Have not been made. It has gotten hairy and dirty. Why not blow the whole thing up and start all over again . Or, why dont we give you some time to figure it all out, and come back with a suggestion on how to best either blow it up, or move forward with some conditions . That is fine by me. Might not make the permit holder happy. The permit holder made the mistakes. I know. As i said, just reading this today reads bad. I did speak to some of this earlier in the year, i didnt even know there was a stop work order. That would not be unusual. I can certainly go out there and get a grasp of where they at. Dont feel bad, the permit holder exceeded his balance, that is clear. The permit holder should be held accountable for exceeding the boundary while we are talking about accountability, lets get the whole project cleaned up so that the appellant can be happy. Which is the whole point of his ability to appeal in the first place. The one thing that i heard was from the tenant, he filed the appeal because 821. Dot mention on the permit. There was another permit for 819, 823, 827, which that is out of the permit that got issued in january wary. That wasnt appealed. There was complaints filed. The reason he filed the appeal was because of 821 mentioned on it. That can also be cleaned up if this permit was denied and then reissued without 821 being in the overall permit. May that is the way to go with it. If theyre happy to take 821 out until they resolve their issues. They can always come back into the kitchen and bath remodel permit for 821 later. They can uphold that permit and take 821 out of it. Let d. B. I. Monitor the inspections and make sure that the notice of violation is adhered to. I would like to hear with the other commissioners think now that i have stirred the pot a little bit. I started as well by reading out the violations. The attorney said has nothing to do with it, and i think it does. I think its on the road to getting there. I just dont know if its there yet, thats all. Do you know tonight the permit that is trying to address the nov, if that includes the five units, not 821, or the other five . We dont know the scope of that permit that is going to be issued. Exactly. If we could encompass all of the work onto that one permit we could revoked out all over. Thank you. Commissioners, this matter is submitted. I dont subscribe to blowing this permit up, because there was an nov and they have properly gone in and asked for a permit to correct. I think those need to be kept separate. There are other issues that are muddying this, as i suggest, i would prefer to continue this and allow inspector duffy to go out there and look at the various permits and figure out what is going on and then report back to us so we can take informed action. I agree. I would prefer to keep this permit within the pervy of this board. If it does go forward, we have the ability to condition it, so it at least makes the appellant feel more comfortable Going Forward rather than having a new process and then having to renegotiate this again. How long are you thinking madam Vice President . Also, to make it really cle clear, obviously none of us have been out there to see work done, or not done, while this permit is suspended. If we move forward and continue this, and this permit stays suspended, mr. Contractor, dont you dare lift a hammer. I mean, youve got to respect the law. The question would be to inspector duffy what a likely timeline be for him . Two weeks . I mean, we would have to put it on october 16. Im hoping some cases will move off because its very busy, that calendar. Hopefully the matter would be resolved at the beginning of the calendar. Is that fine, october 16 . I dont mind going until midnight, its all good. For the parties does october 16 work . Counselor. October 16 . Awesome. Okay. We have a motion . I move to continue the item to october 16 to allow the department of building inspection to visit the property and report on the various projects and permits area. We have a motion from Vice President lazarus to continue this matter to october 16 so d. B. I. Has an opportunity to visit the property and report back to the board on the situation out there. On that motion; [role call] that motion carries 50. We will take a break. How long do you want to take . Five minutes. Welcome back to the meeting of the board of appeals. We are now on items 7 a and b, appeal no. 18135. Deetje boler vs. San francisco public works, bureau of urban forestry appealing the issuance on september 27, 2018, to the San Francisco public library, of a public works order. Approval of request to remove with replacement 19 ficus street trees along the grove street and hyde street frontages of the subject property; replacement trees shall be a minimum 24inch box size and the species shall be red maple or a cultivar of that species; of the nine trees to be removed on hyde street, the tree spacing from the utilities and Street Furniture will reduce the number of replacement trees from nine to six. Order no. No. 188456. On january 23, 2019, the board voted 50 to continue these appeals to give the parties opportunity to Work Together to develop a detailed plan that incorporates the following 1 an assessment of the options for planting the three additional trees that could not be replaced on hyde street , 2 the feasibility of moving the bus shelter located on hyde street between fulton and grove streets, 3 an update on the plan for the Civic Center Commons and how that design would impact the plan for the trees at issue, 4 a plan for phasing in the removal and replacement of the trees and the impact it will have on the environment and community, 5 an assessment of the options for the species of the replacement trees, and 6 the effect of the existing electric poles and underground vaults on the plan. As a preliminary matter, commissioner santicana, did you review the materials . Yes, i have. Thank you. So we will hear i understand, mr. Buck, did you want to present the plan . Each of the parties has three minutes. So are you going to speak for ms. Bullar as well . Ms. Bullar could not join us due to health issues. Ms. Trainer who has been with us all through the process is going to read her statement. If i may, i know this is a little bit of latitude from the normal process, but i would like to ask that you sent all of us back to Work Together. And i want to say we actually did that. So okay. Wonderful. I just want to know in terms of the time requirements. So do you want to take six minutes or three minutes each . Why dont we let betty read the statement first and then well okay. Should we run the clock for six minutes, let her speak, and you come up . Thank you very much. My name is betty trainer and im reading the statement of the appellant, deetje boler. Good evening. I am requesting that this board reject this application for the following reasons. 1. These trees are too valuable to be lost. They are important for the librarys environment. Their effects are irreplaceable. They are an asset to the neighborhood. The neighborhood is soon to be expanded with a residential tower kittycorner from the trees. 2. It would be wasteful of this asset which would take years to replace. Its hard to consider how a City Department would consider such a thing. 3. The consideration to space removals of nine trees leaves it too vague as to when and does not guarantee adequate time for new trees to grow before another tree is removed. It would better meet the expectations of the committee to request permits for each tree separately. We are trying to retain as many trees as possible to increase the citys canopy, which is poor. 5. The public would be shocked, as it has been at other severe removals, should these trees be removed. The time would be better devoted to planting new trees, rather than removing them, particularly wellestablished and healthy ones, like these 30year trees that provide air, wind break, and bird homes. 6 the 2017 every tree survey reports that these 19 trees are no danger and says they need routine pruning but not removal. 7. The trees need to be properly pruned. Presumably it is known how to do this, so lets do it. This wouldnt have been such a challenge had the library taken care of them. The residents voted to turn the responsibility for the trees over to the city. And suddenly there are all these trees to take care. Whether there is adequate staffing and funding to plant as many trees as possible, as well as taking proper care of those already standing. The large number of protested tree removals that have resulted in this new arrangement signify a problem. As to the librarys water wasteful way of cleaning the sidewalks, surely the facility okay, ms. Trainer, youre beyond three minutes. Do you want to come up or for her to take your time . Many people signed a petition. Copies of their comments were provided to you. As the library is very sensitive to bad publicity, as it is not farfetched to think that they might be willing to support withdrawal of this application in favor of gradually dealing with one or two trees at a time, if removal still seems necessary. There was a great removal of the old olive trees of each corner of city center plaza. The poor things have shallow roots. That was the end of them and the green groves. Let us not add to the pile of dead trees. In conclusion, the simple fact is that we need all the trees possible for many reasons. We need to plant new trees. We do not need to up root and throw away any trees. Proper pruning is what is necessary. Trees are living beings and we are human beings should recognize that fact and cherish them. They are too valuable to be disposed of. Rachael gordon is quoted in 2018, the city never wants to remove a tree unless it is absolutely necessary for public safety. One has to ask whether d. P. W. Always holds to this sense when people protest removals that are proposed. Some of the removals turn out to be ruled unnecessary. Perhaps the Department Needs to include the word absolutely in their proposals. Last but least, keeping these trees will keep the birds in them. From the demonstration gardens, we started from a similar perspective, and i wanted to read our recommendations that we started with before we entered into such detailed work with the library and the bureau of urban forestry. We wanted to remove no healthy trees due to the tree emergency you have 30 seconds. Prune and improve drainage to keep this is not possible. I cant present our plan in why dont you tell us what your proposal is. You have time in rebuttal. Theres no rebuttal. But i understand the library wants to cede their time. Yes, we would do that if its acceptable. Since were talking about this for 30 seconds, maybe we can add 30 seconds. Since there were two appeals, the library would have six minutes. That should give us enough time. So we we didnt want to remove any trees at all that are healthy. We wanted to improve drainage to keep as many as possible. We wanted to create an offset grove before removing any trees to demonstrate positive will in the right direction. We wanted to remove the bus shelter if the bus stop should stay. We wanted to modify lighting as needed to improve visibility, work with the petitioners, the 3500 people who signed the petition to keep the trees to create a stewardship program. And overall reduce trauma wherever possible by a gradual approach, no stumps, increase green wherever we can, and replace any lost trees with evergreens, such as redwoods or lindens. So we did research that issue as requested, and found that those trees were meant to be evergreens. So we started from a position similar to ms. Bolers and by working together we have addressed many of those problems. Could i have the laptop. So weve come up with a working draft tree Management Plan together. This is a view of the ficus from the main entrance. Weve got from looking at it as individual trees to a grove. Weve gone from being adversaries to becoming a working group. Weve gone from working with problems, lots of different problems, to treating the situation as one of creative opportunities, problems such as perception of safety on the one side from the library and on the other that we should never remove any trees for any reason. Weve moved into a different zone with this. Weve moved from looking at 19 individual street trees to thinking of this as a grove, as a unified place, and as a place with an opportunity for people to Work Together. So thats what id like to report about our process. We are we have the steps we propose to move towards this are, first, demonstrate commitment from the library to ongoing green space. That means that were going to expand the planted areas before any removal is done and maintain work to maintain the existing trees. When were going to work to engage a community of petitioners by building out a Community Steward program with internal Library Resources and community partnerships. We have the really significant problem that two of our three Neighborhood Parks are closed for renovation. So weve all agreed that until those parks are reopened, which is a matter of six or eight months we think, we wont remove any trees. We dont want to stop people. After they open and steps one and two are done, we will work to gradually remove no more than nine, instead of all of them, no more than nine after careful assessment. Tonight, mr. Bucklet looked again at a tree that is troubled and he thought that it could be we could save that tree as well. Also, in terms of the species replacement, were going to replace any removed trees with were going to go for an evergreen species that opens the canopy and allows for more visibility while maintaining the ficus trees and maintaining visibility. Here is a diagram of how we expect to work. I hope its readable. It maps out on hyde and grove street the Maintenance Area for taking care of the existing grove and the several areas that the library is committed to start right away building new planting areas on fulton street and right over the entrance to brooks hall. Then we want to explore together with public works and bars, there are triangles of land that we may be able to cultivate with sheet mulching. We also are showing areas where the trees will be replaced. The sixthfloor patio is a very good candidate for more greening as well. So in terms of demonstrating commitment by setting up the these okay. 30 seconds. 30 seconds. Okay. I further outline the steps in more detail, but basically what were asking tonight is that we modify this permit to support the space, the approach that the working group that see developed. We want to permit no trees be removed until the park is open. We want to have the interim stewardship [ bell rings ]. Thank you. Mr. Buck. Can i just ask one question of the Library Representative from the library just for the record. Youre in agreement with everything that was represented on behalf of the library . Yes, members. Thank you for having us. Im the director of facilities for the library system. Im ready to answer your questions. I just want to confirm that everything that was presented, that you affirm and that you are on board with as presented by the previous speaker. Yes, and thank you very much for your suggestion to work with the community. It has been very fruitful. Thank you. It has been very informative. You go. Good evening, commissioners. Chris buck, bureau of urban forestry, San Francisco public works. I want to thank the library for hosting the meetings that weve been having this year and both the appellants. So what does this all mean . We started out with the proposal. The library removed 19 ficus trees. We approved the removal of those trees. We now reduced that to eight trees. So we would remove eight trees, keep 11, and prune the remaining trees that remain. I have a few slides. We wanted to be able to be specific. The parties tonight are going to ask for a recommendation this evening with a little bit of latitude, but showing that all parties are in agreement. So this is the hyde street frontage. Tree 1 and 2 would remain and be removed. Trees 4, 5 would be removed without replacement because theyre too close to the bus shelter and the streetlight. The bus shelter and not going to be removed. The last diagram is on the far left, the ninth tree on hyde street frontage. It would be removal of four with we placement of one. Around the corner on grove, wed be looking at the removal of four trees with replacement with six. So tree one on the far right would remain and be pruned. Trees two, three, and four would be removed and replaced. Tree five would be pruned. Tree six is floating here between two basins that have been paved over. Weve checked the utilities. Both sites are replantable. So these two sites will be replanted. And our group is talking about replanting before removal is initiated. This tree in the middle or near the middle, second from the right, was not looking good many months ago. It looks much different today. I dont have the photo, but its smaller with better structure. Now that its actually leafing out, we can live with this tree. We went from nine removals to eight. We believe that this tree, now that its filled out, can be worked with. The tree on the far left would be removed and replaced. What does that mean . So overall, wed move the settlement would be not removal of 19 but removal of eight trees with replacement of seven. Five would be replaced as is. Two would be sites that are paved over and now would be replanted. The library is committed to planting 36inch box replacement trees. Public works can fund the removal of the ficus trees. There are a number of of other moving pieces, but at its core the commission is going to ask to make a decision on this permit itself. I think some of the other commitments, we would commit to not initiating removal until both the park and recs and the tender are completed. That may be six to eight months out. We have an internal agreement with that. I dont know if thats something you need to condition. Essentially this evening were coming forward to say the compromise is substantial. The preference of the appellants is no tree removal. We hear that loud and clearly. In this particular case we have funding secured for replacement. Were scaling back the removals. Even the removals that we do act on we would scale back until after those conditions are met as outlined by the appellants. So i think thats i just wanted to summarize where we are and figure out if theres a way we can get language towards a resolution. So im here to answer any questions. Thank you. Its not perfect as we said. I would like to see a zero tree removal as well, but thank goodness because i wasnt really happy with the first proposal, evidently, as i believe several other co