Uni moving forward know we didnt we were not told with these improvements would be. I know that we have had over 7000 people asking to have these things mitigated and to have more input and they just steamroll us. I would say they are disingenuous at best and i would like to have more public input to everything and frankly, this is one of the ways to do it. Im very concerned that after this they are going after masonic avenue theyve already done things on fisadero. Fyi a masonic was six months ago. Next person please come up. I am marianne aganas. They had no idea what it was going to turn out to be. They did a studytthe sfmta i forget the name the company a thing was bmg but theyrated that four out of five of the trees were good and healthy. I just want to see the trees that we have now and what we can expect in the future. Overhead please. Overhead please. Do i have to say . I dont know. Can you see that . On its such a big tree doesnt fit on the screen. Maybe this one will be better. This is a group of trees that flower even. And, after three years of construction may be much longer than that they will plant saplings of the lemon scented gum trees and this is what it is going to look like after after maybe 15 or 20 years of growth. I wouldnt call that a canopy. Its a skanky looking tree at that. [laughing] now mature trees are extremely important to a healthy environment. They provide oxygen reduce pollution and noise they protect us from the heat of the sun and they cool the streets. And it is said this is for the the public warrant that this would be done at the sidewalk not in the middle. I have right here a petition signed of 764 people and their comments or agree with this. This is only a small sampling. We will let you finish your thought but your time was up. Oh, it is up . I didnt hear the last bell. Can i finish my last thought please . Yes go ahead. Is going to happen in many neighborhoods and like she said, we do not find out until it is a done deal. That is not fair to the public. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello thank you my name is lara decarl i live on green street near ravenna but my children were here today and they wanted to speak to you but due to the hour we had to send them home. I am here obviously as a very effective resident. Its going to happen right outside my door. I am actually concerned about the dust and im concerned about the noise and im concerned about additional congestion and traffic and people turning right onto green street at unbelievable speeds like they do off of golf and franklin these days. These things are going to be happening when the traffic shifts. People are going to be moving on to the side streets. The congestion is going to be created by the reduction in lanes along than a and that will force them to turn off of neighboring streets such as golf and vanna. Those concerns i wanted to communicate am also deeply concerned about the small that will be created because of congestion in the particular matter that we will experience over the residential corridor highway 101 or not this is a residentialcore door. There is an alternative to the construction that they are proposing and there is a much less disruptive plan. And im sorry, i will conclude. Is there a question that yet . Okay. Next speaker please. Is the overhead projector on . Yes just place it down estate looking at yourself. Overhead please. Like you are looking at. Thank you. Good morning. My name is diana scott and i thank you pres. Honda and commissioners for the opportunity to present strong reasons to support this appeal and its impact on trees and its lack of financial sustainability. This is the last remaining opportunity to talk about the reverse impact of the pp w tree cutting and its order and before the construction contract of 313 million that will be approved next tuesday at a special meeting at city hall. No other city ac approvals are needed for this project. 100 Million Dollars needed for this project is not currently available this means the median trees can be cut and replaced whether or not the project goes forward. The board of appeals reversal of this order is critical at this moment. Once these trees are cut, they cant be uncut. The mta needs to reconsider other funding or Design Options now before the dpw cuts trees. Theres other less intrusive and less costly options that have been mentioned like curbside and fast lanes that would save most of the median and sidewalk trees and create less excavation because the excavation is to protect the median under the median sewer lines that will be impacted by the platform for median. Buses the project will create traffic snarls and hurt businesses. Please consider this before approving this as revised by the mta. This slide accommodates different ways of traveling and remains voracious i know everyone has been patient here but okay thank you. Thank you next speaker please. On march 14, 2006 17 foot cork oak there planted on venice street. I live on venice street. The tree it was dedicated for civil rights by the near rosa park. The significant of rosa park is a raised in rosa park did not move. This is an unjust act. Trees deemed unfeasible this will affect the visual aesthetics of our neighborhood to the point of alienation. Instead of cultivating and preserving the healthy trees and shrubs that we have for days to come the plan will create enormous sums of money to reestablish that which cannot be replaced. This will dispose of our own urban forest history and replace it with a toxic option. Please redirect funds to the restoration of the historical light post and the maintenance of the roads and the existing trees along the end a highway 101 corridor and beyond thank you. [timer dings] that is a hard act to follow. Eileen volk and i am a sunset park resident and theyre a lot of people that are here today in solidarity with the vanness communities supporting their appeal. The citys approach towards street trees have become a panic. On the other hand the city will be proposing a tech totax preserve street tees in the November Ballot do and that it will be to maintain a healthy street trees including those on vanness. Thank you he created thank you my name is al manas. I ask that you respectfully reject this tree permit. Take into this consideration that this project has grown from tens of millions of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars. This project is an insufficient use of hundreds of millions of dollars of tax dollars for a modest improvement. Because the city has a budget deficit the project sponsor is issuing hundreds of millions of dollars of additional new bond debt in order to pay for a like this. Projectalthough we already pay for additional sales tax for this project the city is preparing a ballot measure toadd a new sales tax and why not try the express option first we could implement that tomorrow and it would save these trees and it would provide improvements for those who elect to a ride the express limited bus and it would meet the requirements of the a10 hundreds of dollars in taxes and new rider fees. And it would save it would not require the writers to wait for the buses in the middle of a congested highway and it would be more accommodating and safer option for the elderly that live here. Please project the tree permit and tell the project sponsors to reengage with the community and listen to us. [timer dings] thank you. Mary liza here thank you for hearing us this morning or this evening wherever areat right now i will be brief youve already received a letter from me i will talk about the design details. If you look at the design alternatives required in the eir only one design required removal of the street trees. This is the most expensive alternativend creates the most impact. We see this pattern of the mta picking the most expensive and impact of design instead of the least expensive and least impact of designs. We ask that you question the validity of the organization for a propensity for choosing the most expensive alternative and greatest negative impacts on our residents and businesses. How does this project that removes trees, bus stops, traffic lanes and parking and now bus seats help the mta to assure quality life of San Francisco the primary objective of the system must be the safe and efficient movement of the people and they should move the the route to the bus lane move trees to the left of the basra. Thank you. You would see 30 or 40 people lined up for google buses a handful of people waiting for a unibus. This whole thing has been a lie from the beginning. They started out telling this us this would be paid by the they said vanness avenue had no double parking one hour were study that they did and it was a whole 14 pages and they dida one hour study and that was the whole project. I heard the cdc say the other night they would just have to step up enforcement to deal with the delivery trucks but people still need their goods in the garbage needs to still be part picked up in the real pickle is that caltrans has to pick that up in the city has to put that back in 30 days in the city has no money to do that and i dont know what will happen then. Youre going to ccut all these trees down for nothing and these people know that all of us are against it and they just grind us down and they lie and they say 75 of the public is for it and i have been against it since 2008 when they started it and its been one lie after another. Please read the ir. It will be available at 7 oclock in the morning. I will buy you a coffee. Thank you. I might need that tonight. Next speaker. Good morning. I am here to speak in favor of the bus route transit project. I rely heavily on the buses that run on this route. Im not alone about 30 to 40 of the people that use these roots board on van ness. And all of these will improve by the median Transit Center and it removes buses from traffic and by doing so it will remove the issue of having four buses in a row and it will be Faster Service and it will get people out of their cars and that will be an environmental benefit. Trees are an environmental benefit but transit has a huge effect on our environment and this could really improve the environment from the perspective. Everybody likes trees when you have a huge Infrastructure Project there are some downsides to it. There are some future games but if you look at Market Street there were shortterm construction impacts no more than this one but nobody said we shouldnt have the Market Street shuttle or the twin peaks shuttle this is critical to her how we get people all i around the city i would suggest that you consider this this is a longer process we are kind of on the brink of finally being able to build something that will improve transit for the thousands of bus riders in any acknowledgment of this would be great and we can just move forward. Thank you. [timer dings] next speaker please hello, my name is nicole soroka. I am a longterm resident of the city. I live on van ness avenue. My bedroom window faces the trees that are being slaughtered and i also work for an Accounting Firm and i believe that we will be losing more than we are gaining. I do not see how were looking at this intelligently. Brts were designed for spacious core doors and not areas like van ness avenue. This is been evidenced in places likebrazil and even in the United States such as Cleveland Ohio and these all have very low ratings for transportation and Development Policy standards. I would like to end by saying that you know, i think i will end with a quote by dr. Seuss. The lorax. If someone like you does not care an awful lot no one well. They will not. And what sort of precedent are we setting for the city of San Francisco. Thank you. [applause] patricia boyd, what im seeing on the trees is what i saw a few years ago. And they came and said they were putting palm trees on lombard. The italians werent happy. I had to facilitate the meetings and put pictures on bags to get an adequate boat. Im seeing several projects being piecemeal. Im waiting for us to be next on the tree issue. 3000 people voted for this in the city to trim them and they didnt and then they gave them to the responsibility of the landowners. The trees in the median were supposed to be public who is going to pay for . Is that the city . Is that the state . Is that the federal government . A lot of answers have not been answered on this. What im really saying is that a piecemeal laying of the project that was planned years ago and not told to the public for all of these connecting roots to the brt say saying now, i am confused because in one drawling the brt says there are moving the trees in one drawing they say theyre replacing them in one say that they are drawing them down. I am confused and i think that we need to go back to the drawing board. [timer dings] next speaker please. The new trees probably will not grow to their full size for 15 to 20 years from now. After they first remove the countries it will be another 20 years before the partial canopy will be there but theres new trees will not provide the canopy that we have now on be in nest. There are other ways to accomplish the goals of mta with their plans for the van ness corridor. By granting this appeal you have the unique chance of making a difference in the lives of the residence not only on van ness but the rest of San Francisco and also the rest of the world that comes to San Francisco and drives on the van ness corridor. I hope you will save the vns trees by granting this appeal. I would like to quickly read two statements from people who could not make it tonight. Paula paley who lives a few blocks from vanness and rides on vns frequently. She says i have lived near vanness for 40 years and ive always loved the trees on vns and other streets on our city. I appreciate and care about the trees on vns and want to preserve them. My office is on vns and i drive that helped five days a week. And i called the board of appeals to get more details and i also feel frustrated because at this late notice i cannot speak at the meeting. The issue is how to accomplish those goals without defacing and the character in the city and creating more problems for already overly congested traffic. Just two more sentences. How do we not think this will resolve in a traffic nightmare. Finally how can you want to replace those trees with new native trees. Thank you very much. Hello i am the bald eagle. I came here i told that this tree discussion would be from 5 to 6 tonight but its midnight. Its 1230 i appreciate all of your time for her taking your time and i appreciate you doing your job so well so thank you very much. Thank you for sharing your opinions and representing your can stconstituents so that is good. Trees are good. It makes a green. Its a good thing. But you know what . All these peoples opinions and smoking lies always peoples pretty much messed up stuff that they are talking about doesnt matter. I am going to make it very efficient and im going to say that my computer is going to tell you whether or not you should vote yes or no on this thing. It says yes. Alright thank you. Thank you. Commissioners, good morning my name is pete i live on venice avenue. I want to take the time to express my support for the appeals and asked that you deny the permit despite the project being up her. Also that you would consider the brt alternative too to it to allow the trees to be on thecurbside this will also make it more efficient for the mta riders. Many of the trees have full canopies of 50 to 60 feet and greater than 75 of the median trees is a 4 to 5 would be a sustainable tree it means by removing and replanting 100 trees by putting in 200 trees the city stands to use 400,000 gallons more water during a drought period to get established trees and that would be to a full majority in canopy. Aside from the environmental cost of moving the healthy trees the results cost andresourcewill keep the city in construction for over three years. Overhead please. In addition to environmental costs and taxpayer money this will cost lives this will only permit access to the cross work from one direction. [timer dings] please finish up please. This terminates in traffic and its twice as wide and people can go in opposite directions away from the boarding area. Thank you very much. Next speaker please. Good morning members. My name is robert bartel. I voted for proposition k in 2003 and if anybody doubt that you can download the entire ballad from the library and see that a bus Rapid Transit was was specified on van nest i am currently on the Community Advisory committee. It is been 13 years that we have been working on it and everything i hear about the project is being considered, turned upside down, and looked at in the locally preferred alternative was chosen because it was the best alternative. I understand, i mean the sentiment for the trees i understand that we love trees i understand that we love the mature canopy but as a gentleman that was up for five people earlier it is a tradeoff. If we are going to improve our infrastructure as we voted for in 2003 we will have to cut the trees down. It is maybe too bad but it is a small sacrifice to make. I know people here are not going to live to see including me at the mature canopy but its something that we can do for the future and i urge you to reject it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker please. Good morning my name is joel septer. I think that what youve heard today from the public its demonstrated in my view that the trees that are cut down will not be adequately replaced. So i think in terms of the appeal, what is being said here is that the trees will be cut down and whenever the lemon gum trees appear it will not compare to what we currently have. So it will not be improved by what is being proposed. Thank you. Thank you next speaker please. Good morning. My name is daizai am here to support the appeal and we have a very special attitude towards the trees that they are not taking into consideration. Look at each project and they are not considered. There just cut down and whenever we see the project its always like cutting trees and replacing them and in parks its the same story 18,500 trees are going down pretty soon with these natural reserves program with the natural reserves plan its not acceptable. I doubt anything will be done in the process will improve the traffic on vanness. It was always so awful since the 80s it was off all i was there back then and its awful now and ill be awful again. So i think that not removing the trees will be much much cheaper please do approve the appeal and do not move forward. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is capt. Edwards. I do live on van ness. Vanness in greenwich street. I think that what part of the problem is is that even though they have said that anyone knew these trees were coming down august of last year we found out there was going to be an appeal and i have a couple of problems with these trees that they are, first of all, i dont want the median trees cut down but i have a problem with the trees that they are focusing on replacing them with. Theyve chosen three types in a box tree a sycamore in this eucalyptus tree. The eucalyptus tree which is not a nonnative tree and when i hear mr. Buck speak i wonder why the dpw wasnt taking into more account i couldve gotten behind some tree island pines or something goes they are beautiful trees. This tree in my opinion should not be in the middle of our street because it is nonnative and were cutting down nonnative trees all over the city in an effort to come back to what is supposed to be in california. I also have an issue with the fact that they are talking about cutting down all these trees at once. I live on vanness. What am i supposed to do . If this project extends itself for five years without trees . We will have to breathe all of these dust i dont think they took this in two accounts and they took that in november and they took that away. I even had an email to aaron peskin about that and he contacted erin rice been and he said well it was out and he said no it wasnt so there is a lot of instances of them saying one thing and doing another and that is why there is a lot of anger and it feels like they been very deceptive. Thank you. [timer dings] i am jane edwards i tell you that the person walking down the street has no idea what is coming. 15 to 20 years is not good enough. They are in global warming. We need are full mature trees to help us. You people are our last hope and i hope that you hope that we win this. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. Hi my name iskaren burns. I am a researcher for colon and breast cancer. I am also a president of the Condo Association and i have to say that we have never had a Board Meeting that has ran quite this late so i admmire your volunteerism. I need to drive in my car to the hospital down the south bay and i am worried about congestion down in the street. As a van ness resident i have crossed van ness many times i have almost been hit by a car trying to beat the traffic that exist every day on the highway. Im very concerned about the fact that we have canopies for 60yearold trees and that the proposed tree doesnt provide the canopy. I have a tremendous respect for chris buck and the work that he does for the city. And just seeing some of the trees that he proposed and googling them on my phone i think they provide much more canopy and i just want to thank you all for your time this evening and helping to save a tree. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker please. Good morning david pilpel speaking as an individual i have long been involved with the mta the Citizens Advisory Committee and the expenditure Advisory Committee for the 1999 and 2003 and i think the only person has longer history than me of Peter Strauss but he and i respectfully disagree with this project i a one supported the van nessthinking that improving this service at relatively a low cost would be a good idea but this is become quite expensive and i no longer supported. As you hear others wanted to be here and couldnt either because of the scheduling or because the lateness of the hour i want to note on the record that the eir addendum was issued after the dpw hearing. It was only issued this past march. It was shouldve been issued earlier so as to inform the Public Comment at that hearing in august and not to rationalize retroactively the decision that the dpw was going to make going along with the project. There other ways that exist to improve Transit Service at less cost and that save the trees. As we heard in the last speakersfew speakers this proposes to plant nonnative trees i know this board has been supportive in maintaining existing trees in recent history and i would ask you to keep it up. Most of the testimony tonight has been in support of the appeal as i am so please support the appeal and please save the trees. Thank you. [timer dings] thank you. Good morning. I am Peter Strauss i am on the board of the van Ness Association and many people approve the alternative which is running buses along the center lane as opposed to the curb lane which is where they are now. Is the most effective project that can be design. Its important to remove the buses from the friction from the double parking from bikes from everything along the curb and that is why the most effective a alternative is to put them in the center we are never going to remove all the congestion on vanness. It is not going to happen. What we can do is make sure that the transit vehicles do not get caught in the congestion and do not get caught in that mess. Because the congestion bus Rapid Transit on vanness is the most important place we could contemplate putting a bus route of this nature. Yes, there are tradeoffs there are always tradeoffs. At the end, we are looking at better transit more trees and we will have a better functioning and yes, have a aa more beautiful van ness then we have today. That is the tradeoff and that is what we should be doing today. Sure it is a tradeoff but that is what you need to do to improve this project. Thank you. Next speaker please. Thank you Mary Alastair and i support this appeal. I have written you a letter that you have read. I support this proposal it does not comply with the california quality act as been said here. As noted the addendum came out after there were any hearings on this in the addendum does not comply with ceqas requirements because it requires a subsequent total Environmental Impact report, an seir. The public has had no opportunity for input into the socalled local preferred alternative which is the Center Running the prt before you. The alternative presented in the original or final Environmental Impact report included side running alternatives and those alternatives need to be considered today. The important issue before you is the cutting of the trees, the clearcutting of the trees on vanness. Plus, we know that the project will also demolished the historic lamppost and have negative impact on the entire city. I urge you to grant the appeal and overturn this order. [timer dings] you have made us wait five hours i think the polling that the matter has not been continued. People have had to get out. They couldnt stay this long. This tonight is terrible and its a loss to the city. A thank you your time is up. Thank you next speaker please. Their better alternatives it went back. That is okay. First i just wanted to quickly my name is chris parkes i live on state street and street and street andi use dpq every day and i am a big fan of it and this clearly covers the dpw restriction of trees and that is why we are here and this goes beyond private property trees and thats why were here. It also goes beyond what the criteria are for evaluating tree removal and this is not this was not done. Very quickly, thisshows a very modest speed improvement to maybe five or six or 7 mph. I just wanted i dont know if anybody recognizes this actor but his name is michael wark logans running he and if you want to know what he was running from he was running from the future and they believed that they wanted the future to be renewed and he discovered and he said that carousel is a lie and i just want to direct you to the screen. This was never evaluated in the eir. This is not one of the requirements for its street protection notice and then what is missing is the trees. There are diagrams but none of the trees. If you can see here, theres actually three lanes of congested traffic and what is going to happen when that gets cut down to two . And then what is missing is the real trees . Theres a lot of sketches in the eir and stuff but these are the real trees that are going to be removed. [coughing] i just want to ask you to please consider this according to the tree protection ordinance and this is what this is all about and protect the trees that we have. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Is there any other Public Comment on this item . Seeing none we will have rebuttal. And you have three minutes of rebuttal. Oh my goodness okay so i am going to haphazard these notes. There are some its hard to call them lies but i just have to say outright wrong. This is not going to increase ridership this is not going to get people to take buses instead of driving cars. We have never seen it different we have more cars in the future and not less. There is no question about it. We can throw as much money or as many things at it and it is a fact. There is not going to be more people. We dont have as much buses for people now. I see it on the marina in the weekend and theres 30 people waiting for a bus. The streets are in horrible repair an hour trying to increase ridership along van ness of course we have to consider the whole project because this is about ripping out the trees sweet. Next week. As soon as you get construction or any way as soon as you get permission at the sfmta meeting on monday or whatever it is that is it. The trees are coming down. Because you knowthat the city were incensed that ones that he would pray for you pablo. It absolutely infuriates me in them. To me that you have the nerve to cut the median trees down and ive and tell people that of course youre cutting all of the sidewalk trees down and not just a lombard in but from lombard to northpoint as well and all those will go to and you will do it in little tiny ways and nobody can say no say you might as well finish the project. Please do something the project. A lot of things are not being said or are being said that are not true. We are only talking about saving two and a half men its a ridership time. They will cause more congestion and they will cause an absolute debacle in this city like you have never seen it brought down over you. I know that. I know you will do the right thing. I know in my heart that you will think about this and you will think about the trees owner and street and what would happen if someone came along and said we need a brt here and we are going to take all of these away from hereand you will not see anything for 30 years and that is my rebuttal. [timer dings] [applause] next speaker please. Thank you so much for staying so late commissioners i know you all want to get home. It is easy to see the anger coming out from the community tonight. As you have seen in all of our materials in our brief this project has its idea that came up in 1995 and has been worked on in earnest for 10 years now. The people who live along the streets are waiting for these benefits. I would like to correct a few specific statements some misstatements from some of the earlier folks. Out of the tree survey out of the median trees one quarter considered healthy trees. They are clumped together. Not all of them are tall that are healthy trees about half are. About 50 of the trees that are being removed are less than 10 years old and they certainly are about as tall now as perhaps are new plantings will be within a few years and then the remaining one quarter are trees that are suffering from unhealthy problems so you can see the condition of the canopy out there today. I would like to also say that the replacement trees are not going to be saplings. These are going to be contract grown during construction. They will go in about 15 feet high and about 36 inch boxes and there will be an establishment period and that is something that has always been acknowledged but at the end when this canopy matures there will be twice as many trees. They will be taller than three quarters the trees out there today. There will be new trees on blocks that do not have trees today. I should also add that this project is complying with predecessor plans that have advocated for improvement of the canopy one bns by growing the number trees by 50 which we are exceeding and by creating a consistent, taller, canopy which this project will achieve. Now this project is a compromise. It does require removing some trees that we might not otherwise do. It is only through this compromise that we have received approval through every level of government. Several agencies, the state, caltrans one of the agencies said that caltrans would remove this project caltrans is working with us on this project and they are working with us on the details of that if you do not approve this permit you are upsetting the compromises that come out of all those approvals that aching before today. Thank you. [applause] excuse us nobody talked while you were speaking. Can you address the comment about the funding the lack of funding thats expected from the federal government now. Yes, that was a misstatement. I believe that speaker was speaking of the smart city grant in the news over the last few days and we are very close to securing a grant for this project and we are waiting the final approvals of that grant. In the comment about the first thing that youre going to do is cut the trees . It sort of a sequence of events is that the first thing that happens . Let me just say that the contract approval is not happening this month. It has been delayed and three calendared for the next sfmta Board Meeting and the contractor has to mobilize and bring their equipment and get set up so they have all of these things to do first. Once the contractor is fully mobilized removal of the trees will happen relatively early in the project because it is required in order to change the traffic configuration to allow the space to do the work during construction. I will say that our construction sequence the plan is going to be a great strength of the project. I know youve heard a lot of baseless accusations that it will be a double of the three years that were advertising. I believe we have designed a construction sequence he planned that can get done in a the timeframe and expedite in that way. Ive never seen a city project done on time. This project is being delivered through an innovative delivery method called construction manager. At thats not innovative that has been around a long time. But you have brought them on board with this design . Yes they been brought on board with the design process and they make sure its consistent with constructibility and in the case of this project that is consistent with the Construction Management that they can handle. Now that the design is finished the contractor in the sfmta have agreed on a price and it is much less susceptible to cost increases. This is not going to occur in till they start work . That is true. That is part of the contract. One last question on the process for the final selection you are down to six and then to get to this point i sort of lost track of how this occurred with the trees . Yeah, the type of trees. We start our 24 trees and we went around some rounds and we waited them and things started falling into shape. The top six performers are of course the im about prices. I dont need to know the specific chat. So you arrived at six yeah. And then you came before your own staff and how did you get the money . We shortlisted this down to two and we brought this down before the council and the Arts Commission and they had discussions and went all the way back to the director of public works for the finalizing. So it all a closedwas all a closed project. This one out via the project email list and a presentation at public bodies as martha mentioned. The Arts Commission doesnt listen to anybody but thats okay. The urban for state foresty council. I have a question for you and you said if we something about we will be disturbing last of different compromises and you said Something Like that so what is a practical matter that happens thatif we side with the people that want to remove the trees . You have to speak to your councilmember on that. It means everywhere it can be built with the exception where it treats sits. Im sorry, if you are going to speak you have to come to the podium please. Except there are trees located directly in the center lane of the travel way of the brt. Which is why i was acting as a practical matter. You are being flipped. I was thinking about process pardon me. The tree starts at the beginning of that process to create that sequencing plan. That cant happen without the removal of these trees. And just as a reminder, there are 12 trees that are going to be preserved in place and these are in places where the median will remain wide enough ands current configuration to protect them. That is not the case in most of the corridor. Sorry about that. I have a question. Is the treeand i can remember it so don late. Its not gonna start until youre fully funded, is that correct . Or is that not been asked . The project has been considered fully funded because all of them have been budgeted into the program where the final agreement with the federal government which will happen in the fall. So will this start in the fall are you going to cut the trees down before you get the money from the feds. I think i have to defer to mta on some of these points. It can be a little confusing. No, its pretty easy. The question was is the project going to start before you the mine to complete a the City Attorney will not let us unless we have identified all the funding and have a commitment to it. We will not have all the money our the backb pocket when we issue her project but we will have the percentage of it and we will have it ready to go but the money that were spending three years out isnt going to arrive till the fiscal years of those at expenditures. And the other question that i have is with the fancy budget contractor thing. Is there a penalty for them not complete on time . Yes. What . Right now it is a penalty of 30 to 60 days. My next question is the trees that you are replanting replanting of them in the same size boxer 36 box. Yes. Thank you. I guess i would just finally clarify, when do you think the earliest is the trees will start coming down . Right now the earliest that we will have an ink a contract for construction will be in august. Assuming globalization time and notice to the public and we will probably be able to Start Construction in till early october maybe late september but its more than likely early october. At that point, there will be a significant amount of demolition that has to start to make way for the construction and thats when the trees will start to come out. So, in the fall at some time. Thank you. Ed thank you. Anything else. Any rebuttal . Some timein less it there is any more discussion for public works the question is submitted. No. Otherwise we will be having breakfast here. No. Does everyone to start at the same time. It started as a tree permit and it obviously went all different places mostly policybased which is not in our purview. The basis upon which we can act upon this permit is fairly limited and therefore even though i dont like that particular species it is not incumbent upon me after a fairly lengthy decisionmaking process. I have been going up v van ness junior high and sacred heart and i remember walking down the street and i recently posted a transit map of the city and someone had said why does San Francisco not improve their transit in this process is thetaking a very long time weve saved tons and tons of trees forcing developers to install very large 48 inch boxer 36 inch boxer for people that dont understand that the size of the container. Its quite expensive. 48 has that should be craned into the property. 36 is not as large but it is very large. I remember when van ness was nothing but to gas stations 2 chevron but i hate to see the canopy go but we need to think at this point that we are thinking further down the line that our city is growingwe are 7 miles x 6. 8 and you know the last density numbers were 850 very comfortably at 725 and i think were going to get more. It is just like the m subway. Nobody wanted to happen it took so long to do in this is hopefully forward progress. This fact that were not to see the trees is sad. I think the greenbelt is very attractive but you have got to remember and i learned an earlier hearing that that Center Median was it was years ago brt it wasnt in my time but the last new thing that i remember is in the fifth grade and now we have it below and the only ones we get from above are the ones we get from milwaukee and other places. I am sorry to see that the trees are going. I really am but this has been a very, very, lengthy process and every time we delay, it ends up costing us more and thats why we have this big budget that we are facing now and next year it will only go up again if we delay. So, that is my thought. Does anyone want to make a motion . I want to make a motion . Yes. I want to make a motion to uphold the appeal in light of the brt. If the board is passing that motion we have to adopt environmental findings and we have to put this on the overhead so commissioner lazarus if i can ask you to deny the appeal and uphold this in light of the br and the environmental findings and with that one that motion rt [roll call vote] and we have one absent so with a vote of 3 1 with one absent that motion does carry. And president honda there is no further business before the board at this time. I think we need to establish this is a new record for the board. At least everyone was a winner in that respect. Thank you very much for having the patience and bearing through this case. Thank you very much. Hour. Good morning, everyone and welcome to the peoples palace and im here this morning to announce yet another milestone in our citys commitment to raise the minimum wage to 15 an hour by and people will work this fourth of july weekend we are celebrating our countries birthday but recognizing in the celebration throughout the weekend people like the people had that are standing with me are working whether the restaurants or hotels or Health Care Workers and others and and we all feel for working people that is hard in our expensive city to survive unless you have a december sent wage thats why a couple of years ago i destined or joibd the board of supervisors full board of supervisors to place before the voters an 15 an hour minimum wage and people that work in all those industries we did it together and were celebrating because today it goes from 12. 25 an hour to 13 and up to 15 and after that cpi takes over i want to remind everybody this city was brought together with our labor unions and your working families made up of all the exit are represents our city and got this done in a strong collaboration with everyone and showed not only the cities around the bay area but the state of california if we got together and thought about peoples lives what glosses the challenges every day we can get this done for them i think were happy here to see the wages go up are rehappy yeah, well have more to celebrate in addition to, of course, the bitter of our nation and things we enjoy we picked this date it is a significant move and i also want to say that we know that our workforce all those peoples