Implosions in metropolitan areas period. You can read the full pdf or click on the web link and the deal here is that mechanical removal creates more jobs and local jobs i think that lenare is trying to accelerate its process and save money and we need to protect the public and tell them sorry. And the final thing is a mechanical demolition makes it much easier to reuse materials we need to save those materials not blow them up. Thanks. Thank you. [applause]. Mckenzie. Thank you. Commissioners im Dennis MckenzieDiamond Consulting and education its ive been writing for 25 years and i also Teach High School for the last 13 years and my comment today was about the eir being presented between your department and the Planning Department so my comment today on this issue is that my proposal ive could ive asked last week to use the opportunity as they begin the process of eir to study my proposal for High School Classroom inside the arena and the issues here today already my proposal is to deal with the positive affects of education and what this proposal can mean for our city and entire environment and again, were talking about these last items have been about the Natural Resources our Human Interaction and relationship with the earth and environment is important so i mean for the benefit let me briefly read this comment my proposal on my website basically im asking for this study to take into consideration the classroom. Im asking the eir to study the longterm positive social economic implications of a High School Classroom that can provide San Francisco and the entire bay area and diverse cross can crosscultural community as a whole and i ask Government Agencies involved and responsible for creating this Successful Partnership with the warriors, the Workforce Development commission and Mayors Office to consider the opportunities available to initiating these possibilitieses that my classroom can provide. I believe a strategic a strategically located classroom will create a wide variety of jobs and businesses and benefits for our diverse crosscultural community including oakland and entire San Francisco bay area for generations to come and the copy i gave to you of this letter i wrote on on september 29th i provided this to you a couple of months ago on email and i wrote this letter as a summary because of the new agency of the new agencies involved i needed to summarize everything. My understanding no decisions by political leaders or government officials were ever made without taking into consideration the next 7 generations and thats for a deeply knowledgeable reason. Everybody talking here before as i sat and listened creating jobs we dont have yet. We dont have any sister city relationships yet. My proposal is to create a a model bring a model. Thank you very much. Thank you. We will read your correspond ance thank you for that. Do we have any other speaker cards. No other speaker cards. Exactly. So in Public Comment we can only receivement comment comment. We cant respond. The commissioners might have questions for those members of the public who have given Public Comment. Item 7 report of the chair. I have no report other than i encourage commissioners including myself to read carefully and closely the information weve received regarding the warriors project that was not on this calendar its on our next calendar. Next item. The next order of business is item 8 the report of the executive director on the major phase for the Golden State Warriors discussion madam director. Thank you madam secretary really following on the chairs remarks and members of the public continuing to join us thank you. Theres an inform al theres an major phase document available for the public. There there will be an indepth presentation on january 6th at the first meeting of the year for those of you who also like to hear more about it there are Ongoing Mission bay citizens advisory meetings and Planning Department on december 18th will hear a presentation about the proposed Golden State Warriors arena and event center. The second item there was an informational memorandum distributed to commissioners today regarding the demolition of the of the candlestick stadium and you heard Public Comment there were a number of letters. There are Public Meetings because that item is not calendared and no decision before you today. But nonetheless there is a Public Meeting in the community tomorrow and if i may announce that Public Meeting yes. Its through the request of a number of the members of the public here present. There is a meeting scheduled and facilitated through the Supervisors Office and the residents of the area thats december 17th at 630 thats an opportunity for people to hear more about the proposed plans and over all plans for candlestick again scheduled for tomorrow and in addition the regular meeting and the this again is in your packets and january 12th at 6 00 p. M. The full meeting the matter proposed demolition will also be discussed and the previous matter requested and over all update on the candlestick Development Plans and thats scheduled for for january 20th. And then the third matter and i think perhaps it will come up it is with sad news to report 2 passings of former colleagues friends and extended family the first is Jennifer Matz a Workforce Development director former director of the economic and Workforce Development a former mentor and friend and legislative aid attorney survived by her two Young Children and there was a beautiful Quaker Service for her for her for her for her at pier for her at pier 27 and a dedicated Public Servant and market revital ization and more recently for the office of Economic Development and the Golden State Warriors and giant s project with the port and its with Great Sadness that shes left us and former Deputy Director helen helped to build yerba, buena and her husband was killed unfortunately in a car accident and his services are january 10th and we certainly will distribute information a number of you know helen and her work and we mourn with their families and certainly celebrate their life for both jennifer and sam. Thank you. I need to ask if theres any Public Comment on the report of the executive director . Do we have any speaker cards . Mr. Washington i need to interrupt you were running out of commissioners. It has to be on the executive directors report. Thank you. She did not mention 1 word about the situation at it seems like we dont exist and thats in thats in the Western Addition and also theres no mention that all the black businesses are closing on fillmore and no mentioning . Its ridiculous. Its appalling its appalling. I respect you all to come addition. All i can say is the rules prevent me from giving immediate feedback. Ill be happy to talk to you about it offline. The next order of business is item 9. Madam chair. Do the commissioners have any questions or matters. The only question i would have if theres an opportunity for us to talk about the implosion at candlestick and we can agendize it or have a conversion a conversation with lenare about that. I need to understand with more clarity even if its in its in a bullet memo what is it exactly that lenare submitted to the Planning Department how is that with any understanding we had about their plans is it consistent or inconsistent with the Environmental Impact reports or records or documentation. This is just off the top of my head what liaison role does the Planning Department have with us before they take action and is it staff or Planning Commission approval so the sooner we receive that information this is more of a comment rather than a question i think we can decide what we we do next. And if i said that too fast i think the record will pick it up okay . Next item please . The next order of business is item 10 adjournment. Were adjourned. On that note happy holidays everyone thank you for for your comments. Azarus good evening and welcome to the december 17, 2014 meeting of the San Francisco board of appeals. There is one seat vacant ton on the board this evening, when a vacancy exist it is board may overrule the action of the department on appeal by a vote of three members, four votes are not required. To my left is deputy city attorney, and im cynthia gold steen, the boards director. Chris buck is here in the front row, hes a forester with the department of public works. And at the table in the front corner here is corey tigue, representing the Planning Department and commission; and senior building instructor whos representing the department of building inspection. If you would please go oefrz the Board Meeting guidelines and conduct the swearing in process. The board requests you turn off all phones and pagers so they will not disturb proceedings. Please carry on conversations in the holeway. The boards each has senl minutes to present their cases and three minutes for rebuttals. People affiliated with these parties must conclude their comments within the seven minutes period. To assist the board in the accurate preparation of minutes, members of the public who wish to speak on an item are asked but not required to submit a speaker or Business Card to board staff when you come to the podium. Speaker cards and pin rs available on the left side of the podium. The board welcomes your comments and suggestions. There are Customer Satisfaction survey forms on the left side of the podium. If you have questions about requests a hearing, board rules or hearing schedules, please speak to us after the break or meeting, well call the board office tomorrow morning. The board office is located at 1650 mission street. This meeting is broadcast live on cable channel 78 and dvds of this meeting are available for purchase directly from sfgov tv. At this point well conduct our swearing in process. If you intend to testify in any hearing; please stand, say i do after it has been affirmed. Do you solemnly swear or az firm that the testimony youre about to give will be the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth . Thank you. Thank you. President lazarus, commissioners, theres one housekeeping item tonight and that has to do with item 12, appeal 14157, which is regarding a notice of violation at 819 ellis street. That matter has been withdrawn and will not be heard this evening. Item number one is for general Public Comment. Is there anybody here who would like to speak on an item that is not on the calendar. Seeing none well move to item 2. Seeing none there well move to item 3, which is the consideration of Meeting Minutes for december 10, 2014. If no changes, is there a motion to submit minutes as is . So moved. If you could call the roll please. We have a motion to commissioner honda to adopt the december 10, 2014 minutes. On that motion, commissioner fung . I. President lazarus. I. Commissioner wilson. I. Thank you. Vote is four to zero, those minutes are adopted. Item 4 is appeal 141072. The property is at 2707 21st street for a tree removal permit and we will start with the appellant. You have seven minutes to present your case. Good evening and happy holidays. Nice pronunciation of my name, by the way. My name is kevin mcroy, my wife and i own the house seeking to remove four illegal placed trees in front of our house. Theyre illegal planting and our neighbors wishes. We bought our house in october 2013 for a home for a small family. We had a daughter 1 month old at the time. We planned to live in this house through her childhood and beyond. With our dream house we inherited four palm trees planted in in one tree basin in the 150id walk out front. These palms present numerous challenges to pedestrians and drivers. Overhead please. The small mediterranean palm is growing diagonally over the sidewalk. Its in violation of dpws own codes which calls for a 8 foot wide sidewalk, which in this case we only have 6 feet. You can see this tree will continue to be a nuisance for the many pedestrian, dog walkers, children walking to school and baby strollers which we see on a daily basis. The mexican palm to the left is a nuisance to drivers. People parking their cars deal with its low hanging prawns and passengers exiting must duck to avoid the prawns. M the vertical clearance the only 6 feet, but the code requires 14 feet to allow for street cleaning, etc. Another picture from a different angle. This palm is quote, no tors for damaging cars and injuring people due to falling prawns from the eventual height of 100 feet. The other two trees which are queen palms will grow to an eventual height of 50 feet. This is the most dangerous aspect of these palm tree this is a residential neighborhood like hours, falling prawn. I hope to bring one in tonight as evidence of the risk they pose but imagine it wouldnt get past security here at city hall. The maintenance will be upward of 2,000. This yearly fee will only increase as the palms grow since palm trees cannot be height controlled like other species. This is an unfair financial burden for us, the homeowners who inherited this situation. You may be asking yourselves, how did four palm trees end up in one tree basin. It seems like an unusual situation to us. Throughout this process and talking with former neighbors and owners of this house, we learned through previous owners went through this process a few years ago when they wanted the plum tree removed. One weekend they took matters into their own hand, illegally real moving the plum tree and replacing it with these palms. Now as the new homeowners were stuck dealing with the consequences. We invited our neighbors to submit their opinion to the board of appeals either in favor or against removal. In conversations we have the full support of removal and three neighbors said theyd write letters to support removal due to safety concerns. This tree bray sin is suitable for one tree, not four, particularly four dangerous and inappropriate trees such as these palms. Weve lined up a palm tree specialist to remove the trees and relocate them, hopefully keeping them right here in San Francisco. We hope to have the chance to work with dpw and friends of the urban forest to replace the trees with one tree more suitable for the neighborhood, which is full or plum trees and olive trees. P palm trees are great when theyre in an open space. Four of them simply do not belong into a single tree basin on a busy residential street where health and safety should be the primary concerns. All were asking is to restore the previous tree basin to its original state and undo the illegal action of the previous owners. Thank you and im happy to answer any questions. Since you recently purchased the pperty in october of last year, did you have concerns when you pir xhased the property with those four palms . Buying a home in San Francisco, you dont have a lot of time to focus on the details. Also with a one month old baby i think its something we assumed we could deal with in the future. Having gone through the process so far and losing the application and the appeal, ive since learned otherwise, but i guess we didnt know what we were getting spoo. Was there any disclosure from the seller in regards to the four illegally planted trees . My wife says absolutely not. I dont think so. Thank you. Thank you. You may have mentioned this, how do you know what the history was there with the other tree . With the plum treel that was there is . Talking to neighbors, our next door neighbor lived there through the ordeal. My wife said the homeowner admitted it to her. Thank you. We can hear from the department now mr. Buck. Good evening commissioners, chris buck, acting urban forester with department of public works. Im at a tree hearing on august 25, 2014 and the findings of the department were outlined in order number 182947. The department supported keeping the trees in the tree basis. I have app few photos, but the basic findings are although i. T. s unusual to have four trees crammed into a single Tree Planting location, the four trees are coexisting rather well. Well go to overhead. Some of the lower prawns could be pruned to provide more clearance for the pedestrians so pay sis for denial was that we felt that with some pruning and improvements this would be a very adequate path of travel for pedestrians and motorists. One recommendation would be to allow the removal of the smaller sand palm circled in red on the right and the removal of the plant an aloe plant on the left. Is thats another view. We believe moving the smaller palm, again, the departments decision was to deny the request, but in preparation for tonights hearing, providing some feedback we feel that removing the smaller palm along with the aloe plant provides enough space to walk by the palm trees. They dont meet spacing guidelines, but they fit within the tree basin and dont impede the public right of way. Relatively speaking, the palm trees are a lower maintenance tree, which require pruning of thrower prawns. They dont damage or buckle the sidewalk so thats not typically going to be an issue with the maintenance surrounding the trees. Based on google street view looking at images over multiple years it looks like perhaps in 2007 they were planted. You can see three young palms planted together in a single tree basin and theres a for sale sign. It looks like likely realtor trying to gus say up the frontage just went a little exuberantly and planted a number of palm trees in a single basin. With that said, we dont feel like we need to amount to vigorous defense of this. Its unusual, but want to provide perspective on why we denied it at department level. We acknowledge its an unusual setting. You made reference that the palms dont do a lot of sidewalk damage. Would that be true of the plum treatments as well, or olive, which i gather are more common in that neighborhood . Olive tree would do more sidewalk damage, plum trees less damage so ranking them in order of least concern would be the palms, and then the plums and then the olives are. One challenge is that we might have one owner who loves the palm trees so we try to be consistent at the department al level, but i understand the Property Owners concerns. Are they accurate about the cost of the maintenance . Well, the citation they made is accurate. There is information