After months of challenges to city-issued tree removal permits — and some victories before an oversight board — the fight has reached Miami commissioners, where tree advocates faced a tougher reception.
For months, Miami residents fighting the removal of trees in their neighborhoods have increasingly turned to an obscure city appeals process — and, in some cases, won.
Last week, those battles reached the Miami City Commission, where the results suggest residents may face a tougher audience.
In two contested cases Thursday, commissioners sided with tree removal, including one involving a South Grove property where neighbors have spent months fighting to save a live oak slated for removal to make way for development.
The votes mark a new chapter in a tree-removal battle that in recent months has overwhelmed the city’s Historic and Environmental Preservation Board (HEPB), a citizen oversight board that hears appeals of tree-removal permits.
After just one such appeal was filed in all of 2025, at least 14 were in process by early summer, forcing the city to add a second monthly meeting. Another 10 appeals are on the board’s agenda Tuesday.
Read more: Tree Appeal Surge Overwhelms City Oversight Board
Until now, those disputes had largely played out before HEPB, where residents have sometimes succeeded in overturning removal permits. Thursday offered the first indication of how Miami’s five elected commissioners may respond.
One of those cases involved 3736 Irvington Ave., where neighboring resident Genevieve Apaza had challenged a city-issued permit allowing the live oak to be removed.
In July, Apaza won, with a 5-to-0 vote in her favor. Hers was the only appeal granted during a marathon eight-hour HEPB meeting that drew more than 100 residents, developers and attorneys.
But the property owner appealed that decision to the City Commission, where attorney Alejandro “Alex” Uribe argued that the tree was leaning toward a neighboring property and showed signs of disease.
In a 3-2 vote, commissioners reversed the HEPB ruling and reinstated the removal permit. District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo, who represents Coconut Grove, voted to preserve the tree.
Attorney David Winker, representing residents seeking to preserve the tree, said it was unusual for commissioners to override the commissioner representing the district where a disputed property is located.
“Really we should have won that one,” Winker said.
Commissioners were more united in another contested case Thursday, voting unanimously against a Sierra Club Miami Group challenge involving a property at 645 NE 64th St.
Sandy Moise, a leader of the Sierra Club Miami Group, said the outcome was no surprise within a city government that she believes has little interest in protecting the tree canopy.
“We expected them to vote against it,” Moise said. “We didn’t expect all five to vote against it, but we went in knowing we were going to lose, sadly because of the way the city is operating right now.”
Two other tree cases on Thursday’s commission agenda ended without contested votes.
At 3834 El Prado Blvd. in Coconut Grove, a long-running dispute over plans to remove 10 hardwood trees and five palms for construction of a new single-family home was withdrawn after the property owner and neighbors reached an agreement that would preserve some of the trees.
Another case, involving a mahogany tree at 501 NE 55th Terrace, was withdrawn by the appellant — a neighborhood association opposing the tree’s removal — before commissioners considered it.
Moise called that outcome a “major disappointment.”
“It’s unfortunate that it was withdrawn because that tree should have been saved,” Moise said.
In the Northeast 64th Street case, Moise said the Sierra Club intends to keep fighting the commission’s decision.
“We are going to push this further,” she said.
Separately, Winker said opponents intend to challenge both the Northeast 64th Street and Irvington decisions in court.
Four of the appeal items on HEPB’s Tuesday agenda involve three Coconut Grove properties. One involves the proposed Lincoln condominium project at 3151 SW 27th Ave., although city records show that appeal may be withdrawn. Two others involve the same property at 3161 Gifford Lane. Those cases were continued from the board’s July meeting.
The fourth Grove appeal involves 3300 S. Moorings Way. That case also has been requested for withdrawal after the parties reached an agreement, according to Winker.
The two Gifford Lane appeals remain on the agenda.
The special HEPB meeting begins Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Miami City Hall.
