PORT TOWNSEND — No trees will be cut down on the Morgan Hill Scout House property, but some brush will be cleared.
Developer Vern Garrison recently applied for a permit to “remove noxious shrubs and other small vegetation and grasses around the structure and throughout the property.”
The application continues: “No trees over six-inch diameter to be removed.”
Concerns that trees will be felled on the property as the Scout House is removed and the land is developed is the latest controversy surrounding the property sold by the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts of America to Garrison earlier this year.
In an Aug. 16 letter, city Long Range Planning Director Jeff Randall said laws state that brush and tree removal cannot coexist in the same permit.
On Friday, Garrison said he has revised his application not to cut down any trees.
Tree removal was never the intent, anyway, he added.
“The site is choked by overgrowth,” he said.
Brush will be cleared away from the Scout House and on the property to clear way for surveyors and improve the general health of the land, Garrison said.
The lots on which the Scout House sits at the intersection of Quincy and Cosgrove streets were put up for sale earlier this month.
Asking price for the six parcels totals nearly $2.25 million — land that Garrison bought four months ago for $480,000.
