{"id":252062,"date":"2026-04-30T04:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252062\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T04:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:32:10","slug":"south-tampa-couple-fights-to-save-beloved-palm-trees-from-teco-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252062\/","title":{"rendered":"South Tampa couple fights to save beloved palm trees from TECO removal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tampa Tampa homeowners fight tree removal<\/a> <\/p>\n

A disagreement over three palm trees in South Tampa turned into a larger fight between homeowners and Tampa Electric. FOX 13’s Jennifer Kveglis reports.<\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – A disagreement over three palm trees in South Tampa<\/a> turned into a larger fight between homeowners and Tampa Electric<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alex and Donna Gem say the queen palms in front of their West Rogers Avenue home are more than landscaping<\/a>; they represent more than 40 years of memories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

But Tampa Electric says the trees pose a risk to power reliability and neighborhood safety and need to come down.<\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

The Gems say two of the three queen palms have been standing in front of their home for more than four decades.<\/p>\n

Donna Gem says the third, a smaller palm, was a gift she received when her daughter was born in 1991. She planted it in the yard, where it has continued to grow alongside her daughter.<\/p>\n

The couple says TECO informed them a few weeks ago that all three trees would need to be removed because of nearby power lines running through some of the branches.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Alex Gem, a retired TECO employee of 38 years, argues the line near the trees is a low-voltage secondary wire and believes replacing the insulated wire would be a better solution than cutting down the trees.<\/p>\n

“They don\u2019t want to replace the wire up there, the insulated wire,” Alex said. “They just want to cut my trees down.”<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, TECO crews arrived at the home prepared to remove the trees, according to the couple.<\/p>\n

Neighbors joined the Gem family and sat in the driveway for hours in protest. Tampa police were also called to the scene.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The couple says officers told them the city may need to conduct a survey to determine whether the trees are located in the city\u2019s right of way.<\/p>\n

Crews eventually left without removing the trees.<\/p>\n

“I think you need to talk to us and come to us, and maybe there\u2019s a solution without cutting down our trees,” Donna said.<\/p>\n

The other side:<\/p>\n

In a statement, TECO spokesperson Cherie Jacobs said the company understands how much people value their trees, but safety and reliability come first.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“Trees are a leading cause of power outages on Tampa Electric\u2019s system, especially after severe weather,” Jacobs said.<\/p>\n

Jacobs added that because of safety and reliability concerns, the queen palms on West Rogers Avenue must be removed.<\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

The couple is now waiting to hear whether the city of Tampa will conduct an easement survey to determine if the trees are located in the public right of way.<\/p>\n

That could help decide whether TECO has the authority to remove them.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday night, a city spokesperson had not provided an immediate response.<\/p>\n

The Source: This story is based on interviews with the South Tampa homeowners, observations from the scene as TECO crews arrived at the property, and a statement provided by a Tampa Electric spokesperson. FOX 13 also reached out to the city of Tampa regarding a possible easement survey and was awaiting a response.<\/p>\n

Tampa<\/a>TECO<\/a>Environment<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa homeowners fight tree removal A disagreement over three palm trees in South Tampa turned into a larger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1563,47,629,115,1536,135,137,136,22355,628],"class_list":["post-252062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-environment","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-organization","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-teco","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}