A Bay area couple has been hit with a whopping fine of nearly $1 million dollars after removing trees from the property they owned, after officials said they violated Oakland’s protected tree law.
Matthew Bernard and Lynn Warner of Emeryville purchased the lot behind the Claremont Resort and Club in North Oakland in 2019. In 2021 and 2022, the city claimed the landowner had illegally started cutting down trees without the proper permits, per a city council agenda report.
The city said the couple ignored warnings about removing the trees without a permit, suggesting they had even done so on two neighboring lots.
Last year, when the couple tried to apply for permits to build a single-family home on the lot they were denied, being told they had already reportedly violated the city’s Protected Tree ordinance.
The city claimed they had removed native trees to the area like live oak and broad-leaf maples. Staff said they also had gathered plenty of evidence of what they had done.
The couple was then issued a fine of $915,135.40, the maximum fine for cutting down what the city said was 38 trees, per the Oaklandside. Bernard appealed the matter to the city council, per the city’s tree law.
Council members attempted to deal with it both at the end of 2025 and again in April, but could not come to an agreement on the fine the couple would have to pay.
On Tuesday, a majority of Oakland City Council members voted that the city’s tree ordinance was violated and the landowners must pay the nearly $1 million fine.
The ordinance says that “A violation shall be liable for all costs associated with the investigation and enforcement of this chapter by the city.”
The couple tried to dispute the claim that dozens of trees were removed.
“We dispute there were 38 trees removed,” Bernard said, per the report. “Some trees fell prior to our purchase, others fell during storms.”
He also pleaded with the council to drop the fine and promised to plant new trees after they build get their new home built.
Council member Kevin Jenkins put out a video on Instagram before the vote and said that several on the council felt that the owner should “be fined to the fullest extent of the law.”
At the meeting he called on staff to vote yes, saying that “As a council we have to decide if we’re going to enforce our laws and do they mean anything.”
Council member Rowena Brown said that the fine was too harsh and asked it to be reduced by several hundred thousand dollars.
“I believe a truly equitable approach requires us to distinguish between preventable loss and inevitable removal,” Brown said, per the report.
In the end, the fine passed 5-3 with council members Jenkins, Noel Gallo, Janani Ramachandran, Zac Unger and Charlene Wang voting yes. While Brown, Ken Houston, and Carroll Fife voted no.
The Post reached out to the city and couple for further comment.
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