Residents of a Carrollton neighborhood said they are want to keep nearly three dozen trees the city says pose a safety hazard.
City officials said 33 trees in the Homestead neighborhood have to be cut down because they obstruct stop signs.
"We received a complaint about some about trees obstructing stop signs, so we did an investigation," said Scott Hudson, director of Carrollton's environmental services.
Residents said they moved to the neighborhood because of the tree-lined streets they envisioned would one day shade the streets, creating a beautiful canopy.
"It's been proven that the value of a home is greater if you have mature trees. By the city removing those trees, they are destroying all of that," said Ty Albright, a board member of the Homestead Homeowners Association.
Residents were hoping for an alternative to cutting down the trees. They have said they would be happy to prune the trees to keep them from blocking any part of the stop signs.
"If they approach the stop sign, and the tree crosses the line of sight and provides some obstruction of the stop sign, that's the problem that just can't be resolved by pruning," Hudson said.
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Neighbors had hoped to save some of the trees, but the city's list is final.
"Every tree is important, but we still have an overriding responsibility to protect public safety, and that is our concern here," Hudson said. "I'd rather have a dead tree than a dead child."
Hudson said homeowners can remove the trees themselves, or the city will remove the tree at no cost. Homeowners can also transplant or donate the tree -- at the city's expense -- for use in a city project.
