Vic Remmers faces protesters as he attempts to cut ancient trees on two sites in Portland

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KBOO
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Air date: 
Tue, 09/15/2015 - 12:00am
Local developer goes after old-growth trees
Portland residents in two separate neighborhoods engaged in civil disobedience today to stop ancient trees from being cut down by developer Vic Remmers.

A neighborhood group in Southeast Portland has banded together to stop the cutting of two old-growth trees near 41st Avenue and Clinton Street. The trees are on a property owned by developer Vic Remmers.
Last month, Remmers’ company, Everett Custom Homes, demolished the single home on the lot, a structure that was built over 100 years ago. Remmers plans to build three new houses on the lot.
To make room for the new development, two of the four old-growth Douglas Firs on the lot, including the largest of the four, were cut down on Saturday.

Neighborhood residents mobilized quickly, attempting to prevent the destruction of the two remaining trees.
This included gathering at the site this morning, cheering on a protestor who climbed one of the two remaining trees.
The protestor, Elizabeth Bennett, an assistant professor at Lewis and Clark College, remained in the tree, on a perch about 40 feet up, until about two o’clock this afternoon.
She came down after assurances from Remmers that no trees would be cut down today.
To get more on the story, we spoke with John Roberts, who lives in the Richmond neighborhood near the two Douglas Firs.

The developer, Vic Remmers, writes on his website: “We are very aware that being part of a neighborhood means being a good neighbor.  That’s why I’m a fixture at City Council and neighborhood association meetings, and I work tirelessly with the community before the first nail is pounded. The neighborhoods were there first, and it is our responsibility to be a welcome improvement and a worthy addition.”
But neighbors say that Remmers and his company did not make any attempts to work with neighbors on this development.

The Clinton street neighborhood was not the only place in Portland to come under the axe of developer Vic Remmers today.  In the Eastmoreland neighborhood this morning, south of Reed college, residents were surprised to see a tree demolition crew show up to try to pull down three ancient Sequoia trees.

They were especially surprised since they’ve been actively negotiating with the owner of the property, developer Vic Remmers, and have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase the property and protect the trees.  The neighborhood association head said that he last met with Remmers last Wednesday, and left that meeting with the impression that the negotiations were going well.

Instead, less than a week later, Vic Remmers sent out a demolition crew with no prior notice to the neighbors.
For more, KBOO’s Jenka Soderberg spoke with the head of the Eastmoreland neighborhood association, Robert McCullough.
 
Mayor Hales recently created a 25-member Stakeholder Advisory Committee to assist with the city’s residential infill project. The objective is to ensure that new houses are well integrated into the fabric of the neighborhood. Vic Remmers is one of the committee members, and their first official meeting is tomorrow (Sept. 15th) at 6pm.

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