Now, they did just complete phase one. We have a very small punch list of things to follow up on. Phase one trees are being replanted, watered, and ta maintained. I dont see it as an issue for you. Vice president honda i see more of a damage issue, accept considering the environment, and so who follows up on making sure that, you know, once a tree is snapped or broken as you said, a 48box versus a smaller tree, the smaller tree generally catches up, but the 48 box is definitely a nice boost from the builder. Thank you. Youre youre you have a very open position. You should apply, but i forgot to say, the 48inch box is a much larger tree, and its less prone to vandalism. It does help reduce vandalism. If they were going to be smaller trees, we would need more protection on them to reduce vandalism. The increased size is something i dont believe we discussed, i just read it in their brief. That will really help. We have an inspector that inspects the area on a regular basis. We receive regular requests and are very responsive to those. Sometimes we cant close a request until the tree is absolutely replanted, so its good that some of these things are reopened. It doesnt mean that were just closing and moving on. So we have mechanisms in place, so i feel like the planting of 48inch box trees in the public rightofway would be a really Great Condition to add to the department approval. Vice president honda the next question is, i got the number of additional trees that theyre planting. Are there any requests for planting additional trees to replace these trees . Good question. So theres 68 street trees. Weve looked at all potential sites on the trees. We eliminated one or two, so 68 is a very real count of what we believe is doable at this site. They are planting, and they referenced earlier, a number of other trees that will be within the property. We dont typically give them credit for that, but those are the thats where some of these other numbers were coming from, and they can probably speak to those numbers more than i can a little bit, because im really focused on what can we give the public in the public rightofway. Vice president honda okay. Thank you, mr. Buck. Clerk okay. We have a question from commissioner tanner. Commissioner tanner just a question, mr. Buck, and i think the answer is probably no. What is the risk of trying to keep the pine tree and seeing if the work that is being performed is as much as of a shock as predicted . Is there any good percent the tree would survive or is that too dangerous to kind of take a waitandsee approach . Whats your position on that . Thank you, commissioner tanner. Its a really good question. Whats an important question for us at this site, i kept telling colleagues and friends, i can see this tree from the bayview. You can actually look across and see this hillside on potrero hill on the southside, and i was showing my daughter last weekend, like, thats the tree that we have before us in a week. Its massive level. If there was no grade change, we would be talking about flat grade and Design Change and not installing a belowgrade surface. I dont want to be out there, advocating for the removal of this tree, but one of the things it was brought up in Bridge Housings appeal, and its good to see it in there, which is to survive these structural impacts, we have a whole other conversation about Building Design pushing back the envelope, how many units are lost. Now not my issue to decide, but i have inform be think bg that. Thats something that i am coming up against, is that. How much of this, you know, 60footwide canopy in pushing back the window and the normal. 2 feet is a significant, significant impact. We cant just throw a retaining wall around the trunk and call it good. But i think thats a good question for the commission, to throw it back to you all. If it survives construction impact, whats the next step in sort of retaining that tree. Commissioner tanner okay. Thank you for that. That was my question. Clerk okay. We are now moving onto public comment. If youd like to speak, please raise your hand. Well hear from natalie down first. Miss down, welcome. Hi. Hello. Hi. Im at a loss for words. Im appalled at how the city treats its awful urban canopy. How can we continue to let this happen . The poor air quality today has had huge effects on me personally. The bayview is a majority black and brown neighborhood, more than the most of San Francisco. The city needs trees to pureif the air. If the city can continue to kill significant ecological trees before their time. How can developers continue to significantly damage our environment like this . Im fed up. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Well now hear from sarah amral. Good evening, commissioners. Im sarah amral from the Mayors Office of the housing and Community Development. I want to bring up and answer some of the questions in regards to process and how we got to where we are, and then to potential implications. As you know, hope s. F. And the housing [inaudible] and as we went through the master planning in 2008, when bridge was chosen as a as the sponsor for this site, we went through a tenyear planning almost around this. Really Extensive Community outreach and collaboration with other city agencies so when we got to the point of Development Agreement and approval and entitlement in 2017, we had a realigned site plan that was going to work, and all of our Housing Residents living on the hill would be rehoused in Higher QualityPublic Housing with Bridge Housing managing that. I also just wanted to mention that Bridge Housing as a sponsor is also responsible for the Overall Development of this site and buildout, and for every year that we delay, we delay to our in our trust with the community, which weve worked so hard to try to build back this housing sooner rather than later, as ive said, starting with process in 2008 with a master plan, getting to where we are now took quite a long time. The city is heavily leveraged in this work. We have the Mayors Office of housing and Community Development has contributed 30 million to the infrastructure and development of phase two alone. With further delays potentially to removing and moving the street tree, it will actually potentially delay the Housing Development of 157 Affordable Housing units. Not only that, but our market rate housing, which is our term for subsidized housing with the city. We do request d. P. W. To comment and work with us as we go through all of these processes, but i just wanted to mention that in regards to the scope of the actual street trees, best of my knowledge housing is responsible for putting on a Master Community association that will take care of all of the public improvements and street trees within the community once everything is built . So they are fully responsible as a community and a campus wide approach to maintaining those trees as we move further in this process. So with that, mohcd does hope you support the project. Clerk thank you. We have a question from commissioner swig. Commissioner swig yeah. Miss amaral, again, i was there with mayor breed in the Redevelopment Agency to move this forward. I am a huge believer in in housing in the bayview area, have been a huge believer in all of the areas where many of our lowincome population have been abused by substandard housing, and the practices, early days of the Redevelopment Agency, which hopefully, when i sat on the commission, we rectified some of that bad behavior. That being said so you know im a supporter, right . But i have a hard time with a passing of the buck. Well, this is Bridge Housings responsibility, and this is Bridge Housings responsibility. And as i heard you say in your testimony just now in public comment, where is the responsibility of the city . And i also heard when i im not going to term this veiled threats, but they were. Well, theres been 30 million pledged towards this project. We understand all that. But who takes responsibility or do we just as a city knuckle under to Bridge Housings and again, ive said i respect them, as well. But, you know, where does creativity come in . Where does protecting the community with regard to an important this is an important tree. Where does the creativity who makes those design decisions or do you just say okay, we got the money, Bridge Housing, let it go, and if we have to lose a couple trees, so be it . But who, again, from the citys responsibility, is protecting good design and a Good Environment as well as building great new housing for the bayview . Thank you for that questions, commissioner swig. I would say that, traditionally, the at least within the Development Agreement process, planning approved the Design Standards and guidelines and at that time identified should be identifying whether or not there are implications to the urban forestry plan around that. My fellow colleague, mr. Buck, pointed that out that that wasnt necessarily part of the process in 2017 when we went through this process, but again, we do ask d. P. W. To comment on all of our plans as we go forward, and as a see family . But traditionally, that is held with planning. Commissioner swig okay. And what i objected to in your comment is, well, you know, if we worry about this tree, were going to further postpone this you know, this job, and the communitys going to get further upset with us. I know that community really well, yes, they will, i agree, but i really, really have a hard time with that statement that, well, if you take the extra step to make it right, were go were going to were really going to have a problem here. Im not comfortable with that statement, id just like to go on the record. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Well hear from judson true next. I believe he was raising his hand. I was. Thank you very much. Good evening, commissioners. I was listening and wanted to join in light of the discussion ive heard. I did want to be sure to join and just reiterate some of the comments that both the bridge presenter said and sara amaral, housing and Community Development. It is imperative that the project moved forward. I did want to answer some questions about the process to get some of these developments approved. And while i was not in my current position at the time this fwrproject was approved, there is a chance for public works to comment on every element of the infrastructure plan, which does include the urban canopy. I just cant emphasize enough how important it is that this infrastructure be able to move forward as is designed. Every change to design costs a tremendous amount of money and slows the project down, and thats why, 15 years after the approval of the project, we only have one building completed and making headway on the work still there. We work with oewd closely to be sure that we look closely at tree issues and the canopy as we move toward the development and the process moving forward, and that laurel heights, 33333 california example was mentioned as a good practice. We can all do a better job of having that conversation up front, but i dont see a reasonable way to move forward on this infrastructure and the Building Design that is still in the works and keep this beautiful tree. As a native of the midwest, i certainly identify with mr. Klipps depiction of the canopy, and living in midtown sacramento for a few years and marveling at what makes that, the capital of california, a tree city. But our particular job is to get this project built, and i just would ask the commissioners to consider all of those factors while recognizing how hard a decision this is, and that we wish that there was a circumstance where this tree could, you know, be maintained. And i am available and happy to answer any questions that the commissioners may have about this item. Clerk okay. Thank you, mr. True. Clerk okay. We will now hear from the next do we have a question from Vice President honda . Vice president honda, please go ahead. One moment. Go ahead. Can you speak . Vice president honda how about now . Clerk yes, we can hear you. Vice president honda what would you tell john q. Public that comes in front of us every wednesday that says hey, youre knocking down trees that werent scheduled to be knocked down, and the department is just bulldozing multiple trees over and over again in the city that has the lowest canopy of any major city . Yeah. I fully appreciate the canopy in the role that ive worked on with past supervisors like to bring the trees under the citys purview and therefore increase the canopy itself. I think its important in investing maintaining trees where possible and also investing in building a better canopy for San Francisco in the future. I do want to provide one clarification. Believe me, there have been one or two other Development Sites that ive dealt with, whether inadvertently or intentionally, trees have been removed. In this case, it was development that brought to bucks attention that trees were removed. It was my understanding that it was a misunderstanding and it was rectified with fines as quickly as possible from a housing developer. To your comment, commissioner honda, i think we should do everything we can to support the canopy in San Francisco, which is important to the commission and san franciscans. Vice president honda thank you. Yeah. And if i could say one more thing, on the Development Agreement, i think we have to look at future Development Agreements and make sure that the bureau of urban forestry is as an integral a part of the formation of those Development Agreements as the other parts of public works. Again, i think the california Street Project was a part of that, and ive had discussions with oewds director and other people. There will be other developments in the few are, both d. A. S and others, and im certainly committed to working with b. U. F. To make sure that were doing everything we can to protect the canopy while allowing for significant development. Vice president honda thank you, justin. Clerk thank you, mr. True. Well now hear from kristin siutat. Can you hear me . Clerk yes, go ahead. Im a little bit confused of the diagrams we were shown of the project where they said here, you can see its in the way of the grading because we were looking at the canopy, not the trunk, so it wasnt clear to me at all that it necessari necessarily interfered with the grading. Bridge housing has developed a lot of housing, and it seems that all of these trees were in the rightofway, so didnt they know when they were making the original design that these were street trees in the public rightofway and needed to be preserved . If they can design all this development and all the complexities that are involved in that, cant they also figure out a way to work around these trees . Its also my understanding that hundreds of trees have already been cut down for this project. The bayview is starving for trees. If you drive around the bayview, i think it has a lot fewer trees than other cities in the neighborhood, and at this point, every tree in that neighborhood really, really matters. If you uphold this appeal, it will send a clear message to developers that when you plan your development, you have to plan to save the trees, and that you dont just do your plan and come back later, late on your permit tree removal permitting process and say well, the project was already approved, so of course, now, we have to remove these trees. It would send a message that you have to plan for the trees when youre designing your development. Thats all i really have to say, and thank you for your time, and i really think that you should uphold this appeal and a delay of a few weeks for the architects to work around these trees isnt going to did he devastate the community. Thank you for your time. Clerk thank you. We will now hear from r roz arbough. Miss arbough . Hi. Can you hear me . Clerk yes, thank you. I just want to say that some of these statements, like, the sudden retroactive, like, light bulb, like, going off, oh, we should have informed the b. U. F. And oh, we should have thought more about creative development, im honestly shot. Commissioner swig asked the perfect question. He said whos the guardians of the trees, and its right. Its the perfect afterthought. Sorry. Im not that well prepared here. With y but it seems like the city is impotent when it comes to trees. The developers run roughshod theres deforestation. Theres been nine more trees already, and this beautiful tree, over 100 years old, come on, people, i think we can get creative in saving it, so i really hope that you do consider this appeal. I think josh made a beautiful presentation, and there are those of us out there who believe in wellprice housid h and keeping our urban canopy fluorishing. Thank you. Clerk thank you. We will now hear from casey asbury. Miss as bury, are you ready . We can come back to you. Hi. Im speaking on behalf of josh klipps appeal on the removal of the remaining significant trees. Im here to address the issue of degraded forest canny peas that more and more move to the lack of authentic process. I want to move to the subject of instant canopy, replacement of trees with significant trees versus housing. The project should be redesigned to create a pocket park around this Italian Stone pine. In multiple instances before the b. O. A. , the public is able to see at large the primary reasons why San Franciscos forest canopy is decreasing at such an alarming rate. We see mismanagement with project timelines repeatedly, arbitrary and out dates ecology outdated ecology. Penalties that are imposed at levels that are an acceptable cost of doing business are negligible. Fundamental disregard for principles of environmental justice, Public Health requirements, and sunshine laws. Overall, a lack of respect for the publics interest and work product of our employees is clear. It may be a structural inability to do the peoples work in this regard. When b. U. F. Budgets are heavily weighted toward concrete maintenance and not Tree Planting and maintenance, when mr. Buck avoids being excellent to get in the path of furies and lunatics, when designers and developers always fail to take the challenge, find it cheaper to remove and replace, this is erroneous language. When the b. L. A. Repeatedly tells us on record that they wish it were otherwise, it all serves to indicate that we must look for relief of this so important element of our public comment, our living canopy elsewhere. Clerk thank you. So we will now hear from mary klipp. Miss klipp, are you ready . Im ready. Can you hear me . Clerk yes, we can. In full disclosure, i am the proud mother of josh klipp, one of the most conscientious, compassionate, hard working people that i have ever known. I truly believe that josh that john lewis would be proud of joshs thinking good trouble. I came to live in San Francisco 17 years ago, and i was proud of its reputation as a technological hub and a mustsee city with great normal beauty. It is a city which benefited from the hard work and the forceful thoughts of those who came many years before us. 17 years later, with Climate Change pounding on our doors, the citys decisions to cut down beautiful and measurably tech tech technologically useful trees i couldnt believe that you could measure what every tree does in terms of its work, it belies that reputation of both applied technology and respect for environmental beauty. In short, please do not see trees as an enemy or as a nasty obstruction to development. Count them, plant them, plant five, ten times more than we need. You can always take them down in the future. But please see trees as a mighty soldier thats fighting the fight of the changing climate. Now we need to do the hard work and make the sacrifices for those that come after us, like the people that came before us did for us. Thats kind of a simple the down home way of saying please, lets make this happen in San Francisco. If we cant do it here, where it can be done . Clerk thank you. We will now go to the the caller who does not have a phone number showing. It its caller without a phone number showing, please go ahead. Can you hear me . Okay. Were going to go to a different caller. For the caller whose number ends in 4906, you can go ahead, please. The phone number ending in 4906, your hand is raised. You may need to press starsix to unmute your phone. Okay. Can you hear me now . Clerk yes. This is kendra share calling. For me, tonights hearing is a poster child for the theater of the absurd that San Francisco has truly become. With all due respect, while our wealthy neighbors up the hill quibble over the inconveniences of their mansion expansions, our city boasts 8,000 homeless people, while at the same time our city has around 40,000 Housing Units that remain vacant yearlong, year after year. Our solution to this crisis seems to consist of mowing down our trees and destroying the very he canno system that sustains us. I would like to know when all of this super silliness ecosystem that sustains us. I would like to know when all of this supersilliness will stop. Our socalled progressive city is so in name only. Calling it progressive is a lie and a sick joke. Until such a time that we adopt policy that actually reflected progressive values, policies that reflect environmental justice, policies that reflect that the value of our neighbors and the dignity of our neighbors are here x that we also here, and that we also have dignity and respect for our environment. I feel that, currently, we have a city thats allowing people to languish in the streets, and the way that were responding so that is by providing inadequate housing, while at the same time annihilating hundreds of trees. We must do better, and i think were not going to do better until our city enacts policies that say this is impossible. You dont get to mow down 200 or 300 trees in order to make Affordable Housing. Yes, you get to make Affordable Housing, but you dont get to do that. We need to respect our environment and respect our neighbors. Thank you. Clerk thank you. We will now hear from myra swat. Yes. Id like to confirm that you can hear me all right. Clerk yes, we can. Thank you. Thank you, and thank you for your time. Im a proud San Francisco native. Clerk [inaudible] im sorry. Somebody is not on mute. Go ahead. Im going to reset your time. Thank you. I think were missing the big picture here. Its not that San Francisco is different. We are progressive, we are thoughtful, we are innovative, and instead of being another big city owned by Big Developers form coalitions, we are a city where progressive activists have made progress. San francisco has a proud record of including community bases organizations in the Decision Making structure. Now if were all so well known for our San Francisco values, socially, culturally, and morally, if were all so well known for being progressive and standing up for what is right, how can we integrate the communitys hope for future housing, to simply eradiindicaerad all the trees that are in the area . Trees absouthbound co2, pollution, they decrease the risk of Natural Disaster with floods and earthquakes, help with Mental Health and has been proven to reduce crime rate and create homes and habitats for many native animals and insects. If we want to continue to walk the talk and live in this city, we need to up the well known San Francisco brand of caring, doing whats right, continuing to stay progressive. In this world, we are choosing to do whats, you know, not necessarily cheap or easy, but something thats just faster or easier. So we simply dont have to bulldoze down hundreds of creative, mature trees to create even more concrete cities that we already have, we can building smaller, build around, build smarter around whats left of our citys full grown natural trees. We can build smarter, and i just want to leave you with this quote. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, its the only thing that ever hass, and i belie believe ever has, and i believe we need to see the Bigger Picture and stay san franciscans together and remember what the city is about. Thank you. Clerk okay. Thank you. We have a caller who has their hand raised. Theres no phone number. Try pressing starsix to unmute yourself. Hi. Thanks. Clerk okay. Please go ahead. No phone number caller. Clerk yes, that would be you. Please go ahead. Little echo. Im going to turnoff my t. V. [inaudible] clerk im sorry. We kind of lost you. Hello . Clerk who is this, please . Im sorry . Clerk im sorry. Can you tell me is this mr. Carnes . Mr. Carnes, can you join by one or the other . Im muted on the computer here. Clerk do you want to mute it on the computer . Vice president honda do you still have the t. V. On in the background . Clerk i think because youve joined by t. V. And computer, if you want to just disconnect one of those, please. Okay. Let me stop hows that . Clerk better. Okay. Plea please clerk please go ahead. [inaudible] by senior b. U. F. Staffers. They seem to forget that the citizens and taxpayers are their clients, and their first responsibility is to provide them with accurate and professional service. Encouraging an attitude of keeping citizens in the dark at hearings is not what b. U. F. Is staffed to do. We need to look at keeping as much of the canopy as possible, especially in district ten and the bayview, which has one of the citys smallest coverage. Those are my comments. Thank you. Clerk is there anyone else that wishes to speak . Theres another western that wishes to speak. Clerk okay. I thought that was mr. Klipp still. Or carnes, you mean . Clerk carnes, okay. Sorry. Thanks. Okay. Were going to move onto rebuttal. Mr. Klipp, you have three minutes. Okay. Can you hear me . Clerk yes, we can. So first, i want to thank everyone who came out to make public comment. I know that a lot of you skipped a lot of things, and i want to thank you for your time. Commissioner swig, to answer your question, the answer was no, no department asked if any of these trees could be saved. I would respectfully disagree with your definition of a significant tree because if thats your definition of a significant tree, i would have been able to appeal all 256 trees. The plans are in conflict, not the other way around. And the housing that came down, while the housing came down, that is proof that housing and trees could exist on this exact same land. With regards to the handicap ramp, im an expert in the california state handicap access, and i would say there are plenty of places to access other than straight through a tree, and i would ask in all of these meetings, were any Disability Rights Group consulted . With the use of the word handicap, i would say no. And i think that the Disability Community is sick of being thrown under the bus for tree removal. As for the planned green spaces, green spaces are a great idea. Why not incorporate the greenery that is already there. As commissioner swig said, instant canopy. This design does not consider humans, it just considers the budget. We could have done better. We just chose not to because we wanted to maximize the space, which means profit, and then we set up the false argument, well, if we save the trees, how many housing are we losing . In my college courses, thats called a straw man. I want to point out to everyone whos breathing air today, i want to remind everyone this is a perfect reason why we need to keep trees in the ground. Unless weve found a way to filter mass quantities of bay area skies, and we have not, trees are the only things keeping us between unbreathable air. The last thing that all of us needs is filthier air, which is exactly, unfortunately, where this is headed. Clerk okay. Are you finished, mr. Klipp . Yes, i am. Thank you. Clerk thank you. We will now hear from marie dubore. You have six minutes, miss dubore. Yes. Thank you for the opportunity to speak again. I just wanted to address a few things ive heard during public comment. One was or maybe it was during question q a session, but the trees that we will be replacing in the public streets will be irrigated, so we hope that that will secure the future of those trees. There was also a comment, i believe by joshua klipp, that the tree could be 100 years old. We believe it was planted in the 1940s, when the original development was built. I wanted to address a comment that a caller made about the comment that were looking at a section of the tree that showed the canopy but not the you know, the tree itself or the i guess we were showing the roots on that on that exhibit, but what i wanted to describe is is that what we understand is that the trees root system expands as far out as the trees canopy, so we looked very closely as how spreading that canopy is for the stone pine, and that is 65 feet. Even if we were able to preserve the tree without cutting down the existing elevation there, we would have to cut into the tree root system for the construction and for the parking garage thats underneath the future housing building. So the tree, unfortunately, and while we would like to preserve all trees, when possible, this tree is, in our opinion, not able to be preserved. It would not survive the impact of the infrastructure design, and it would be in conflict with the future housing building. I would also like to mention that on the phase two site thats up for discussion today on the potrero site, 50 trees were on the phase two site, some of which have been removed. Im not sure where the comment comes from that says hundreds of trees have been removed already. We estimate that there were 30 trees on this project, and we intend to replace them with as many as three times as many trees. We at bridge, you know, were environmentally conscious. Were also an Affordable Housing developer, and in regards to potrero hill, what we can say is this is our second phase. We will look at future phases differently. We will do shade tree surveys earlier and study it. This as phase two here, it came later, but the development is so far advanced right now, that it would be an economic hardship. And i thi and the developer saying if this project gets delays, future projects would get delayed because theyre being completed in order. As one site gets completed, the new site being affected becomes the new project site. We make a commitment to strive to do better going forward. Mark, i dont know if you anything to say . No, i think you said it well, marie. The future of this project has been going on for a long while on a lot of fronts, and the idea behind the project is to replace whats become dilapidated existing Public Housing and create new Public Housing and then, to help fund that new housing, to create market rate housing that would go in. We tried to connect that neighborhood with the surrounding neighborhood and not kind of leave it as this isolated outpost. I think that, you know, with that, to create that graded street system, theres a significant amount of grading thats going to happen to recreate that structure, and unfortunately, the tree some of the trees are going to be in the way of recreating that structure. But in light of everything that weve, you know, heard, theres definitely, you know, i feel compelled to, when we get to the future phases, especially around the edges of the project, to, you know, see what we can do to preserve more of the trees there, you know, within the project boundaries. Clerk 30 seconds remaining. Clerk okay. Thank you. Are you finished . Im finished. Clerk okay. Commissioner swig has a question. Commissioner swig yes, miss dubore. When do you anticipate that the building related to the destruction of this tree is going to be built . Its expected to Start Construction in may of 2021. Commissioner swig okay. But the infrastructure thats related to that building is starting this year. Commissioner swig okay. I think youve resolved not to try to save the tree, and its your job, housing first, tree later. You mentioned that gee whiz, this is going to affect the parking garage. Gee whiz, this is going to affect this. What can be done in an urgent fashion to save this tree, bottom line . And by the way, do you live in San Francisco . I dont, no. Commissioner swig yeah, so you dont care. Sorry. As a native san franciscan, im getting very upset that somebody comes in from out of San Francisco and hurts my city. I was born here 69 years ago that is tomorrow, and i get a little emotional about people who come in from somewhere else and abuse my city. But that being said, what can be done to save this tree . What is the compromise . What is the financial impact, not that its dont give me the well, its going to kick the can down the road and make the development happen later . Remember, i was there at the beginning. You probably didnt work at Bridge Housing. What can be done to save this tree. What is the compromise that Bridge Housing could make to save this tree . What parking place could be sacrificed . What piece of infrastructure can be moved. Can you identify that, please . Yeah. Although we canhavent studiede exact economic impact, with you know that the tree impacts not just the parking garage of the new building, but it impacts a sixstory building that will be built there. So in order to preserve the tree, the canopy, and the root structure, the building, we would have to cutback at least 40 feet on that side, probably a 30foot risk, and we would lose a substantial amount of units across six stories. So the impact would be substantial on that number of Housing Units that we would be losing. Commissioner swig so so there is so as a result of bad planning, of insensitive environmental planning, what you say is this is a fa fafai fait accompli, and this tree is dead basically. I believe this tree is in conflict with the currently designed development, yes. Commissioner swig yeah. And again, who in the city bho in the ci who in the city was responsible for equal insensitivity, environmental insensitivity and by the way, i was there at the beginning. Who in the city provided the insensitive approval of this environmentally insensitive nature of this design . Yes. I was not at Bridge Housing when this project was conceived, but i am also a proponent of Affordable Housing. I believe we can all do better, between the developer, the different city departments. When a Development Gets planned and goes through the approval stages, we have to make sure that this aspect gets looked at in the future. Commissioner swig you didnt answer my question. I cant answer commissioner swig mr. Hale, can you answer that . No, sir. We went through a master infrastructure plan, and i, you know, worked on preparing exhibits for that, but it was handled by another frirm, anir believe it went through a number of different departments at the city. It wasnt like it was, you know, just kind of tried to slide underneath the radar. It was a very complex project, and i think a lot of people have seen the project. I think that, you know, it if you want to argue that, you know, it was probably put down to an overriding concern to construction the housing and to recreate the graded street system was considered an overriding concern in comparison to preserving this tree. I couldnt because of the scale of the project, i dont remember significant discussion about this particular tree at that time, but as weve got into this particular phase. We particular phase, we did take a look. But for the longest time, the project has shown a significant amount of grading to, you know, proceed with the development, and it has shown buildings that go out to the sidewalks for, i would say ten years at least . But i i have no idea who if youre looking for the one, you know, entity to point the blame at, i dont think theres any one entity. I think theres a number of people, and, you know, i cant tell you if it was considered if it was considered and it was the you know, good was not to be sacrificed for the perfect or if it was, you know, overlooked. I could not tell you, sir. Commissioner swig its just we come in here week after week, and we observe some environmental insensitivity, and like i said earlier, im going to talk about this later in my discussion. Personally, im running into myself because i was a proponent of hope s. F. , involved in hope s. F. , getting some wonderful housing built, yet it myself, in my own foresight, neglected to have an environmental sensitivity and ask these questions then while were housing people that need housing, how do we protect the environment, and how do we not tear down these trees . But i was younger then, and not so informed today, with a lot more information needed. Thank you very much. Clerk okay. Thank you. Well hear from a question from commissioner tanner. Commissioner tanner thank you. My question is for Bridge Housing, and im not sure who will answer it, but thank you answering the question that the street trees will be irrigated. I want to be clear that the replacement trees that were talking about, 104, which a significant number will be street trees, 64 will be replaced, and the other are property trees. Are they 40 or 48 inch . Yeah, theyll be 48 inches. And then, miss dubose, do you have any information on that . Yes. The street trees will be 48 inch, and then, the other trees will be dependent on how close they are to structures and buildings. Commissioner tanner and where is it going to be written for accountability purposes, for mr. Klipp and everybody else to make sure that this happens, where is the replacement plan . It is in the building plan, and bridge will make a commitment to replace these trees. Clerk they are in the public documents, commissioner tanner. Commissioner tanner okay. The documents are lengthy, and i want to make sure that Everybody Knows where they are. And lastly, the environmental impacts to the buildings, is there any requirement that the buildings are built to any sort of standard or lead or design measure that would be incorporated into these buildings . Yes. So our first phase, 1101 connecticut street, was completed and received a lead platinum certification, and were trying to achieve the same thing for block b. Block a will pursue that. Were required to build a green standard, but the level platinum was beyond what was required. Commissioner tanner thank you. Clerk okay. We have a question from Vice President honda . Vice president honda yes. First of all, thank you, guys. I know this has been tough on you as well as it has been on us, and thank you for bearing with us and answering the questions as honestly and accurately as you can. So mr. Klipp mentioned that the the species of the trees life span are 30 years and will grow no taller than 20 feet. Is that an accurate description . Of the tree which trees . Im sorry. Vice president honda well, i think that is more in general to the trees being replaced. He had mentioned that the replacement trees are going to have a life span of no more than 30 years and are going to grow no higher than 20 feet. Is that specific to species or in general . Im not sure where that comment came from, to be honest. I dont have our Landscape Architect on this call. Perhaps mark hill knows a little bit about the tree species. Vice president honda actually, maybe chris buck might have some insight. Sorry to throw you on the campfire there, chris. Clerk chris . Mr. Buck . Vice president honda yeah, hes getting his mic working. Clerk okay. Thank you. Chris buck, department of urban forestry. You know, i dont have it in front of me. Id have to get into my remote access. I know we have that information and we reviewed it. No, these are large stature trees at mature that should be getting well over 20 feet. Vice president honda and life span . Yeah. The average street tree is focal. Is it seven years is the average life span . No, theyre going to be much taller than 20 feet, and they should be there a lot longer than 30 years. So i think mr. Klipps point is its going to take a long time for the replacement trees to create considerable canopy, so we take that point, but i can definitely verify these will be large stature trees. Vice president honda yeah. It didnt make sense that they would put a tree with that time stamp on there, that small, but thank you for answering the question. Clerk okay. So we still have to hear from mr. Buck in rebuttal. Do you have anything to add . You have six minutes. Good evening, commissioners. Chris buck, department of public works, department of urban forestry. One thing i was going to point out in the supporting documents, appendix b, d, and f, Bridge Housing included a sort of aerial view of grade change and then a profile as well as a the other i forget the name of the other the exhibit, but there are just one of the Public Comments had a question about the specifics of which its been looked at, this site and this tree. So the only thing imted to clarify. But beyond that, no, just available for questions. Clerk okay. We do have a question from Vice President honda. Vice president honda just one question as its pertaining to this particular project. When a tree is pruned, i was always under the impression or understanding that you cannot prune more than 30 of a tree, is that skre is that correct . One of the guidelines is that you cant prune more than a third of the canopy. If its regarding pruning at large, we need to clarify what were talking about. But generally, the guideline is about a third, a quarter to a third. Vice president honda and then, ficuses are more . It is when the public demands the retention in the public rightofway and we cant mitigate failure potential other than eliminating weight from the tree. So 24 street and hayes valley are sites that we talk about okay, this is where we can do that, but then, were forced to maintain the tree at a much smaller size. Vice president honda thank you very much, mr. Buck. Clerk okay. Thank you. So commissioners, this matter is submitted. Vice president honda i know rick wants to go first. Commissioner swig y commissioner swig yeah. So im sorry for coming off cranky. So i dont know, 12, 13 years ago, when i started as a commissioner on the Redevelopment Agency, i was introduced to the bayview, i was introduced to Alice Griffith, i was introduced to hunters view and saw how this city had abused its residents by placing people in what was to be temporary housing in world war ii, and that got me very, very dedicated to lowincome housing and very, very passionate about making sure that people would not be relegated to living in temporary housing that was built in the 1940s, and here it was 2005 or 2006 i cant remember what. If you go to hunters view today, it has gone through a resurrection. If you go to Alice Griffith today, it has gone through a resurrection, and i thank fred blackwell, who was head of the Redevelopment Agency during my tenure there, for leading that charge. I also thank mayor breed, who who was so strong at that time as a proponent of getting lowincome housing and redevelopment moved forward. And and she was tremendous in making sure that people who were going to be relocated as a result of that newhousing from their 50yearold or 60yearold substandard housing would not be would not be subjectively moved out unless it was moved into a new piece of housing, which has been fully achieved. So i just want to say that im a major proponent of what has occurred in the bayview, major proponent of Developers LikeBridge Housing, who have been part of the process of getting the housing done not soon enough. What i object to, and i can see and im probably guilty of this, as well that youre in the process of moving forward. You overlook, and im sorry, mr. Klipp, the trees because you want to house hundreds and hundreds of families that are living in substandard conditions. So i can see how the intensive of trying to move the Housing Forward gets in the way of observing that several trees, and important trees, are going to be torn down, unfortunately. So ill i guess im part of the cause, and im trying to be part of the solution. Im going to ask that we deny the appeal tonight because we have to move this project forward, and i dont think this this tree is going to survive, according to the testimony that weve heard. But i would call on the city and those departments who are trying to do well by getting housing together. I would call on them also to be environmentally responsible and to be consideration of tree conscious of trees and conscious of the environment that i grew up in as a native of San Francisco and to sustain these trees and to be a little bit more sensitive. And to Bridge Housing and those Developers Like them understand that citizens of this city enjoy our trees as we enjoy the opportunity of housing people that are not lucky to live in good housing, but we really have to maintain it and be sensitive and be be more responsible about our environmental sensitivities. I and thats my speech and i just wanted to get it off my chest. Thank you. Clerk commissioner lazarus . President lazarus so we have two questions. The first is Bridge Housing is not allowing this tree to be taken down, and then, we have a separate appeal regarding the permit to cut down other trees. Am i correct . Clerk i was going to say, i mean, depending on where the conversation goes, it sounds like you want some conditions, so Vice President honda grant the appeal. Clerk so we would be granting the appeal on the condition that it would be revised to x, y, and z. President lazarus well, i just wanted to clarify. I guess commissioner swig, i thought, was moving toward denying the appeal. Clerk to be clear, commissioner swig, the underlying order denied the removal of the stone pine tree, so if you wanted that tree removed, youd have to grant the appeal and issue the order with the condition of the order of the removal of the stone pine tree. Commissioner swig ill let somebody else make the motion on that, but i understand the direction. Vice president honda you just gave a heart wrenching thing about the trees coming down. Commissioner swig i understand. Ive run out of energy, i think. Im an old man. Clerk okay. Commissioner tanner has her hand up. Commissioner tanner and i still have a question similar to what commissioner lazarus has. We have appeal 20047, which is bridges appeal with that underlying wed grant the appeal, and i would like to condition it on the 48inch boxes being in the order, if thats appropriate. I know that bridge has committed on the record to doing that, and its in the plan, but id like it to be there. And then, wouldnt we have a second motion to deny the appeal of 20048 . Vice president honda yeah. Clerk were amending the order, so we need to combine them. Theres one order, and youd like to amend it. Youd need to condition it on the order being 48inch box, and fumt if y if you wanted remove the stone pine tree, it would be granting that with conditions. Commissioner tanner okay. Before i say that, i think commissioner swig has expressed a view that i hold in terms of the importance of housing, the importance of the trees, as well, and im glad that so many folks here from the Mayors Office have called in here and participated to think about the future phases, and how do we accommodate trees when we think about the infrastructure projects. Im not naive to think that they can all be saved, but certainly, theres a role that these trees play in our ecosystem. Theres Nothing Better than a big trees, and in 20 or 30 years, theyll be providing shade, and itll be fantastic. But how fantastic would it be with residents moving into their homes with canopies of mature trees with new trees. So thats a consideration of future developments and how can we have a little bit more harmony with those. So with that president lazarus hang on one second. Commissioner honda had his hand up, so maybe before you make your motion. Vice president honda youre going to skip over me with your new hairdo. The commission needs to do better, especially on days like this where air quality is really poor. Its not going to have a ton of housing if you cant go outside. Well change the words of the song living in paradise to living in a housing structure. Developers come to this board asking for forgiveness rather than asking for permission, and if its convenient to knock the tree down for 2,000 to save themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars, i would, too. Thats just fiscal responsibility, so i think thats something that b. U. F. Should look into. Go ahead, madam goodlooking hair. Clerk commissioner swig . Commissioner swig yeah. First of all, i would agree with commissioner honda. I dont know who we send the message to, but, you know, the cost of 4,000 because you knocked down to trees, to move a sewer pipe 1 inch costs 4,000, and its a minor change order. And a minor change order is not going to change consciousness, its not going to change behavior, and its not going to change attitudes towards tearing down trees. Its a minor change order. Its nothing. And even 20,000 would be a minor change order. So i appreciate commissioner hondas point of view, and also commissioner tanner, thank you for really summarizing my thoughts in a much more constructive fashion than i could. Thank you. Commissioner tanner youre welcome, commissioner swig. So with that, i would move to deny the appeal and require that the replacement trees be the 48inch box size on the basis that this is beneficial for the community. Clerk and what about the stone pine tree . We need to reference that, also. Commissioner tanner and to allow removal of the stone pine tree. Clerk okay. So we and just to clarify, youre referring to both appeals . Commissioner tanner yes, im referring to appeal 20048 and 20047. Clerk thank you. Okay. So we have a motion commissioner tanner to grant the appeals and uphold the order on the condition that it be revised to require the removal of the stone pine tree on 46 street frontage, and that the 68 replacement trees be in 48inch size boxes on the basis that this is amenable to the project sponsor and beneficial to the community. Is that what you said . Commissioner tanner yep. Clerk on that motion [roll call] clerk okay. So that motion carries, 50, and the appeal is granted with the conditions. This concludes the hearing. President lazarus we are adjourned. Thank you. Good night. Im supervisor hilary ronen and vice chair stephanie and gordon mar. I woul