The Dunedin City Council has applied for resource consent to remove 26 trees, scheduled as significant, near the entrance to Larnach Castle in Camp Rd.
The trees - a mixture of macrocarpa, pine and eucalyptus - were unsafe to road users, according to the council's consent application.
The council listed the ongoing cost of clearing fallen limbs as one of the reasons for seeking removal.
However, a report prepared by consultant planner Shane Roberts, for independent hearing commissioner Andrew Henderson, recommends saving some of the trees.
Mr Roberts recommends saving eight of the trees and pruning them to make them safer.
‘‘All tree removal and trimming shall be undertaken by a suitably qualified and experienced professional, in a safe manner, so that people and properties are not put at risk,'' he said in his recommendation for consent conditions.
He recommended allowing the other 18 trees to be felled for the safety of residents and other users of the area.
However, his recommended conditions also contained a proviso that the council should submit a replacement planting plan before any of the 26 trees were removed or pruned.
The replanting would have to take place within 12 months of the plan being submitted.
The report said the council was granted consent in 2015 to remove seven trees from the scheduled group.
The conditions of that consent required replanting, however, that was not done, Mr Roberts said.
‘‘The removal of trees from the hedgerow has opened the remaining trees to weather effects they were previously protected from,'' the report said.
‘‘This has, in turn, resulted in the deterioration of the remaining trees.
‘‘This points to any further tree removal needing to be done in a carefully considered manner to ensure the remaining trees have the best chance of long-term survival.''
The trees are among a group of 58 scheduled as significant trees.
The council received only one submission on the resource consent application, in support of felling the trees.
A hearing on the consent will be held on April 19.
