Here in Wilmington we are blessed with lovely old live oak trees all around town so we (or most of us) take preserving these very seriously. About three years ago Publix supermarket chain was coming to town and planned to raze all of the live oaks on the property. We fought, emailed the county commissioners, threatened a boycott of the store and guess what? We and the trees won!
We have a Tex-Mex restaurant called Islands here, a local establishment that’s sort of like an everyman’s Chipotle, popular with families and teens and does lots of school fundraisers and is just a great neighbor. It’s nestled amongst, you guessed it, beautiful live oak trees.
Islands owners got the dreaded notice, their lease isn’t being renewed and the land is being sold. They let us know they are moving just up the street so yay, they will still be a part of our neighborhood.
Sadly the new establishment to be built on the property is, wait for it… a car wash. Oh we need another one of those like we need a hole in the head! And, the live oaks were going to be removed.
Well, here in Wilmington do NOT mess with our live oaks. As Caliper Capital found out. Yup, we email bombed our county commissioners and Caliper Capital whose CEO waved the white flag today. Per Michael Werner, preservationist extraordinaire in these parts, the trees will remain, the car wash will be moved back, an arborist will be hired to ensure the trees’ safety and viability during construction. The whole process took less than three days.
It doesn’t feel like it these last few years but when we join together and stick together we can win the good fight. Makes me smile imagining the trees sighing “thanks friends”.