Who's Keeping San Vicente's Coral Trees Alive? What Changed on Brentwood's Median This Fall

Two layers of law protect the coral trees on the San Vicente Boulevard median. The first is a 1976 Historic-Cultural Monument designation. The second is a city ordinance that has been in effect since May 31, 1980, and requires that the trees "shall be preserved and maintained with proper irrigation and pruning." Even so, the irrigation under the median had been shut down for months this year before anyone noticed. The trees showed the problem first.

The protections on paper are real. This summer, though, the work of keeping the trees alive fell mostly to a private endowment, the Brentwood Homeowners Association and volunteers with shovels. The rules do not settle what the median becomes next. The city is now making that decision, one project and one schedule at a time.

The water was off, and the trees showed it first

"All the trees, all at once, started looking very unhealthy," Nancy Freedman told Brentwood News in August. She has advocated for the median's trees for years through her nonprofit, the Coral Tree Endowment Fund. An investigation traced the cause to the irrigation system buried under the median, which had shut down. The soil dried out and hardened to the point that it could no longer absorb water easily, even after repairs began. Freedman's warning was that trees under stress pick up pathogens that can kill them.

The city has since begun repairing the system block by block, and some trees are getting water again. Brentwood News reports that the system is old and failing in several places, so the repair will probably take a long time. Replacing the whole system has been estimated at $1 million to $2 million. Oliver Hall of the Department of Public Works says StreetsLA has identified six dead trees among an estimated 85 along the median.

The 85 figure looks different next to the historical record. In 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that roughly 120 coral trees were planted around 1950 along a five-mile stretch running from the western edge of the West Los Angeles VA campus to the coast in Santa Monica. That original count includes the Santa Monica section, so the two numbers are not a direct comparison. Even so, the Los Angeles stretch has thinned. Separately, 13 coral trees on the Santa Monica section between 26th Street and Ocean Avenue were recently removed, and officials there cited disease.

The Saturday shift, then and now

When the water stopped, this is who stepped in:

• The Coral Tree Endowment Fund hired a water-truck operator to drive the length of San Vicente and water the trees by hand. It also brought in an outside arborist, TreeCareLA, to assess every coral tree on the strip.
• The Brentwood Homeowners Association organized a mulching morning in mid-August near Gretna Green. Roughly two dozen volunteers packed mulch around the tree bases to hold moisture in the hardened ground.
• The Coral Tree Crew, led by Emily Loughran with the BHA, came back on Saturday, Sept. 26, with UCLA students and residents. They spread fresh mulch across the median near Montana Avenue. Freedman, landscaper Tracey Price and a staff member from Councilwoman Traci Park's office were there too.

That same Saturday, the first Brentwood Bash closed the eastbound side of San Vicente between Montana and Barrington from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., bringing in more than 40 vendors. A few hundred feet from the Bash, the volunteers were working on the median with wheelbarrows.

This arrangement is not new. The 2011 Times story described the same pattern: the city planted the trees but had limited funds to care for them, and for decades residents covered much of the pruning cost. City crews at the time were trimming or removing trees only in emergencies because of budget cuts. That year, organizers of the then-new Brentwood Coral Tree Endowment Fund had raised about $300,000 toward a $500,000 goal. The goal was to earn enough income from the fund to pay for the trees' care permanently, and Betty White gave $50,000. Fifteen years later, that fund paid for the water truck.

Two layers of protection, several readings

The monument designation and the ordinance do not protect the same thing. The city's list of monuments names No. 148 as the trees between 26th Street and Bringham Avenue. The median itself is not part of that listing. The 1980 San Vicente Scenic Corridor Specific Plan goes further. Section 7A covers the trees and what happens when one dies:

Any tree lost to disease or disaster "shall be replaced by the City of Los Angeles with a healthy specimen which is at least a 24-inch box size Coral Tree."

Section 7B protects the strip itself. It says the plan's purpose is "to preserve, in perpetuity, the landscaped median strip," and it bars any "major alteration" without a public hearing before the Board of Public Works.

The agencies involved read that language differently. Loughran argues that "coral tree" is a defined term in the plan, meaning Erythrina caffra, so a fallen tree cannot be replaced with a different species. A Department of City Planning spokesperson said the monument designation "does not legally require exact replacement," though the Specific Plan does call for in-kind replacement. Pete Brown, a spokesperson for Councilwoman Park, said neither protection prohibits planting another species as long as it is not planted in place of coral trees. StreetsLA took the strictest position last November: only coral trees. That is why the greening project includes no new trees.

These differences matter because no one disputes how badly the trees have fared. Carolyn LoBuglio, chair of the Brentwood Community Council, said that any replacement, whether oak, sycamore or something else, would take decades to grow the kind of canopy the coral trees already provide. Longtime activist Teri Kahn said the inconsistency itself is the problem. In her account, the city has blocked new irrigation lines because of concerns about old plumbing, and permission to plant trees has been granted one year and denied the next.

The greening project covers three medians and a fixed scope

The San Vicente Median Greening Project is paid for by a $1.24 million state grant arranged by Sen. Ben Allen. It covers the medians between Montana and Darlington avenues. The city's project page describes three changes: removing the high-water-use turf, planting drought-tolerant landscaping and installing high-efficiency irrigation. StreetsLA says it has designed the planting around the coral trees' root systems and will protect the root zones. The page also says the grant fixed the scope and location in advance and that the funds cannot be repurposed.

That fixed scope is why it matters that the greening project and the irrigation repair are separate efforts. The grant's new irrigation will serve three medians. The $1 million to $2 million estimate is for the failing system along the whole corridor, and the grant cannot pay for it. At a 2025 community meeting, residents raised exactly this point: irrigation problems and gopher damage on other sections of the median were not being addressed.

The schedule has also moved. In August 2025, the plan called for bidding in mid-2026 and construction starting in late 2026. The city's project page, last updated in April 2026, now shows this:

1. Design development, Spring 2025 to Summer 2026
2. Bid and award, Winter 2026 to Spring 2027
3. Construction, Summer 2027 to Spring 2028

The page notes that the schedule is subject to change. As of this October, no construction should be expected on the three medians before next summer. Whether removing the grass counts as a "major alteration" that requires a Section 7B public hearing is still an open question.

The grass runners use is turf on the city's plans

The median has long been one of the Westside's best-known running routes. Discover Los Angeles describes it as four miles from Federal Avenue to Ocean Avenue, or an eight-mile loop. At its widest, a dozen runners can run side by side, and local track teams practice there. The 2011 Times called the median a popular route for joggers and dog walkers.

The city's greening page describes the same space this way: "not intended for pedestrians, cross-throughs, or any active or passive activities." At the 2025 meeting, some residents pointed out that the project did not include pedestrian crossings or walking paths on the median. The water question has a long history too. A Brentwood arborist told the Times in 2011 that the heavy watering that kept the grass green could leave the trees' roots in clay soil open to oak root fungus. Price says the block-by-block repair should eventually get water to the coral tree roots without soaking the surface, where the trees are most vulnerable.

Where the next decisions will be made

Brentwood News is running a four-part series on the median. Part Three, which has not yet been published, will cover the greening plan and its drought-resistant planting. Councilwoman Park's office describes its role as coordinating among city departments. It says it is working with the Brentwood Community Council and other neighborhood groups as the plans develop. Ray Klein, the BHA's representative to the Community Council, noted that the City Council could in theory amend both the monument designation and the Specific Plan, though no one recalls the city ever reversing a designation.

For the trees themselves, the work is still being done by hand. The Coral Tree Crew takes volunteers for future preservation workdays at [email protected].

At Team Pinckert, we follow San Vicente the way our clients do, block by block and season by season, and the coral trees are part of what makes these blocks Brentwood. If you live along the median and are weighing a move, we would be glad to talk through how we present a home on this stretch, from the canopy outside the front windows to the details buyers ask about.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.