A Waccamaw Neck hamburger restaurant is in court today for the improper trimming of about 14 trees.

Hardees of Pawleys Island went before Judge Dan Furr today to determine whether they were wrong to cut back some long-limbed oaks.

The business is the second to be brought to task for improper tree pruning in the past several months.

A court official said there were at least 14 citations issued against Hardees for improper tree topping on Sept. 28.

Calls to Hardees this week were not immediately returned.

More citations

The restaurant is not the only one cited by the county for alleged improper pruning.

Bob Paglio, the owner of Tidelands Chrysler Dodge, was found not guilty of improper trimming of a tree on his lot.

Paglio was cited by the county last month after he removed part of a three-part oak tree.

Two parts of the tree remain in place and the tree remains healthy, he said.

Part of the tree was hanging over an area that could have injured customers and damaged the vehicles on his lot, he said.

The tree was near a concreate pad where he parks cars for display on his lot.

A professional tree trimmer testified in Paglio’s defense and said that the trimming did not harm the tree.

Planners meeting

Meanwhile, the Planning Commission is set to meet Thursday, Nov. 19, to discuss tweaks to the pending tree ordinance changes.

Fines for the pruning or removal of  trees in Georgetown County could be increasing, and the list of protected trees could be getting longer.

Fines now include any amount up to $500.

The proposed tree protection ordinance adds more trees to the protected list and puts the fines for each violation at an amount of $500 each.

“Previously, 10 trees [damaged] at one time was considered one violation,’’ said County Planning Director Boyd Johnson.

The county is seeking to change the tree protection ordinance since there has already been some destruction of trees along the waterways of the Waccamaw Neck.

Besides changing the fine for violating the tree ordinance, commissioners also debated whether to have longleaf pines protected throughout Georgetown County.

The proposed wording in the new regulations says the longleaf pine would only be protected on the Waccamaw Neck.

The possible new regulations also spells out what is considered a landmark tree, and says those trees can’t be cut or removed unless the tree is diseased or causing damage to a structure’s foundation.

A county permit would be required for most limb and root pruning, except for trees being pruned on single-family lots.

Tree topping wouldn’t be allowed, according to the proposed ordinance.

Legacy trees, which include trees that are planted to honor a person, organization or event, couldn’t be removed without the county’s permission.

The new ordinance would also ask that developers not remove trees in order to comply with storm water regulations.