The City of St. John’s has approved an application involving the removal of trees, going against advice from its own expert panel.

A homeowner on upscale Kensington Drive applied to install a small building, sports court and retaining wall at the rear of their property, in the floodplain buffer.

The city’s Environmental and Sustainability Experts Panel reviewed it, as required, and expressed concerns over the loss of trees.

So they asked city staff to ask the owner to save the trees in the buffer and, if necessary, move the wall and court.

But in a memo to council, staff said it was their opinion “that there will be little disturbance to trees with the current location of the sports court and landscaping.”

They went on to recommend council approve the work as is, which they did so unanimously, but not without some debate.

Deputy Mayor Sheilagh O’Leary, the city’s lead for sustainability, asked why the expert panel was ignored, and whether the homeowner was ever asked about the issue.

Jason Sinyard, deputy city manager of planning, engineering and regulatory services, said he wasn’t sure but stood by the staff decision.

“I couldn’t say if that was relayed back to the owner or not,” he said during this week’s public council meeting. “In regards to the application itself, though, if you look at the site plans there are a number of trees on the property that will remain and new trees that are being planted. So, just to repeat staff’s recommendation, we did not see any significant impact on existing trees or the total number of trees once the development is complete.”