Tree Service in Fairview, CA

Tree service in Fairview often involves views. This unincorporated community sits in the hills between Hayward and Castro Valley, with elevations ranging from about 200 feet to nearly 1,100 feet, and many hillside homes have long views. As neighborhood trees grow, those views close in.

Fairview's Views and Sunlight Ordinance

Alameda County has no countywide ordinance regulating trees on private property in unincorporated areas, but Fairview is the exception. The county's Views and Sunlight Ordinance (O-2012-07) protects existing views and sunlight from unreasonable blockage by tree growth and sets out a process to restore them. If a neighbor's trees are blocking your view, or a neighbor has raised a concern about yours, the county's planning department is the place to learn how that process works.

Pruning to open a view

A view can usually be restored without destroying a tree. Techniques include:

• Crown thinning to let you see through the canopy
• Crown reduction to bring height down to a strong lateral branch
• Windowing, which opens a specific sight line through the crown
• Raising the lower canopy

Topping looks like a quick fix but leads to dense, weak regrowth that blocks the view again in a few years. We plan view work so it lasts.

Get a Free Estimate

Removals on steep lots

When a tree on a Fairview slope has to come out, we look first at where the wood can safely land. Pieces are lowered on ropes to a flat spot or a tarp, then carried or winched to the street. On very steep ground the stump and roots are often left in place to keep holding the soil, with the trunk cut low.

Housing and terrain

Census estimates put Fairview's median year built at 1975, with about a quarter of homes from the 1980s and about 80 percent single-family detached. Hillside lots mean steep yards, retaining walls and limited access, so removals are done in pieces with rigging and lowered to a landing area. Fairview also sits along the Hayward Fault Zone, so check retaining walls and slopes for movement around big trees after wet winters.

Fire on the hills

The grassy hills and wooded draws above Hayward dry out every summer. Keep dead limbs and debris away from the house and look up your parcel on the State Fire Marshal's Fire Hazard Severity Zone map; the map measures hazard and does not account for defensible space.

Street trees

Trees in the county road right-of-way are protected under the county's Tree Ordinance, administered by the Public Works Agency's Tree Program. Call (925) 966-3413 to talk about your trees.