An Inverness man’s insurance company has agreed to pay $320,000 to Paradise Ranch Estates’ property owners whose lot was mysteriously razed a year and a half ago.
Mark Medin, who is suspected of clearing more than three-dozen trees from a lot abutting his own, was set to go to trial this May. The settlement was reached in mediation.
The brother and sister co-owners of the property, Gabriel Block and Arika Mills, live in Berkeley and Sacramento. Their father, Jerry Block, lives in the neighborhood, and discovered the felled trees in the spring of 2011. He and others were alarmed by what they felt was a senseless act of destruction, and argued the deforestation posed a significant fire and erosion hazard.
According to sources, a massive renovation of the parcel has since taken place, with the help of Pacific Slope Tree Company and soil stabilization experts.
This article was revised for accuracy from a version published in the print edition.