CBS12.com:  Homeowner battles HOA to remove damaging tree

January 20, 2014 — Story by J. Israel Balderas / CBS 12 News

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla — The City of West Palm Beach requires that developers plant a specific number of hardwood trees in a neighborhood when homes are built. One common tree that’s cheap and easy to put in the ground is the live oak tree. But once it grows, its roots can wreak havoc on developed property. It seems easy for someone to say, “Just remove the tree.” But for West Palm Beach resident Mario Burbano, he says the difficulty has come from having to his homeowners association to do so.   “He looked at my pictures and said, ‘this is your tree?’” and I said, ‘Yes it is,’ said Burbano, as he recalled a conversation with his HOA on-site property manager. “And I’d like to have it removed.” Last summer, the HOA management for the Sail Harbour townhome community got a permit from West Palm Beach to remove and replace 166 oak trees. “In between every swale, there was a tree,” remembers Burbano. “So they removed every other tree because in those swales are the sewage system lines.”  Read more:  http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_12629.shtml