A local developer is cutting down a 100-year-old, 80-foot-tall tree in Normaltown, to the chagrin of neighborhood residents.

Homebuilder Jared York had said he did not intend to cut down the tree at 380 Talmadge Drive when he tore down a house on the property five months ago. “We have no plans which would require the removal of the tree at this time,” York said in May.

"Now we hear the chain saw and the cracking limbs, and we know that's not true," neighbor Terry Stewart said.

York said his statement was accurate—at the time, he didn't plan to cut down the tree. But the client who later bought the property wanted it removed, he said. He is within his rights to tear down the tree, according to Athens-Clarke officials. He said he collected acorns from the oak tree and will plant them around the new houses he's building.

York plans to build two houses on the 0.38-acre lot. The former homeowner marketed it as a double lot to sell it for more money, and anyone who bought it would have built two houses, he said.

Emuel Aldridge said he and other residents may seek to change the neighborhood's zoning to outlaw houses on such small lots. The current minimum is 8,000 square feet, about a fifth of an acre.

Residents also criticized York for advertising himself as a green builder. "This isn't green, it's greed," Stewart said.

York, though, said that the two new houses will use less energy combined than the one old house that stood on the property. "I don't care if people don't like that I cut that tree down," he said. "I feel OK with it, and that it will be better for the property and Athens and the environment 10, 20, 30, 40 years from now."