A plan to remove 26 palm trees from Palm Avenue as part of a change in streetscaping was scuttled this week when Sarasota City Commissioners send the idea back to planners for further study and made clear they thought the plan was "horrendous."

"There are palms on Palm Avenue," said City Commissioner Susan Chapman. She noted other projects in town where beloved trees were pulled to make room for new development to the chagrin of many. "We can have something beautiful but at the cost of the soul of the city."

The plan to pull the trees, which were located on the western boulevard of North Palm Avenue, was part of an effort to stop regular street flooding and to mirror the look of the eastern boulevard. The development of a city parking garage and other ongoing projects has led to the planting of canopied trees on one side of the tree while the older palms stand on the other side.

Chief Planner Steve Stancel said flooding is also a major problem, which hurts businesses and creates a public safety hazard. "Anybody wanting to go in and out of those spaces will have to go ankle deep," he said. Stancel suggested the current landscape make the street less inviting to pedestrians on the palm side of the road.

But the plan inspired significant public pushback. Jono Miller, a retired New College of Florida professor and conservationist, researched and found some of the palms have stood since at least the 1920s. He showed overhead views which indicated more shade was being offered by the aged palms than the younger canopies on the other side of the road. "This proposal disrespects the people who did this in the 20s or earlier," he said. It disrespects our state tree. It disrespects Palm Avenue."

Commissioners voted unanimously to send staff back to research how to reduce flooding in the area while saving some or all of the palm trees.