Many homeowners may not realize that the city owns and is responsible to maintain the landscaping in the parkway and center median along the entire length of Paseo de las Verdes. The city also owns and maintains the parkway landscaping on Paseo de las Flores from Quail Gardens Drive to the center island next to the entry monument. These streets are public so Encinitas Ranch has no authority to maintain or enhance the landscaping. This was done purposely to allow for people to park on either of these streets to access the trail system.

All we can do is lobby the city to properly maintain the landscaping on these two streets with the parkways and center island. We have regularly engaged with the city for many years in this effort. We believe that we have a very strong partnership where we report on problem areas and work together to address issues on HOA and city property.

To further exacerbate the situation, the city is required to follow their Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practice which means that they cannot use certain chemicals or fertilizers to treat for pests and disease. As a result, the three large canary palms on Paseo de las Verdes were lost due to being infected by the palm weevil. Those three iconic trees have now been replaced with three African tulip trees. Those trees will take a number of years to fully mature but as they grow they will turn into beautiful trees with very colorful flowers.

Members of the board and the Landscaping Committee met with city representatives on Tuesday, July 29th to express our concerns over the replacement trees in the center median and the overall health of the parkway trees on Paseo de las Verdes. The city indicated that they will investigate replanting those trees to provide better spacing in the median, conduct soil treating to determine if there is any nutrient deficiencies that they address as well as maintain the coastal oaks along the entire length of the street. Much of that work will be done in the late fall or winter. Now is not the right time of the year for tree maintenance and planting.

We will continue to monitor this situation closely.