A Marina developer hopes to cut down a 75-year-old tree that was once meant to be saved.

It started with a gut feeling: Mike Owen, chair of Marina’s Tree Committee, had never seen a more beautiful tree come before the committee for a removal permit.

“And I’ve been on the committee 25 years,” he says.

The tree, a 75-year-old Monterey cypress, sits on the edge of a lot in The Dunes development where developer Shea Homes plans to build a house. The location, along with the entire layout of the first phase of The Dunes construction, had already been approved by Marina City Council in February. Knowing that, the Tree Committee granted the permit in June with a 3-1 vote, on the condition that Shea must plant three other trees to replace the cypress.

Owen, the sole vote of dissent, started digging through files when he got home after the June meeting. What he found was a 2005 tree removal and protection plan for the The Dunes that was part of the greater project’s approval. Of the 200 trees in the project area’s first phase, only seven were marked to be saved. And this tree was one of those seven.

Owen, along with his wife Candy, appealed the Tree Committee’s decision to the Marina Planning Commission, who were presented with it Aug. 27. Shea’s attorneys wrote a letter arguing that the city’s approval of the site plan gave Shea a vested right to build a home on the lot.

After nearly three hours and hearing much public comment in favor of saving the tree, the Planning Commission voted 6-1 to grant the appeal.

Shea appealed that vote.The fate of the 75-year-old cypress heads to City Council Nov. 17.