A live oak tree older than the city of Coral Gables, which is celebrating its centennial this year, could be the key to saving a beloved garden that is set to be razed and replaced by a luxury apartment building.

At least, that’s what activist Bonnie Bolton, her attorney and other Gables residents are hoping for.

“This tree is older than many of the trees in Vizcaya’s untouched forest,” Bolton told the Miami Herald as she peered at the large tree from the sidewalk during a walk along the future high-rise site. “Vizcaya, Fairchild, the Montgomery, the Gifford and Tropical Audubon Society all say you cannot move a 200-year-old oak tree” and expect it to live.

A 2022 letter from a botanist at Montgomery Botanical Center estimates the tree to be between 100 and 155 years old. Its canopy reaches over 100 feet in diameter, “well above average” for its species, according to the letter. Another letter from Miami’s Vizcaya Museum and Gardens suggests the tree could possibly be even older — “easily 200 years old” — making it senior to the state of Florida.

The garden was created in 1951 by architect Robert F. Smith, the same architect behind some structures at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and the Doc Thomas House.

Bolton describes the garden as sacred. Many of its trees and shrubs were grown from seeds brought back from the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem in the early 1950s by University of Miami professor and Coral Gables resident Hazel Westby.

“Because of the seeds she brought home, many trees in the garden date back over 2,000 years to the time of Jesus’ crucifixion,” according to Herald archives.

Bolton’s previous attempts to preserve the site, including efforts to deem the 75-year-old garden historic, have been unsuccessful. But the longtime Coral Gables resident, just like her mother, the late feminist and civil rights activist Roxcy Bolton, is nothing but persistent.

Alternatives proposed

This time around, Bolton is proposing a land swap: Developers of the apartment complex could give the garden and the mature tree located on a swath of land at 110 Phoenetia Ave. to the city for preservation. In exchange, the city could give them a city-owned property for development. Bolton has suggested a nearby city-owned parking lot for the trade.

Her idea to negotiate with Century Homebuilders, the company of the late developer Sergio Pino that is now owned and run by his widow Tatiana Pino, could be difficult. She’ll need to get the city and Century on board.

Pino’s company bought the swath of land that the “Garden of Our Lord” and the tree are a part of in 2021 for $9.8 million. The design for its nine-story mixed-use development with 200 apartments and 301 parking spaces on the 1.5-acre property was approved in 2023 by the city’s Board of Architects, which reviews upcoming developments to ensure that structures comply with city design requirements as part of the city’s development approval process.

Bolton and her attorney have appealed the board’s decision in hopes of saving the garden and the tree. The property is across from the historic Coral Gables Woman’s Club and is currently home to the St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church and the behavioral therapy school Crystal Academy for kids with autism. Century plans to let the school operate on a portion of the property. But that apparently doesn’t include the tree inside the school’s playground.

“It’s kind of an enclave of Old Florida that doesn’t really exist anymore,” said Karelia Martinez Carbonell, president of nonprofit Historic Preservation Association of Coral Gables, who has supported Bolton’s preservation mission. “And it’s like paving paradise to create a concrete jungle.”

Bolton said she’s spoken with Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and other commissioners for help. Her Change.org petition to save the garden has gathered over 2,000 signatures since its creation three years ago. She said she hasn’t been able to share her proposal with Century yet.

But, at least for now, the city is not considering a land swap, according to Lago.

“At this time, the City of Coral Gables is not considering a land swap or other alternatives related to this project,” Lago said in an emailed statement to the Miami Herald on Friday. “I had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Bonnie Bolton and other concerned residents to hear their views and better understand their concerns about the preservation of the garden and the mature tree on the property. We value public input and will continue to ensure that community voices are part of the conversation as the project moves forward through the appropriate review and permitting processes.”

Commissioner Melissa Castro on Friday asked City Manager Peter Iglesias “to examine whether such an arrangement would be feasible.”

Vice Mayor Anderson, in a phone interview with the Herald, said she’s spoken with Century several times about Bolton’s concerns and asked earlier this year if it would consider a land swap. The answer was no.

Anderson said it’s a difficult situation because the developers’ plans are far along and the church did not approach the city before selling the property to Century. Even if a land swap was possible, turning over the renovated parking lot Bolton is suggesting for a land swap — about a mile away, at the corner of Almeria Avenue and Galiano Street — would displace dozens of people who have paid for permits to park in the lot, she said.

But developers have agreed to relocate the tree, the vice mayor said.

What’s planned for Phoenetia Avenue?

On Thursday, Century representatives reiterated their agreement to relocate the tree to the nearby swale while presenting a revised design plan for the project to the city’s Board of Architects. That included making changes to give pedestrians a wider sidewalk. Century’s representatives described the revisions as their way of addressing some resident concerns and said that experts determined the tree was “extremely transplantable.”

But the revised plan, to the dismay of Bolton and other residents, doesn’t carve out the garden.

Anderson believes relocating the tree, if done right, could be a possible solution. She said the city has successfully relocated several other trees before. But Bolton fears relocating the aged tree could kill it and the other large, old tree that already sits in the swale.

She’s not the only one.

“This tree has endured several lifetimes’ worth of hardships — hurricanes, development, drought -— but it cannot endure relocation,” Ian Simpkins, senior director of horticulture and sustainability for Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, wrote to the City Commission in 2022. “This tree is far too large — its huge girth would break apart from the pressures put upon it and its root system spreads over the entire park it occupies. Relocation would spell certain death and be a waste of hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Simpkins’ letter is one of many that Bolton came to Thursday’s meeting with. The activist has collected more than 50 letters over the past several years from residents and preservationists calling for the preservation of the garden and the tree.

“Our code demands that projects demonstrate compatibility and respect for scale ... and preservation of natural features. The proposed project violates these principles,” Bolton said during Thursday’s meeting. She also displayed a new vision of what Century’s development could look like.

A rendering created by architect Nanette Martinez, who used to live in the neighborhood, shows “the Garden of Our Lord and the 200-year-old tree can be saved,” Bolton said. She said the preliminary image shows that Century “can build around” the garden and not touch the neighboring centennial trees.

Proposed development faces pushback

It’s not just the development’s potential lack of green space angering residents. More than 30 letters from residents were sent to Lago and the Board of Architects, asking for them to reject Century’s design.

Century is pitching a Mediterranean contemporary original architectural design. The residential development was expected to align with Coral Gables founder George Merrick’s original plans for the city, which intended for that block of Phoenetia to be homes rather than a park. It’s one of the factors that persuaded some historic preservation board members to vote against preservation of the site of the garden, church and school several years ago.

But residents have argued that the development’s density, height, style and other factors are not compatible with the neighborhood. Many said the project doesn’t have enough green space and are asking the city to protect the garden and the many large and old trees in the area.

“We see slowly how Coral Gables is changing, and it’s changing in a bad way,” Omar Packard, 40, who lives near the garden, told the Herald before speaking at the meeting. He grew up in the Gables and has many memories of spending time at the garden with his dad, who was a botanist. “They’re tearing down everything. They’re making all these big buildings. It almost seems like it’s going to become Brickell.”

Some members of the Board of Architects weren’t sold on the revised changes or its Mediterranean-style design attempt.

“I don’t feel that the building’s appropriate for the neighborhood, and I don’t feel that the architecture is the quality of architecture that we’re looking for in Coral Gables,” said board member Luis Jauregui as he pointed out problems he had with the balcony and other design choices.

“It feels Disneyesque in a way,” he added. “It feels caricature — it’s not authentic.”

Century representatives withdrew their proposed design change Thursday after the board indicated it would not approve the redesign and said it would be going back to its original, and already approved, design plan.

That plan does not save the garden.

In 2022, Sergio Pino told Herald columnist Bea Hines that while he understands the garden and church have sentimental value to the community, it didn’t fit into his development plans. He said Century would “find a place for the plaques and other memories in the garden and the church.”

“We are not going in there and move anything improperly. Everything we move will be done with the utmost respect,” Sergio Pino told Hines.

On Thursday, attorney David Winker, who is representing Bolton and other residents in the battle to save the garden and the trees, said that he and Bolton met with Sergio Pino a few weeks before his death in 2024 to discuss potential solutions.

“Sergio said, ‘We’ll move the garden, we’ll preserve it,’” Winker said. But discussions with Century halted after his death.

The attorney said the residents would like to meet with Tatiana Pino, who is listed as Century’s president and recently won full ownership of the company as part of a recent settlement, to continue discussing potential solutions.

“We need the city. We need the developer and the residents present, and come up with something that works,” said Winker.