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Cotta said Wednesday he would render a decision within three days of the public hearing.

Cain said she recently toured the area with First Selectman Jon Zagrodzky, Director of Public Works Ed Gentile, and Darien Land Trust Executive Director Elizabeth Mathus.

“We are in a position where we have discussed retaining at least half of these trees,” Cain said during Wednesday’s hearing. “In order to do that, the sidewalk would either be rerouted slightly out toward the road, or into a neighboring property, and the property owner has agreed that in two places the sidewalk can get pushed into her property. That saves three trees.”

One of the trees that would be saved is the American elm, a tree that holds a special place for resident Jane Schmidt.

Schmidt said she understood having to remove the trees that caused sidewalk buckling, but she noted other trees, like the American elm, are not in the way.

“It’s a magnificent tree, and it really is not impeding. I think I would hate to have to put my naked body up there and see who would go through, because I really do not wish to see this cut down. I think there’s plenty of room there,” Schmidt said. “That’s my main tree. The others, I don’t know them as well. This tree I know, and it does not want to be cut down.”

David Gioiella, who lives near the trees and said he has filed complaints with the town about the sidewalk, said he utilizes the walkway with his young children.

“Some of us have small kids, and we use the sidewalk a lot to get to the beach, to school, to the Post Road, and it’s really dangerous right now the way it is,” he said, noting children on their bikes sometimes have to go out into the road to avoid the crumbling sidewalk. “I think we have to prioritize safety over trees, as much as I like trees.”

Another resident, Kristin Harris, said the combination of speeding cars on Nearwater Lane with children walking and on bicycles is unsafe.

“I say a little prayer every time our two boys head down to the beach because I know they’re going to end up on the road and I know cars are going very closely,” she said.

Harris also said she routinely jogs through the neighborhood, and she’s sprained her ankle three times trying to navigate the buckling in the sidewalk.

Kathryn Metcalfe, who lives on Nearwater Lane and has five of the trees bordering her property, said the safety issue needs to be addressed, but “trees are not the solution.” She said ongoing maintenance of sidewalks could help keep smaller issues from becoming bigger ones down the road.

Metcalfe said she found it “unacceptable” that a planting plan hadn’t been developed first, and that the trees have to be taken down all at once.

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“The impact of the canopy, of the aesthetics and on the look of the street is enormous,” she said.

Metcalfe also said she was concerned about the lack of communication about the tree removal, as she only found out about the plan when the notices were posted last month.

Cain said there were discussions with town officials about having a “really robust” planting plan for the trees that can’t be saved, but she said multiple new trees would have to be planted to cover the loss of one mature tree.

Mathus, who also spoke Wednesday, said there is “tremendous value” in keeping a mature tree in place, even if it’s for the short term. She mentioned having a sequential planting to ensure the longevity of the tree canopy.

“There are ecological benefits, including stormwater absorption, increased soil stability, water purification, extensive shading and habitat preservation for hundreds of insects and birds. To replace a mature tree with a young, immature tree, is not a one-for-one exchange,” Mathus said.

Zagrodzky also spoke Wednesday, and said there are “a lot of competing interests” in the matter. He said the town should be preserving nature where possible, but there is a responsibility to provide safe sidewalks for users.

“I think we can get to a compromise that allows this sidewalk to be maintained and rebuilt while preserving some of those trees. But the reality is that some of them are going to have to come down,” he said.

“We’ve had a thoughtful discussion about this. I assure you we are very mindful of all of this, but we’re also mindful of the tradeoffs we need to make so in the aggregate, Darien remains a great place with as many trees as we can keep, with as safe a sidewalk as we can have, with traffic managed in the best way that we can, such that it’s slowed down but not too slow.”

Cain said she was concerned about the town’s reliance on residents to speak up about these issues.

“We don’t seem to have an embedded framework that respects and protects our natural resources. I don’t think it’s practical or sustainable to rely on us,” she said.

Notably, Cain said she hoped the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development, which is due to be updated soon, could be “transformative” for the town.

The POCD serves as a guiding light for the town in long-term decision-making on issues like land use change and resource protection.

View the full tree hearing on Darien TV79.

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