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Crews have started work on a contentious project to replace mature live oaks with new landscaping at a North Naples shopping center.

The plans riled Publix shoppers at the Marketplace last summer and prompted a campaign to stop the work. That proved unsuccessful.

Hurricane Irma in September postponed the work, which began this month at U.S. 41 North and Vanderbilt Beach Road and could be wrapped up by the end of the year, property manager Andrew Saluan said.

"It will look great when it's all said and done," Saluan said.

For now at least, North Naples resident Bill Grover disagrees.

Previously:Shoppers riled by plans to replace oak trees in Publix parking lot in North Naples

Previously:Pelican Bay Foundation to ask Marketplace to reconsider controversial shopping center redo

Did you know:Naples boasts largest known myrtle oak in U.S.

From the archives: Don't butcher your trees in the name of hurricane safety

He said he avoids looking at the shopping center parking lot, now without its mature oak trees.

"It's heartbreaking to go by there," Grover said.

Saluan said the redo is meant to make the parking lot safer by letting more light reach the ground at night. Opponents said the change is not needed.

"No matter what anybody says, that's what this is about," Saluan said.

In 2012, a similar controversy engulfed a landscaping makeover at the Riverchase Plaza at U.S. 41 North and Immokalee Road. It prompted criticism of county commissioners for not tightening rules for replacing landscaping.

Saluan said the Riverchase episode is much different from what is planned at Marketplace because of the types of trees that will be replanted.

Unlike Riverchase, which replaced its cut oaks with species such as bald cypress and slash pine, Marketplace plans to replace 140 cut mature oaks with 54 new ones, albeit smaller. The new trees must be 14 feet to 16 feet tall to meet county codes.

Plans also call for planting 20 Southern magnolia trees, six gumbo limbo trees, 53 red maple trees, 33 royal palms and 13 sabal palms. Scrub oaks growing in two preserve areas will be left alone.

Work also avoids landscaping on outparcels on each side of the center's U.S. 41 entrance and at the corner of U.S. 41 and Vanderbilt Beach Road.

The Pelican Bay Foundation, a master property owners association, mounted a last-ditch effort to persuade property managers to replant taller trees.

The foundation, which had veto power over the new plans, instead approved them, a decision some members later said was too hasty.

Foundation representatives either could not be reached for comment or refused to comment last week.

"Everybody understood why we were doing this," Saluan said. "It's not an aesthetic issue. It's a safety issue."