, and without the required 75% approval vote of owners for any significant change to the original landscape design, pictured above - in breach of the duty to maintain common assets.

Expensive landscaping that original owners like myself paid for has been destroyed to build extra decks like this one, is an endless eyesore, year after year. This the view from our living room, dining room, kitchen, and deck, which replaces our original view of beautiful and valuable greenery. The detriment to property values from cutting trees has been predictable, substantial, and prolonged. Our loss of enjoyment beyond measure. The ultimate damages revealed by time.

Important trees planted by the landscape architect were cut down needlessly while nuisance trees planted by owners were left standing.

This fir tree planted by owners has been impeding the entrance for years. All of the fir trees came from our former neighbour, without the required vote, none of them were in the designs of the original landscape architects.















Thousands of ground cover plants and shrubs were cut down and torn out as well, leaving us living in an environment with nothing but an unsightly stump, bare dirt, enormous weeds, and pest infested shrub at our front door for years. Trees that were planted in groves and could not stand alone were uprooted and blown to the ground by the wind, while many of the remaining trees are now dying as the water table is dropping and their roots overheat without their protective groves and ground cover.















These areas at the front of the units were originally planted with bushes and greenery. Unfortunately, this is how it has looked in front of unit 409 for over 3 years - after all the greenery was torn out and the money for remedial landscaping was spent to build extra decks. Special levy funds were diverted from repairing the strata plan decks and landscaping for the benefit of all - into removing trees and demolishing and reconstructing extra decks for a very privileged minority - with a corresponding sales history showing what seems to me to be a mass exodus from the lower units.

Without insurance or litigation the cost to the strata corporation for replacing the volume of trees that were cut down is truly prohibitive. It is nevertheless important to the environment, property values, and owners' use and enjoyment of common property that as many as possible of the most significant trees be replaced without delay.

With no information about the geotechnical history or current sinking problems or instructions from council to consider such issues, the strata corporation's landscape architect estimated the cost for landscaping 10-foot areas around buildings without replacing the lost trees to be approximately $150,000. If our experts are not fully informed and properly instructed the value of their service is compromised - sort of like with computers - garbage in, garbage out.