To call this meeting to order.

Good evening and welcome to the September 10th meeting of the parks and recreation commission and urban forestry board.

We will uh move on to it number two, the roll call, Allison, please.

Commissioner Bryan.

Here, Felios.

Here.

Commissioner Summer.

Here.

Vice Chair Mitchler.

Here.

Chair Davis.

Here.

And in addition to us, I'd also like to recognize several of the staff folks.

We have with us Dave Wilgus, city attorney, as well as Diana Zawi.

So and uh John Marchant, Director of Community Services Department, and Russell Hanson's our uh urban forester.

Um with that we'll move to item number three, the minutes.

Uh are there any commission comments or suggested edits?

And I should say we have two sets of minutes.

We have the uh June 25th minutes as well as the August 28th minutes.

So maybe maybe I'll uh handle those individually.

So June 25 minutes.

Do we have any comments or statements from commission members?

Uh could I have a motion on the oh uh I'm sorry, we uh are there any members of the public that wish to uh comment?

Nobody online, all right.

Uh then I'll entertain a motion on the June 25th minutes.

I'll uh uh move to approve the June 25th minutes.

Second, second a half.

Oh, seconded.

Yeah, I'm gonna give that to Ronnie.

Thank you.

I could work on my jeopardy button.

Okay, um Commissioner Bryant.

Yes, sir Helios, yes, Commissioner Summer, yes, Vice Chair Mitchler, yes, Chair Davis.

Yes.

We also had a meeting on August 28.

Uh, really didn't discuss any of the policy issues, but rather just the uh working protocols between staff and commission.

Great meeting.

Uh are there any comments or questions from Commission members on those minutes?

No.

All right.

Any members of the public that wish to comment?

Not online.

All right, and I'll entertain a motion on the August 28th minutes.

Move to approve.

Second.

And I do we'll have a vote on that.

Okay, we have Commissioner Bryant, Mr.

Helios, Commissioner Summers, Vice Chair Mitchell, yes, Chair Davis.

Yes, thank you.

All right, on to item number four, oral communications for the public.

Uh, this portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the commission.

Any matter that is not on the agenda.

Speakers are limited to three minutes, and state law prohibits the commission from acting on uh any non-agenda item.

If uh anyone in attendance would like to provide public comment, please fill out a blue card such as this one.

Um raise your hand if you're participating uh virtually.

Uh there'll be a three-minute time limit, and Alice will give you a one minute warning.

Staff will not respond to questions during public comment.

And uh we have one blue card already, Mr.

Bill Lambert.

Hey, like to uh make brief uh statement mostly directed to the urban forestry board or peripherally to the commissioners.

Um I live in the Monoloma neighborhood.

I have a relatively small house that was built in uh 1950s.

Uh I moved in there about 20 years ago, and uh I've always planned to rebuild it, and the plans are almost done through the uh city planning department and retained M Design and Downtown Mountain View to do the architectural work, and um I'm really excited about going forward.

It's going to be uh all electric house, which uh spending a lot of money doing, but uh it's the right thing to do, and we'll allow this house to last for another 70 years.

But what I do want to, I uh requested to have two heritage trees removed.

Um I came home a couple of nights ago and saw the uh sign posted in front of my house that the uh uh removal has been approved by for both of the trees.

One of them was a very large uh uh Japanese pagoda tree.

Uh beautiful tree, huge tree, but it just didn't have space to uh spread its branches out, and uh it would have blocked the solar panel and solar collection.

The other one was a yucca that was planted.

I met a kid at the time, his grandmother planted it right next to the house in the corner, and it's since grown to be this big monster, yucca tree.

And it's going to be right where my front door is uh as planned.

So, everything went very smoothly with an urban forestry board.

I really it was a real pleasure meeting Matt Feistamel and speaking to him about an hour for about on various things.

You know, great guy, did a great job.

Uh, I just want to thank the Urban Forestry Board for making all this go so smoothly, and uh I really appreciate it.

I hear many things sitting here in the audience, and uh, you know, I was well uh some trepidation getting into this, but really thank you very, very much for all your work.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr.

Lambert.

Are there any other members of the public?

I guess online.

All right, thank you.

We'll move on to item number 5.1, which is the Heritage Tree Removal Application Appeal for 1119 Solana Drive.

Before we get to that, let me ask if any commissioners have any statements they wish to make.

Commissioner Mitchner.

Yes, I will be recusing myself based on my familiarity with the property owner and her family.

Um I've known the family for over 20 years from the time when our oldest kids were in kindergarten together, so as to negate the appearance of impropriety.

I am recusing myself from this matter.

All right.

Uh so the cues, thank you, Commissioner.

All right, so the process here.

And you will be the result of the refusal.

Um our process um we'll have a uh staff presenting the report.

The appellate will then have 10 minutes to present, speak to submission.

The commission will then have the opportunity to ask questions of the presenters, either the uh staff or the appellant.

Uh then we'll open it up to public comment.

Uh anyone on the public wishes to comment on the statement so far.

We'll close the public comment and staff will have an additional two minutes to make any further comments, as will the appellate, and then the commission will uh begin deliberations, make a motion and potentially vote.

So with that, we'll turn it over to Russell Hansen.

All right, thank you, Commissioner.

Russell Hanson Urban Forestry Manager.

Um, here to present on the heritage tree application for one one nine Solana Drive.

Um, do you have the ability to put that up on the screen for me, Allison?

Bear with us, folks online.

We're we're pulling up a presentation.

All right.

So again, here to discuss the matter for 119, or excuse me, one one 119 Solana Drive Heritage Tree Appeal.

Um, as you can see from the photograph on the screen currently, tree is located at the front of the property, just to the right side of the garage.

The tree itself is a Cedrus Theodora, has approximately a 31 inch diameter.

The tree is in pretty good health and has fair structure.

The application that we receive ultimately is that the tree is in danger of falling.

That was one of the criteria they listed.

The second is tree is diseased with pest insects and/or beetles.

Third one is tree has poor structure or unbalanced canopy.

Fourth, tree does not have proper growth space.

Fifth, the tree is interfering with utility service, i.e.

or EG, electricity, gas, sewer, or water lines.

And lastly, that the tree is growing in close proximity to structure and causing damage, or will in the near future.

So when we actually start to look at the tree itself, looking at the base of the tree, you can see in the picture to the left, the tree is located under 24 inches.

I'll say approximately 18 inches from the corner of the garage.

There is some slight lifting of the root flare or from the root flare of the driveway that approaches the garage.

And then on the right hand photograph, the adjacent neighbor, I believe it's 1127, or yeah, 1127, had recently replaced the driveway.

And so you can see in the photograph on the right, there was one approximately eight inch route that was pruned to take off for that driveway placement.

Unfortunately, we don't have any other evidence or supporting information as to any other roots that were removed under that driveway.

All we can determine is that there was an eight-inch route that was cut to accommodate that.

Next slide, you can see a little bit closer photograph of the garage where the bricks are kind of lifted at a slight angle.

In that left hand photograph, it's approximately three-quarters of an inch to an inch of lift.

And then on the right hand side, you can see a little bit of that differential as well, where ultimately staff's belief is that both of those are somewhat minor and could ultimately be fixed.

May involve root removal, but again, without knowing what's underneath there, having exposed it previously or otherwise, we're going to assume that it's not too significant and that the tree can likely be saved at this point.

Next slide, foliage on the tree itself is generally good, or yeah, tree is in generally good health.

Foliage size, color, and density is within expected range as well as the chute elongation appears normal or within the expected range.

The tree on or the photograph on the right.

Ultimately, you can see that there is a little bit of crown raising that they had done to achieve clearance from the two properties on either side.

Ultimately, a little bit less than ideal in terms of live crown ratio.

Typically, we'd like it a little bit lower on the canopy.

You can see the difference between the two lines there.

That yellow one kind of represents that 50% mark for the canopy, and then that pink one is kind of about 60% or so.

So, you know, not exceedingly bad or otherwise, but ultimately a little bit less than ideal, but not unbalanced, not a concern.

Um could definitely, you can see in the photograph just outside of the yellow lines, there's some tips on these branches that are getting a little bit long, they're elongating a little more than maybe what the branch could support.

So again, some corrective pruning to reduce limb elongation, et cetera.

We think could address some of that canopy issue, but otherwise, no significant issues with the canopy.

Next slide here, um, they had mentioned electrical utility conflict or otherwise.

As we can see here, the electrical lines actually run out along the street.

The canopy of the tree itself does not actually grow over the top of those electrical lines.

Not sure it looks based off of uniformity of the canopy, but it was up high enough we couldn't see any cuts.

There perhaps PGE has been coming through and doing a little bit of tipping just to make sure it's got that sufficient distance for clearance off of those utilities, and they're not going to suffer a power outage or otherwise.

Next slide.

And then lastly, for other utilities, again, the tree is on the right there with the yellow and red dot.

And then on the lower left, you can see the orange dot is the location of the sewer clean out for the property, and then the blue dot is the location for the water line that extends up to the property.

Um, as with any development, we're not 100% certain where those lines run to, but in I'll say the majority, if not 90% or more of the cases, they're fairly uniform in that they hand almost always up towards the house.

They don't deviate off too far to the other side or otherwise.

So we're fairly confident that there really isn't too much of a conflict with tree roots or branches or otherwise for any of the utilities that we were able to identify on site.

And so ultimately staff's evaluation.

Next slide, Allison, if you could.

Staff's evaluation did not find that the condition of the tree required its removal.

Its overall health is good.

There's no evidence of structural issues, pastor disease or prior limb failures, or nuisance damage or interference issues that could not be addressed through corrective pruning or other means.

Staff's evaluation did not find that removal of the heritage tree was necessary to construct improvements because there were no improvements provided.

Staff's evaluation of the tree found that the structure of the canopy is good and can be managed with proper pruning.

Therefore, we didn't feel like that criteria was met.

And then lastly, little typo there.

Sorry, only one tree, not tree one and two.

But ultimately, that tree one did not find that the tree should be removed for good forestry practices as no facts support that criteria or were provided or observed.

Thank you, Mr.

Hansen.

We'll now turn it over to the appellant who has 10 minutes to address the commission.

That would be the floor, leader.

Hi, can you hear us?

Sorry, this is Andrew Quo from 1127.

We have Sylvie over here from 1119.

Also, is there a way to share a presentation I put together too, or do I have to email that to somebody first?

Yes, I'll just promote you to a panelist.

It'll take just a couple of seconds and you should see that option.

Okay.

Speak first and we'll go from there.

No, this is the first.

Yes, this is the appellant.

The owner is there as well, so you might end up having two.

The owner and the appellant, yeah.

Yeah.

So first I would like to give any of my minutes left to my arborist, Caitlin Sheldon from Anderson Tree Clear.

Uh and my name is Sylvini and I reside at 1119 Salana Drive.

And I would like to thank you for all the board to allow us to express our concerns.

The tree is located very close to the house, less than two feet, like mentioned.

And it has been taken care of for the past 20 years.

With the cost of usually, you know, around $2,000 each time.

Unfortunately, damage was done to the tree in December.

And we're concerned about the health of the tree.

Noticing that there is a lot more sap coming out from the tree as well in needle dropping.

That are rising in the last few months.

And I've never seen that in the past 20 years that we left over there.

So we are concerned about the health of the tree as well as the possible, you know, more disease that will be actually followed by the cut of that route, which might have uh insect, you know, crawl into it and create more disease.

So I will uh let you have more details from Kaitlyn.

And um now my neighbor can express his concern as well.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Let me um let me present something really quickly.

Uh okay, sure.

Sorry, this will share.

Stop your sharing, but um, real quick.

Can you clarify for the boards?

That ultimately the owner, Sylvia, um, wanted to defer to Caitlin, her arborist, and that this is the owner of the adjacent property.

He's the appellant.

And so I, yeah, he's the appellant.

So I don't know if we want to have Caitlin go first with the rest of the owners' minutes.

Yeah.

Or if we want to throw it back to her afterwards.

Or does Handy needs to give his minute as well?

I don't know.

I think they're discussing which they'd rather do that she has asked that Caitlin speak on her.

I would say it would be easier to just never know.

Okay.

So it's up to you.

So we'll ask that your uh arborist complete your uh applicator.

Okay.

That's fine.

Hi everyone, my name is Caitlin Shelton.

Um, I would like to send show some photos as well if possible.

Um there, can anyone see my screen?

Uh, yes we can.

Oh, fantastic.

Okay.

Um, so again, my name is Caitlin Shelton.

I'm an ISA certified arborist, tree risk assessment qualified, and tree and plant appraisal qualified.

I do work with Anderson's tree care, and I have been um assisting Sylvie with the potential removal application of this heritage tree at her home.

I'm gonna go over this briefly since Russell touched on quite a bit of it already.

Um these photos were taken in December of uh last year, 2024, and it shows that large root that was pruned due to the um driveway installation.

Um I did find on this tree on the compression side of the tree, there is quite a bit of um sap leakage, what I would call um uh due to some kind of insect.

Unfortunately, I was not able to find the insect, but you can uh tell that there are entrance holes at this location, and it's primarily on the back side near the fence.

Um these are just a few photos of what it looked like in 2024.

Uh this is the distance like Russell described.

I'm not gonna hammer into it too much to save some time for Andrew as well.

This is the uplift that Sylvie and Russell was were describing for their um that concrete pad in front of their home.

Sylvie can talk a little bit more about some damage that has been inside of her garage that they had to seal over due to um concrete displacement uh due to the inability to see roots um underground, it is a potential that the roots caused this concrete disruption.

Um we cannot confirm nor deny that it was in fact the roots that did that since we cannot expose the roots underneath the garage's foundation.

Um again, this is the tree uh that this is the tree today.

Actually, I took these this morning.

Um same thing with the live crown ratio aspect that uh uh Russ was discussing.

There has been some pruning for electrical work in the past, it's not significant like you've seen on other trees where they take out large sections of the trees or have to top a tree, but the side pruning has occurred due to the utilities.

Um this is a wind map or a wind rows of the location, primarily in mountain view, the winds are coming from the west, blowing to the east, and so with the root loss on the southwest side of the tree, there may be some concerns of um loss of structural roots.

Um, but overall, what I would say is that I'm not uh I'll stop sharing i do not have any concerns that this tree will fall over in the next one to three months under normal circumstances um with that said if there are extreme circumstances like higher wind loads than normal large storms that we had like a couple about four years ago there's always a potential that this tree may fail given that situation um with that said I do want to pass it back over to Sylvie if she does have any comments in regards to what happened on the inside of her garage or to Andrew thank you sorry unmuting Sylvia I don't know if you have anything else you wanted to say otherwise I can clarify one thing is that um they were talking about the sewer line at the beginning and I know that before we bought the house basically the sewer line was bought to the back so they had to cut some roots on the left side of the tree to go in the backyard.

So they went on there basically the driveway then we built the driveway so this was done probably 21 or 22 years ago just to clarify that the line is in fact going that way and as far as the garage goes um yes we we could not really um we find we had to find a solution because the garage door was not necessarily closing properly and then the floor was so uneven that we had to find a different solution because of the cost of just removing everything would have been too exorbitant so thank you for your time now it's all right um let me see if I can't share start my screen uh like I said yes get this let's do that uh can folks see my screen yes yes correct okay perfect and again I apologize uh actually we replaced our driveway because it was actually fully cracked from the tree roots going underneath uh we actually did not know uh the roots was cut because we didn't we were away on vacation when our contractor did this so again I apologize that said um I do want to address uh I think one one argument that this tree was not being a nuisance um just wanted to be very clear uh as far as my understanding this is the definition of of nuisance like tree rebris but branches stains constant cleanup work uh so this was our driveway before we had it replaced i and um it was very cracked from all the different tree roots and things like that and as you can tell an eight inch root was was going underneath it uh we did not actually think about that but we we felt we had to get it replaced because um it was it was basically too cracked to to fix um beyond that there's sap that are ruining every one of our cars uh significant sap on each one of the cars which could cost quite a bit to get removed each time uh it's a very difficult process obviously sap hardened and and as fastidious as we are about keeping our cars clean it does still harden and causes paint damage um beyond that like we have a brand new driveway and this is the state of it this morning uh the needles have been dropping incessantly actually even uh one week we went away and we came back and we asked if if people had come to clean up because there were needles littering the driveway yet again I thought actually they did not come but they apparently they had um but this is this is what the driveway looks like um just from the needles staining the driveway itself and then and then finally uh while yes I know it's a two feet from uh Sylvia's house.

It is very close to our house.

And if you look out our balcony, this is what you see.

Not that it's it's blocking any views, but it is it feels like the the tree branches are literally touchable from this this balcony that we have um and I think that is everything.

Yeah, that's everything I had.

I just wanted to quickly go over why uh this this tree has been such a um uh a nuisance for us.

We can't even park our cars anymore on the garage or on the on the driveway, which is is quite painful.

So now we have to park everything on the driveway or on the on the street.

Unless you need to plug it.

Right, and we have an electric car, which now we can't charge.

So it's been quite uh difficult for us.

So and I'm just wanted to point those things out.

So yeah, that was everything I had.

Thank you.

All right, thank you very much.

Oh, yes, sorry.

And and we do have a plan, just as a heads up.

Um both Sylvia and I have a plan for if if we get this tree removed, we both have uh sites already um picked out for replacement trees on both of our properties.

So we're willing to both plant each one tree, uh, one at the front of her home at 119, and then one in the backyard, um, where we have uh room that's away from our house as well.

All right, thank you.

We'll now turn to uh commission questions of any of the presenters.

Questions.

If I could just ask Russell one question with regards to the topping of the tree, uh I know you you were able to, it seemed like you were to get a picture for looking down on the tree.

Is there any danger of any type of infestation because the tree was topped at any time, or was it a clean cut where there wouldn't be any um I'm not aware of the tree being topped previously?

There are branches that have been headed and so forth for the electrical clearance.

Um, but not in terms of overall height reduction.

Okay.

And no, again, while Caitlin mentioned some of the sap at the trunk and some insect activity, again, we weren't able to identify it.

Typically, cedars do not have many pests that create, I'll say life-threatening challenges for them.

Um absolutely there's potential that pests can kind of enjoy a tree for a period of time, etc., but it's not typically that stressful or otherwise on the cedar trees.

It's not like the pines or some of the other ones where I have the pipe pine bark, beetles, or otherwise.

So no insect activity that we could identify that would be a challenge, I'll say.

Thank you.

No, don't think I have any questions.

Um, uh does the separate of an eight-inch uh route as the uh the one one two-seven driveway was replaced.

What's the significance of that?

So it's always difficult for us.

Um, there is not an exact science to how many roots can be removed before a tree becomes stressed or otherwise problematic.

Um typically, my experience has shown that on a tree of this size, you're gonna have anywhere from eight to twelve large structural roots that come off at that distance.

I'll say it about three to four feet from the trunk.

Typically, you're gonna see eight to twelve at a minimum.

Um, so to lose one of them, it's again tough to know because we don't know where those roots go compared to where the other ones and where they're getting their water and their nutrients, and so ultimately it's just a challenge for us to really say much, but given um that the tree had been root pruned last winter, December-ish, um, and then we were reviewing it kind of in the spring and summer, etc.

We're not seeing a significant amount of stress where we're seeing the yellowing or they're talking about excessive needle drop, they say it's increased.

I don't have a reference for that, other than when I go there, it doesn't look I'll say out of the norm for me for a cedar tree.

They are very um aggressive at their shedding.

I can tell you from personal experience they are.

Um I think the uh original application listed danger of falling is uh a reason.

I think did they did they list all the available reasons on the uh they might have left one off, but for the most part, yes.

Um I'm not an arborist, I have some experience with trees, I'm not an arborist.

I did view the tree, and I it looks very structurally sound to me.

Do you relative to other trees of that age and species?

Do you see any uh pushable further risk of falling?

No, um, in terms of the garage where she had talked about that being done.

I think she had mentioned um, well, maybe not the garage, but the sewer line, I forget which one she mentioned.

Um, but ultimately that it was done that 10 to 20 years ago.

Um, and so the fact that it was done long ago kind of leads me to believe that there likely has been some regrowth or otherwise, and that ultimately has kind of supported the tree, kept it healthy or otherwise.

And so I don't think there's a concern on any of the prior work in terms of this one.

Again, I'm left with there's only an eight-inch root that I can find.

I don't know what that led to underneath that driveway.

I'm told that it was somewhat significant, but I can't really say, and so what we look at beyond that is we look for soil cracks, we look for any other signs of leaning, movement, etc.

Um, we aren't seeing any of that yet.

There's potential this winter as soils become more saturated.

We might see that.

Um, but again, our initial thoughts are that that 80-inch root likely did not provide enough root system to where it's compromising the structure, and I think their arborist kind of confirmed that as well.

She's not worried about immediate failure.

We're not saying a year, two years, five years down the road because we just don't know, but no immediate risk.

All right, um, thanks very much.

Um other comments or questions.

Um, we'll now open it up to public comment.

Are there any members of the public who would like to address this agenda item?

Please raise your hand if there is.

Nobody online?

No.

Okay.

Um, there's a raised hand now.

That was I think one of the panelists, but she'll have a chess speaker.

Oh, right.

Okay.

We'll come back to the uh the appellants uh and uhskants in a moment.

Um staff, do you have any other comments you want to do not?

All right, and um I guess we'll start with the applicant.

Do you have any?

You have up to two minutes for any further comments.

Two months, comments.

Um yes, there is some uh Caitlin from Anderson Tree Care mentioned that the tree might not be falling in the next one to three months, not years.

Um, so it's it is still a concern, and I want to make sure that if ever the roots starting to be more soft, and that there is um that we find a bug or something that we do not need to go to the same process again.

Uh, since I called the CT had the beginning, and I was told that I needed to hire somebody uh in order to avoid the cost, I would like to find out if it's possible if ever the tree is denied.

Um, uh I would highlight that you probably have not seen many needles because uh Sylvie's husband is actually very, very fastidious, and literally I feel like he's out there every day cleaning up those needles.

Every day lately, yeah.

Uh you can probably see from my driveway, uh, it is a little bit more crazy.

There are quite a bit, and again, as I pointed out, they are staining the whole of the brand new driveway because it's literally eight nine months old and it's it's it's covered uh in in marks at this point.

Um I know Caitlin had other points, but I know you'll get to her in a second, but that I think that is my major points.

Okay.

Um, and then does the arborist have additional comments.

Yeah, I just want to clarify that um I think she said that in the next couple months.

I don't so what I'm saying is, Sylvie, too, to clarify for you is that in the next couple months, I don't see that this tree will fail or fall onto the home.

Um with uncertain weather and un uh whether that is not normal or typical, that may cause failure given root loss and other compounding things.

Trees that have had no root loss can still have failure in large um wind events or storm events.

So I just wanted to clarify that point.

Um, and then I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen really quick just to address um the comment in regards to the topping.

Uh I think you can kind of see here in this photo kind of where I don't know if you can see my cursor.

I don't think this was a significant topping or it was topped years and years ago, but you can kind of see at this union point or this location at the top of the tree, there are many limbs coming out at one central location.

Um so that's kind of what led, and I believe Sylvia told me at one point they did reduce the height on that, and that may have caused a heading cut similar to what Russell was saying, and had that um growth come out at one central location.

Um I think that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

I do.

Sorry.

Uh go ahead.

I'll let you.

Sorry, I didn't think that.

Uh if any of these like in any way, but given the fact they are so close to the homes, if any of the large branches do fall during large wind events and or rain, given that we are about to enter into rainy season and windy season, uh, those will significantly and I know this is not one of your concerns, but those will basically crush our homes.

Okay.

I think we've heard now from the applicant, the appellant and the arborists.

So thank you all for your comments.

Uh with that, we will uh deliberate.

Um, commission members want to kick it off.

If somebody, please.

Um, I've read all the material and I listened really carefully to everyone, and I find myself agreeing with staff's findings, which is so to deny the removal of the tree.

It does does not seem to meet any of the removal criteria in the um ordinance code.

Um, and I did note that a few similarly situated neighbors where they have a tree over the overhanging the driveway, um, used car covers on their vehicles.

I presumably they're experiencing similar things, and that seems to be a reasonable approach.

I saw it actually in a couple of places.

Um would like to note that uh particularly those older driveways from the 60s and before some of them didn't even have any reinforcing, and when they did it wasn't uh rebar, it was the thinner welded wire mesh, and that can get rusted over the years because concrete isn't waterproof, and when it rusts, it expands, and that creates a lot of cracks.

So, see a lot of the older drivers crack, even in the absence of trees.

Who knows why the neighbor's driveway cracked, but I just wanted to bring up that there are other ways it can crack besides tree roots.

Um, so it does not seem to me that this rises to um the public nuisance level, and I would I would support staff's findings.

Sorry.

Commissioner Pierloff.

Um I I concur in the fact that not meeting not rising to the criteria as listed.

Uh so I would support staff's decision as well.

Um I would in just from a personal standpoint, I'd if anything like to uh at least see the tree have a chance in the fact that we don't know if the you know what's going to happen right now, it looks great.

And to me, it's an asset to the neighborhood, uh, especially on their side of the street where I noticed there weren't very many trees.

At the other side of the street, there are several uh trees along, you know, liquid ambers and giggles and such, but on their side there's very little, so very little canopy on that side of the street.

And I think the canopy really adds uh to the street, and that's just on a personal basis.

Um I felt it really added to the neighborhood.

Um, but I I certainly would not like to see it removed at this point without seeing you know having a chance to see if the the root being cut makes a significant difference.

And I I as you said uh Commissioner Summer, I I don't think it it you know given the criteria that we are given off the heritage tree ordinance.

I I don't think that there is anything that that substantiates uh the the request of the applicant.

So I would I would agree with you that I would I think it I know I don't think I will support the staff's decision with regards to this particular tree.

Thank you, Commissioner Feel, Commissioner Bryan.

Yes, and and I agree.

I mean, our our job is we're charged with preserving and protecting the city's urban forest, and deodor cedars are one of the three species that the city's particularly concerned about protecting, and uh this tree is 60 about 60 years old.

Staff was uh assessing, and uh it's been there for a very long time.

Uh I don't see that it's in any way more dangerous than any other healthy tree that's planted on the street.

Uh the nuisance of having lease fall is a nuisance, but one can cover the car, or one could sweep the leaves away.

Uh if falling leaves are a nuisance, then we should simply not have trees in the city, and we can all bake in the sun forever after.

So I feel um I I thoroughly agree with staff, and I think we should uh support staff's decision.

Thank you, Commissioner Bryant.

Yeah, in addition to the information provided by the uh very speakers.

I look at this in the context of both my own experience and the precedents of this commission.

I have a couple of large DRCs, and they drop a lot of needles and they put snap on my car, which I have to uh regularly clean off.

So uh yeah, they are a inconvenience, but also majestic trees.

Um, when I look at the context in the context of the precedents of this uh urban forestry board and our and similar uh appeals that have come before us, I think to be consistent with those and the spirit of the ordinance, I too would agree with the uh staff judgment on this, and I would support the uh the staff's decision.

Um I think what I see primarily is inconvenience and personal nuisance.

I don't see a public nuisance, uh the spirit of the civil code.

Um so I I am sensitive and I I feel for the the applicant and the neighbor.

I understand these are challenging trees to live with, but they're also a beautiful community asset.

So I too will support the uh staff opinion or decision.

Uh so with that, I'm gonna pay a motion.

Oh, please.

Uh I move that we adopt a resolution of the urban forestry board of the city of Mountain View to deny the appeal, uphold staff decision and deny the removal of one heritage tree at 1119 Solana Drive to be read and titled only further meeting wave, and uh the resolution is uh attached to the memory and then we'll second.

Thank you.

I think they have to share right.

Yes, Commissioner Helios, yes, Commissioner Summer.

Yeah, Summer.

Yes, Jerry D.

Yes.

All right, um, thank you for all the participants in that uh discussion item.

We'll now move on to item number six.

Uh, announcement from Director Lachan.

We iterate.

Thanks for city training staff for being here.

Excuse these attorney.

Yes.

I don't know why they don't want to hear the staff report.

I think we'll need to have everyone's got their priorities.

Thank you, Dave, for your advice.

All right.

A few updates from the recreation side.

And then Brenda will come in regarding what's coming up next month.

So for those of you, I think most of you know that Christine Crosby has been on jury duty and has been for a while.

She's expected to be back on September 23rd.

So then it is scheduled to be a decent trial that she is on.

And so Colin James is well as gonna be.

Oh Russell.

Colin James was in a minor scooter accident, broke his arm, so he's working from home until he can actually drive a car again.

So those are some of the things that are going on at the staff level.

We do have two more concerts on the plaza for the series this Friday and the following Friday.

So look forward to bringing that to fruition.

It's been a great series, lots of people.

And then a reminder, and Alison will send if she hasn't already the information about the annual, the seventh annual harvest history festival at Heritage Park this weekend, 9 a.m.

to 12 noon.

And then you'll be receiving information as we get closer, but Monster Bash will be here on Friday, not that's Saturday, October 25th, here at Ranchdorf Park.

And we are planning for that and getting ready for it as well as starting work on the tree lighting celebration as well.

And that will be on December 12th.

So more information to come on those.

And believe it or not, I have a note here that staff is already scheduling next year's summer activity guide.

That's how far ahead staff has to be together.

Then you can imagine what it's like to try to get all of the swim lessons as well as rec swim time and lap swim time together.

So staff is already coordinating that at that level.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Brenda for an update about next month.

Looking forward to bringing the biodiversity and urban forest plan to you on October 8th.

There will be some prompt questions for the public.

You'll receive notice on that.

We'll be reaching out to all of our stakeholders, distribution lists, neighborhood groups, things like that.

That the draft is now posted online.

Please check it out.

That gives plenty of time for the public to view it, digest it, and come up with some questions and some feedback at the ERC meeting on October 8th.

So we look forward to bringing it to you.

Really excited.

And we'll be discussing venue location.

Sure.

Yeah.

So only because it gets bigger and better every year, and because I went to Costco and saw the Christmas stuff.

Have to ask any big new uh developments for the tree lighting on tree lighting.

Do you know anything special this year?

I can't think of anything.

I know we added some, but it was last year that we added some additional lighting and so yeah.

Last year we received some one time funding to help support our special events.

And so if you recall our um the um tree uh um actually grew by I think 36 inches last year um because we could actually put another ring at the bottom to bring the overall height up I don't remember yeah I don't know if we have another I don't know if we have another ring to go or not I don't remember.

We have another one we're gonna try and add it yeah um that's not sure maybe the cream big enough to oh is that what it was okay enough um so we did a lot of different things last year um and I I can't tell you there's any I'll put it this way we'll keep it as a surprise I know it'll be great any other um I think that moment could I ask about one sure eagle bar pool yes um how I know we had to shut her down and uh but then we also had the plan shutdown yes as well so progress so the plan shutdown went even better than expected we are up and running it um I think we were a week ahead of schedule to bring the pump back on online and we're back up and running great um could you tell us about the South Bay shoreline yes project short park and the Stevens Creek Trail.

Yeah so we'll be sending out some information via email so that it's a little more graphic of where things are um there is activity going on um out at shoreline the bay trail portions of the bay trail are closed so that trucks can get in and out so once you enter if you are coming north on the Stevens Creek Trail once you get to Shoreline Park you're being diverted back to the I'll call it the instead of staying along the shore and along the the bay water um and the ponds you're actually bringing you're actually coming closer to the golf course and taking that interior um trail instead um and so we'll be sharing more information what the timelines are and and those types of things we did have a trail closure on the Stevens Creek Trail.

It's not very often that we have a full closure of the Stevens Creek Trail sometimes it's partial.

In this case we needed to close it completely and that was to put in the pedestrian bridge from the Stevens Creek Trail to the Ameswell Hotel and that was part of the condition of approval um so that's just on the north side of 101 um and that has since been installed there's are some times where there's um uh one side is is a half closure I'll call it um as they continue that work that's going to be wrapping up soon so we'll send you more information on the South Bay Salt Pond.

And then I believe it's tentatively scheduled for November is the um sailing lake island and we had talked about that previously there's a wildlife benefits to having that how can we keep it from um eroding even further and then what are the options to move forward at that time we will um provide more of a a larger update on the South Bay Salt Pond uh as well just to give you some context the same project manager that is working on that project is also working on the South Bay salt pond project so we'll be able to give some additional context to that thank you any any updates on um village yeah so uh we went to bid bids came in positively we're doing our due diligence to look at those bids and then we expect to start construction is it November October November no it's gonna be oh my twice this winter early spring that's coming off yeah I also have a question about I think it was last year uh with the with the tree lighting.

And it it was just great.

There was a lot of people.

And then I walked home and castro was like a different world.

There was no spill over from the businesses, the the celebration around city Hall and the city Plaza.

But I would have assumed we could just spill over to the rest of Costro.

Is there a way stuff can work with the downtown business association?

Or I mean why wouldn't why wouldn't they be having I think Johnny told me at the time it was a Monday and they were closed but it seems like they might be able to maybe open and because people were worse.

I heard people leaving and saying wouldn't it be nice to go and have dinner.

Maybe not this year but next year.

Okay, thank you.

I'm good.

Okay, well I tried to stretch it out but I couldn't make it to eight o'clock so I adjourned this meeting at seven fifty eight.

So I think it's