LEXINGTON, Ky. — There’s a clash between homeowners in a Lexington neighborhood and Kentucky Utilities. It involves trees.

For several weeks now, KU has been cutting down or trimming trees in the Lansdowne Drive neighborhood.

On Wednesday, Mayor Linda Gorton said they have reached a temporary agreement with KU to change plans and focus on only cutting the taller trees closer to power lines, pausing on cutting the smaller trees.

She said it’s been a year-long process. In early November, she sent six requests to KU, and prior to Thanksgiving, she received a response. Gorton said several of the responses were not adequate. Simultaneously, the council was also taking steps to pass resolutions, but not much progress was being made.

Gorton said Wednesday’s action is a major step forward.

“Trees are part of our infrastructure. They gather storm water. They clean the air, they provide shade in the summer, lots of good things like that in our city, our folks here appreciate that,” Gorton said. “So I want meaningful, respectful conversations. We've had those up to now but they have not resulted in what we felt was strong change.”

Gorton is hoping for a seat at the table to have conversations with KU. The temporary halt is underway until Thursday at the least.

KU cuts or trims trees for several reasons. Officials said two primary reasons include trees growing closer to power lines or impacting crew members’ safety during maintenance operations.

Lucy Waterbury lives in the neighborhood by Lansdowne Drive since the 2000s. She said people make their decisions based on living standards.

“I am a realtor and people make their decisions on what neighborhoods based on how the area makes them feel. They buy houses on either side of larger streets, but understanding that trees will be in the middle as a sound buffer and a pollution buffer,” Waterbury said.

Throughout this week, she's been one of the many voices protesting the cutting back of trees.

Waterbury recalled a time when KU cleared mature trees in her back property line.

“It was a noise pollution barrier. It was an air pollution mitigation, that is now gone and I will never be able to replace those trees and they did it to my neighbor's back property line as well,” Waterbury said. “So these are trees that will never grow back to that height in my lifetime."

She said it's impacted the quality of life in her own backyard, and that KU's clear cutting shouldn't go unchecked.

Earlier this year, her neighborhood association put ribbons on trees to draw attention to the issue.

“We went through this in 2007. We work with KU, we planted these trees, which were all KU-approved trees, and now in 2021, they're just coming and decimating them again,” Waterbury said.

KU spokesperson Daniel Lowry said it’s very likely that approval took place, but he said since then rules and regulations have changed and KU is honoring Mayor Gorton’s request.

“We respect the Mayor and the city councilmembers and we agreed to her request to modify our approach to focus on the trees that pose an immediate risk to our system,” Lowry said.

Gorton has received an initial approval from the Lexington council members to file a formal complaint with the Kentucky Public Service Commission to stop the chain saws and a formal action is expected to take place during Thursday’s council meeting.