We actually included the original planting plan that showed all five of those trees. So, as a result of the Due Diligence process that we went through and determined that we had a significant lead soil issue, we worked on trying to come up with a plan essentially for how to mitigate it. We had to submit a plan to the department of Public Health and there was a lot of work done to try to figure out exactly what we were gonna do. We had to do something. We either had to off haul all the soil or we had to find a way to contain it on site. We were actually given the ability by dph to retain the soil on site. And the difference in pricing for us to either off haul it or to retain it on site is a difference of about 2. 68 million was the pricing we got from the contractors. At bid the point that we executed our contract based on what we got documented in the package to you, that was 1. 9 million. Thats a pretty significant delta. Obviously, westside courts is the second oldest Public Housing site in the city. It was built in 1943 i believe. And it requires a lot of work and the budget is over 40 million for rehab. Clearly there were better uses for those scarce resources to put them into the buildings. So, basically, what i wanted to show you, which is included in your package. I clicked on it. President honda there you go. So in the package we actually included the landscape plan. This is actually the soil Management Plan thats actually an exhibit to the site mitigation plan approved by dph. This is actually how we plan to implement the program to retain the soils on site. I color coded this just to make it easier, although its hazey, given the scan. Basically, weve got four conditions on site. The yellow locations are locations where we basically can maintain grade. We have to grub the soil to get rid of weeds, but basically thats essentially level. Were not moving any soil in these locations, although the grub material might have to find a place. Weve got the orange locations. Those are actually locations where the excavations actually going to a depth of two feet. And the blue locations are locations where were ebbixcavag to a level of six inches. Rain locations are retention locations where basically were building up curbs in order to allow us to keep the soil on site. So were raising the level of the grade in those locations behind newly constructed curbs. And those are happening at ten different locations. And basically the two so then the three that are at the bottom, the bottom of the site is actually post street. The south is sutter street. The left is baker street. Basically, weve got three large locations on sutter, three large locations on post. Two smaller locations at baker and then two additional locations that are also on sutter. So the five trees that are in question are located in these locations. So what i also provided is that this is the detail from the landscape drawing. Why isnt it on . So this is actually the detail for the berm locations. Basically weve got a retaining wall on the left. Youve got mounded up dirt. And where the blue is representing an existing tree. The bottom of that, the hash, is the existing grade. So thats existing grade for these trees. The dirt thats being mounded, obviously, will create an impact both in terms of circulation of water and air and will damage the trees, as was documented in the exhibit that we attached, which was morris summary of the impact that was sent, that this particular Retention Program would have on these trees. At the bottom is what you cant see because the scroll is actually the ideal installation for new tree. Thats having the root ball actually at grade where it can get moisture, sun, just available nutrients as opposed to how what will happen as a result of the retention plan. So theres more, but essentially thats the gist. The gist is were trying to basically retain the soils on site and the impacts will be deleterious to this waste. President honda thank you. Mr. Buck . Good evening. Happy new year. Chris buck, urban foresty. Im going to spend most of my time talking about the condition of the trees. The timeline here is that we did a 30 day public notification from june 26 to september 26. And during that 30 day period, our staff put the removal notices on the subject trees. On the posting it did state that the reason for removal was the issue about mitigating the soil. I dont know why the inspector didnt add Additional Information about the trees being in Poor Condition as well. We had a public works hearing on september 25th because the matter was protested during the 30 day notification period. At our public works hearing we did establish that the trees also were in Poor Condition. That was part of our reason for the park approval. Based on what, significant trees are trees that are tree like street trees. They are protected to be protected by the street tree. Theyre on private property, but within ten feet of a public right of way. If i could go to the lap top now, im just gonna go through some photos to demonstrate the conditions of the trees. Tree number one on baker is a species thats very sensitive to root disturbances. And to the lay person, when you look at a tree like this, it probably looks somewhat normal. Multiple branchs. Its got leaves. The trees themselves are vigorous, so the vigor is not in question. But if you look more closely, these trees, all of the trees were topped at one point and regrew in sort of a witchs broom where they sprout out from the original topping cut. Topping cuts are an open path way to insects, disease and decay. And decay, over time, reduces the strength of the wood and causes stems to fail. And so this tree that we were just looking at has a pocket of decay in the center of the trunk. Its also located at the base of where all the main stems join. Thats a weak point within the tree. Heres a closeup of some of that decay. Tree number two on baker is an eucalyptus. Its not a blue gum eucalyptus. They tend to have better stem strength. They have fewer branch failures. Silver doing hrar eucalyptus grow very strongly. We found theres evidence of stem failures and also old topping cuts. That was once the top of the tree where its circled now. After that dramatic topping cut, stresses the tree, the tree responds by putting out new branchs. And theyre literally just weakly attached which can be around that old decay point. Heres another view of tree number two on baker and another large sign of decay there. Tree number one on post has an lean. It has a low tolerance of root disturbance. And there is a sidewalk repair thats required out there, so the impact to the root system here would be to really destablize the tree potentially. We used to plant a lot of trees and they just keep dropping on us, even when we dont prune the roots. Just wanted to. Out the tree protection thats in place. Since mr. Williams contacted us the day after the hearing, we contacted the contractor immediately and within a few weeks we had all the trees protected. Theyve been protected well over the last since mid october. Again, this tree was topped and the structural the resulting structure is very poor. It also has an lean. This is the one with the sidewalk damage. In addition, its leaning against a guy wire. To some degree is being supported by those lines. On post street, tree number two also has a lot of structural issues. Again, it was topped many, many years ago. And the resulting growth has included bark with codominant stems. A high likelihood for failure. You can see in these images where the old topping cuts occurred and the new sprouts formed right around them. Theres decay right in the center of that. Thats where we typically see a lot of branch failures. The last tree to review is on sutter street. Its also an ecacia. Low tolerance for root disturbance. This tree again was topped. Meaning about 20 feet in height it was cut haphazardly. Probably 20, 30 years ago. This tree has signs of decay as evidenced by this genaderma fungus. Its a good decay, fungi. Also, this is a compelling photo. This shows how where the original branch was once cut, these two big stems that come up on the sides is the reaction. Very poorly attached. And basically with rotting wood between them. So when we reviewed the condition of the trees, regardless of whether theres excavation and now weve learned that theyre looking to mound, the bottom line from the bureau of urban forestry are the trees are in poor structural condition. These are not trees i would recommend starting to elevate soil around or start creating wells around the base of the trunk to keep the root dry. Adding soil above the existing grade reduces oxygen to the roots and reduces water to get to the roots. And these trees were approved for removal by the department because they are in Poor Condition. The only knock i would say against the on site contractor, this one site they have the tree protection structure in place but there is activity to the left of this protective fencing which does cause compaction of the soil which pushes out the oxygen. This is the only, i would say, slight infraction i found on the site and, overall, all the tree protection theyve installed since mid october is actually in very Good Condition and has b n been, i would say respected by folks on site. If there is if there are folks parking in the set back area, the grasses, near any of these tree, we can definitely follow up with the contractor. For some of these photos you can see the very clean site, surprising to have that. So we do disagree with the assessment that were failing to protect the trees on the site. And that concludes the feed back from the site. Commissioner lazarus i have a question. You said since mid october, it was protected. How long was it unprotected . Thats a good question. The trees were posted for removal in from mid june to mid july. When we say unprotected, they didnt have physical measures in place around the trees. I mean, thats the answer i guess. I would say as far as we know, it would be the mid summer when we were on site. Commissioner wilson thats something someone thought was good back in the day . Yes. Unfortunately, some people still believe that. Public works minimum fine is 2,000 a tree to persuade Property Owners from doing that. We always recommend folks hire certified arborist to do that work. Not surprising Housing Authority sites have a lot of trees in Poor Condition. Lot of those have been mitigated. We went through ten years ago and Partnership Public works with housing to try to identify the worst of the worst. Not at every site across the city, but in many of the housing areas across the city. Commissioner wilson poor Structural Conditions that you talk about, does that have anything to do with the construction . In other words, if the construction wasnt there, would we be having this conversation . Great thank you for bringing that up. I was going to emphasize that in the apell annes brief, they talked about downgrading condition relating that to the tree protection. All of the problems that i see are related to the cultural historical care of the trees. And so all these topping cuts and poor structure, nothing to do. Its unrelated to construction on site. The on thing related to the ground level would be where we have existing sidewalk damage where thats going to need to be repaired and cause the root to be pruned. Khreupb one last question, are the trees salvageable . The trees are not. Department of public works recommends removal of these trees. Whether youre mounding the soil amove or excavating, if youre excavating theres no way. Even if youre adding soil above the trees themselves are really in Poor Condition. And not in a condition that we would make the owner retain on site. There really are significant structural problems with the trees. President honda as an arborist, we can predict when a tree will fail. Trees rarely snap in half in a healthy section of wood. It typically occurs where theres a strong likelihood of failure. Theres real structural weakness. All five of these trees have a lot of, lot of structural weaknesses that are significant. Is there an obligation to replace . Yes. So replacement is required. And the applicant can probably sphaoebg more to that. I am satisfied with the number of replacement trees and where theyre proposing them. There be larger, a larger species of maturity, a cedar. In india they call it a timber of the gods. Definitely can pack a great punch. Thats a great species along with several in the immediate area. So i am satisfied with the replacement plan. Thank you. President honda any more questions . No, please. Commissioner fung how would you characterize the root ball of these trees . The root ball so how much of the soil i mean, the roots are out there. Theyre spreading out all over the area. They can extend well beyond the overall high of the tree. They can extend that far beyond the base of the trunk in both directions. So the roots themselves are out there. Theyre in the sidewalk. Theyre in the set backs in the green grassy areas. But most of the trees roots are in the top two feet of soil. Structural roots and all the fine absorbing roots. Thats where theres a lot of impact to tree health. Just in that couple feet of soil. Not necessarily six to eight feet down. Its really top level. So by root ball, were just theres no way to transplant them. Theyre too large. The trees have multiple branch failures, poor structure. Topping trees is absolutely reducing the life span of trees when people do that. Youre reducing the life span easily by 50 . So its very difficult to, you know, make an Reclamation Project out of something that requires too much risk and mitigation. Commissioner fung i believe part of their containment process is to provide a containment material above the berm, and then those six inches of soil above it. Whats the impact of that containment material . Sure. Well, if the existing trees were there, what it does, it cuts off oxygen to the root system. Then it also makes it really hard for water to reach the fine absorbing root. Nothing would happen overnight. It would be over a period of a year or two. You see a slow decline and the canopy bigger. If they replaced the trees here with mitigating the soil, you can put the nutrient six inches of fresh soil, roots can go down and trees are amazing at mitigating metals and other hazards, so theres no impact to existing lead on tree roots as far as i know. But its a slow impact. If the trees were in better structural condition, you know, we might have a different approach with, welsh lets create tree wells and elevate the soil and keep the soil away from the trunk and have watering tubes and lets figure this out. We dont even we can even begin to Start Talking about that with the trees that we have in these conditions. We just dont have the Good Conditions to say, these are worth retaining on the site long term. Commissioner fung okay. Normally, youve been before us many, many times. You usually indicate how long the tree has been there, which you didnt this time. You said if you topped the tree and the trees were probably topped 30 years ago, it cuts their Life Expectancy to 50 . How long do these trees normally live . I think the most reasonable average Property Owner would have removed these trees a long time ago. Its the Housing Authority. I know theres a lot of moving pieces with housing that i can always keep track of. Its a fact that they have not been able to provide the necessary resources to maintain properties in what we would consider a flourishing state. So that answers the question a little bit. I think if most homeowners had one of these trees in their back yard, it would be removed a long time ago. Thats the benefit of having our significant tree ordinance. Lets take a close look and look at what we can retain and keep. If the tree is not in great condition, we just cant force that condition so close to public right of way. To answer the question, i dont know when the trees were planted. Theyre very old. Theyre also species that grows very quickly and theres green grass out there. If theres been irrigation going on year after year, im sure its been broken every now and then. That can make a tree grow pretty quickly. They could be 50 years old, give or take. President honda has there been any documented root failure for those six trees, or five trees . Welsh theres definitely signs of it. So the trees themselves show that theres been limb failures. When i was out there the other day, someone came up to me and said, oh goodness, i never know if people are gonna say please dont remove the tree or whether theyre gonna say, can you remove it yesterday . In this case it was someone who lived in the area and said, the trees are constantly dropping branchs. Thats how i expect that species to perform. Dropping limbs on a regular basis. From small to large, large limbs. President honda last question. Given that the disclosure on your notification was not complete, do you think that it was issued in error . You know, we always err on the side of more information. We always try to avoid any hand written notes. Go back to the office, type this out. We have 30day public notification with the issues about soil mitigation on there. We receive protests. Social media, next door, things like that. When i look at the file, theres clearly a robust Public Engagement and involvement. President honda do you think that if more disclosure would have been given, would there have been more public input . There could have been less protest because we would have said, look, these trees are bit of a nonstarter to begin with. President honda okay. And that certainly would help. President honda thank you, mr. Buck. We can take Public Comment on this. Is there anyone who wishes to speak . Please step forward. President honda good evening, welcome. My name is brian bates. I live on sutter and baker. Also say that Steve Williams is working pro bono. I, too, walk past the trees on a daily basis. Limbs are not dropping from those trees. I will state and the record shows, based on what steve has presented, the contractor has, from day one, shown reckless abandonment for the project. Today if you walk by there, its a complete mess. We only happen to have barriers around the trees because of steve coming here and mandating that. It did happen within maybe a mont