All right, I'm going to call the order.

This Wednesday, April 8th, 2026 meeting of the City of Mountain Views Parks and Recreation Commission and Forced Report.

Alison, will you please conduct the roll call?

We have Commissioner Bryant, Commissioner Davis, Commissioner Slester, Vice Chair Summer, and Chairman Sterry.

Here.

All right.

Our first agenda item is minutes approval.

These are the minutes from the March 17th, 2026 meeting.

Is there any public comment on those minutes?

Anybody online?

If we have a motion or we accept the minute.

All seconds.

We have a motion and a second.

Okay, Commissioner Bryant.

Yes.

Commissioner Davis.

Commissioner Sylvester.

Vice Chair Summer.

Yes.

And Chair Chief.

Yes.

All right.

Moving on to oral communications from the public.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the commission on any matter not on the agenda.

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

If anyone would like to provide public comment, uh please fill out a blue card.

And for those online, please use the raise hand feature, and Alison Flynn will recognize you.

Anyone online?

No.

All right.

I will now close public comment.

Oh, do we have one?

Yeah.

Let me see what all right.

I'll reopen it because we miss somebody.

Um Elizabeth.

Go ahead, Elizabeth.

We muted.

Elizabeth, you're on mute.

Elizabeth Briarly.

Uh do you have public comment?

Go ahead.

You're your you're up if you have public comment.

We don't hear, we don't hear anything.

You're not, doesn't look like you're muted, but we don't hear you.

Now our hand is down.

Allison, can you just sign?

Elizabeth, uh, your hand is down.

We are going to assume that you do not have any comments unless you raise your hand right now so that we can see.

There we go.

Okay.

Go ahead, Elizabeth.

Slide.

Maybe she's joined.

I can say try and re-log in.

Just a second.

Yes.

Or we can public comment.

I will just let's just give her a second.

So I don't talk about it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is she back in the director Marshaunt?

Do you think that's the fishing on the table it and come back to it at the end.

Well we can table it till when I mean it could be well.

Yeah.

She seems to be the only one who raised her hand.

So if she comes back.

All right.

Anyway, we're gonna we're gonna close public comment for now.

Yeah.

Elizabeth, uh, if you if you have a comment, please send an email to uh was it PRC at Mountainview.gov and it'll get distributed to to all of us.

Okay.

Uh we are now moving on to heritage tree um appeals.

Uh the first one is a heritage tree appeal at 1145 Carver Place.

Um we are going to I I first want to introduce the two city attorneys who are here tonight.

And uh since I think we have the Easy Street people here too.

I won't re-intro we I won't re-introduce them later.

I'll here does everybody.

So we have assistant city attorney Diana Fazelli, who will be representing city staff.

And we have senior assistant city attorney Dave Wilgus, who will be representing the Urban Forestry Board.

Uh for this first appeal, uh, just to sort of outline the process.

Uh, we'll first have a staff report.

The appellant will then have 10 minutes to uh to speak.

Uh PRC will then have opportunity for questions.

So anybody then we'll have public comment.

Then after that, staff will have two more minutes to speak to anything else that they want to discuss.

The appellant will also then have two final minutes, and then it'll come back to um the urban forestry board uh for deliberation, a motion and a vote.

So I will now turn it over to uh Russell Hanson, the forestry manager uh for the staff report on one one four-five carver place.

All right, thank you, commissioners.

Again, Russell Hanson, Urban Forest Manager for Community Services Department.

Um, here to present this evening uh currently for 1145 car place, a heritage tree appeal.

Um, when we get into the facts of the case, um, the tree in question um is a large Sequoia Semper Byron, Coast Redwood, approximately 47 inches in diameter, 90 feet tall, and has about 20 feet of crown spread.

Um on the application from the uh property owner, uh, they listed that the tree is growing in close proximity to structures and causing damage, or will in the near future.

Um, they also provided additional comment of the tree is too big, destroying adjacent driveways and sidewalk.

One driveway has been replaced twice with roots cut, the other driveway replaced once and ground down once to reduce the tripping hazard.

And then lastly, that the low branches had been cut in the recent wind, multiple branches broke and were cut off.

Um, the tree was trimmed to reduce wind load because there is an unknown danger of failing.

Um so that was the information that we were operating off of when we visit the site in general.

Um, what I have here is representative pictures of the sidewalk as well as the driveway damage.

Um, that well, technically, this driveway damage, the right side of the photo or right side photograph is the one for the property in question, 1145 carver.

Um, as you can see, kind of along the edge of sidewalk where it joins to the driveway, there's a color differentiation that that ultimately that color differentiation is because of the grinding that was done that they appeared um previously off of street views or otherwise it looked to be probably a two or a three-inch max kind of lift.

What they do is they come in with a large grinding wheel that can basically shave that down and make it less of a tripping hazard.

There's no direct differential.

And so that one was done um in the recent past, I'll say, um, but there is some slight recurrence currently that there's still some additional lifting.

Um, but our belief is is that the way that it was ground the first time is it was relatively short and steep.

We feel like if they extend it back a little bit further, there still should be sufficient depth of concrete that allows to make that perfectly smooth and kind of eliminate the trip hazard.

Um the photograph on the left that we're looking at is for the sidewalk damage that is currently present.

Um the majority of that is actually located more in front of the adjacent property where the differential is, but there is damage to the sidewalk as well in front of the property in question.

Um, as the kind of owner had stated, um, you can see color differentiation again, which tells us that it's been replaced.

Then subsequent to that, we see the grinding as well.

Where here in this case you can see they actually did take it a little further back.

Excuse me, a little further back.

Um, where ultimately this may be a situation because concrete for the sidewalk is also a little bit thinner.

It may actually need to be removed and replaced again.

Um I'll say the one positive in that regard is that because it is the city sidewalk, that is something the city would absorb.

That would not be property owner responsibility.

So we would take responsibility for the sidewalk.

They would simply address the driveway portion of it.

So that's kind of what we're looking at in those photographs.

This next one, the left-hand photograph, um, there was about this is the neighbor's driveway that ultimately had about a four-inch differential on that one.

Um that again, feeling is that that likely can be ground, but it's getting a little bit more marginal.

Um again, it's just a question of whether we completely eliminate that differential or whether we just take it down significant enough to where it doesn't present as much of a trip hazard because not considered part of the public access or otherwise, that that because that's private property, um, not as much of a concern about the public walking on it and that sort of a thing.

Um you look at the photograph on the right.

Um, the one key thing I'm pointing out on this one is that there is a tree in front of that neighboring property.

Um, that tree is only about eight, six to eight feet, closer to eight feet, probably from the side of the driveway that is actually lifted the most.

That when you look at that neighboring property, the one adjacent or the edge adjacent to the redwood has an inch or two of lift.

When we get to the other side of the driveway, it has almost a four-inch lift.

And so our belief, our consideration um is that that tree in front of the neighbor's house may actually be influencing that driveway lift as well.

So we're not convinced that by addressing the redwood that it's going to eliminate any other lifting should they repair the driveway.

Excuse me.

Um above and beyond that we received this application last March, so a little over a year ago.

Um, one of the things we were doing is trying to engage with the property owner and try and get clarity on a lot of different things.

At one point, um the property owner did also bring up solar.

It was not necessarily on the original application, um, but we started to kind of talk about that in the review process.

Um, but ultimately um where we came with that one was that the house in its current design is really not conducive to solar installation.

That the view that we have on the screen here is the southern exposure.

So that garage door is facing south.

That's the primary location that we typically try and see from solar because of the way that the sun drops and the horizon, et cetera.

They will install them on the east and west, but they always like to have that southern exposure because it's more um productive, I'll say during the winter months, that kind of a thing.

And so ultimately um kind of having that conversation with the property owner as we move through that through the summer, et cetera.

Um, property owner ultimately decided that that's kind of a bigger longer term project, um, but that ultimately he didn't have anything that he could present to us in terms of current designs or otherwise estimates, that kind of a thing that would justify really giving full consideration to the solar.

It's more of a thought for the future.

So, you know, again, we're willing to consider that as a change of condition should they decide to do solar in the future or otherwise.

But given the current conditions, we kind of had reached that conclusion that um we did not feel that it needed to be removed based off of condition.

Um the tree is a little bit thin.

Um, as they mentioned, they did some thinning pruning to it to improve the airflow.

Um I would have liked personally, my opinion would be to keep a little bit more of that, but I also understand when you're getting limbs failing, et cetera.

Sometimes it's difficult to decide which ones are creating the wind sail effect, that kind of a thing.

And so um, knowing that it's a little bit thinner than normal, etc., um, we ultimately um still didn't feel that the condition raised to that point where it required removal of the tree, both for the canopy condition as well as the roots, that we still felt like everything could be addressed through corrective pruning or other means.

Um, again, didn't find that it could be done or could be removed or that removal was necessary to construct improvements.

Need to slow down tonight.

Um, because again, no official documentation, no building permits or anything else had been submitted.

So that criteria wasn't met.

Um, staff's evaluation also found that the tree didn't qualify under health and structure.

Again, as I kind of talked about in the first one, you know, it's marginal, it's not in great condition, but ultimately it's still in good enough condition.

Um, and there isn't anything hazardous that we identified that we felt that um that would qualify.

And then lastly, um, that we didn't really feel that it needed to be removed for good forestry practice because it didn't necessarily compete with any other trees, or there weren't any other conflicts or otherwise that we felt really grows to that level.

So ultimately it was staff's decision to go ahead and deny um the removal of that tree.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh we'll now move on uh to the appellant who will have 10 minutes, and I'm thinking it's 10.

I want to say.

Yeah.

So go ahead if you want to use the slides.

I do have them.

I have that.

Yeah.

Our first uh motivation has to do with these minor issues at the side sidewalks picking up.

And the city didn't do any of that grinding I did the grinding of the hand grinder.

Thinks it takes a long time with the small hand grinder but as it rises as I go up there spend some hours grinding the sidewalk.

Lifting in my experience my neighbors got two coastal redwoods and uh didn't lift up the driveway that much but it ended up ruining my uh sewer line and uh I believe the redwoods have the tendency to just drop the roots down a little bit and spread out as far as they can and suck up as much water as possible.

These these trees are noted for being the greatest uh growers in the world of any other tree and uh the reason is because they evolved in this other side of the mountains coastal mountains here every day the fog comes in hits those trees and rains down on the ground they got all the water they want and they just grow like hill and trying to go as fast as they can straight up so they're a wonderful tree and good for carbon sequester now my thing about solar is that everybody's going to have to have solar you can put the slide now with the uh the one with the uh keeling curve so this shows the keeling curve and uh you see the time scale is in 50 year big increments and it's just been going up and up and up and this the rate of climb here it depends on how much fossil fuels we're burning basically it's not slowing down it needs to slow down we've gone from a condition where 100 years ago I was reading the fishing is so great in the ocean that you'd go out there and throw your thing out next thing you know fish would be landing in your boat it's not like that anymore when when I was younger at Snowden Los Angeles I lived on around 1950 somewhere around that never happened again used to be you'd go up in the high Sierras and there was remnants of the glaciers from the ice age still up there they're gone now this year the snowback is like 20% of normal we're lucky that reservoirs filled up last year all around the world we're having disasters caused by climate change the big hurricanes I had a year ago or so on the east coast it cost of damage from that it's like 10 times what happened in Los Angeles fires farmers are starting to have trouble growing food because weather conditions are so unpredictable and come with severe droughts and floods and stuff so it turns my thinking is that people need to stop using gasoline they have to stop using natural gas and that's not easy it's not cheap but it needs to be done that property we're talking about as a rental property in mine now I believe landlords have the responsibility to make their tenants carbon neutral you can't expect the tenants to go try modifying the property it's up to the landlords I'm a landlord it's my duty now the redwood tree it casts you can look see if you can pull up a picture that shows the uh top view view of the property and the uh this one here this shows it that uh different months of the year and on the on the left we we get December and then January over here until you get to April the sun's high enough that's not a problem but December January February is a problem November's a problem and that tree is directly south of this house that sweeps across the house midday so there's no place on that roof you can put a roof without it being severely impacted by that shape of that tree I developed a program to analyze the shade effects of everything around and uh I think you can find that as curves with little bumps and bumps and stuff on it.

So there's no place on that roof you can put a roof without it being severely impacted by that shape of that tree.

I developed a program to analyze the shade effects of everything around, and uh I think you can find that as curves with little pumps and bumps and stuff on it.

I don't remember the name of it.

This is the one again.

It goes by uh goes by month, but also the three columns represent what I did is I analyze for the far back corner of the property.

There's a little shed there, you put maybe one or two panels on it.

It's the best location on the property for football and solar, but it still gets screwed up on these early months of the year.

You know, once you get past April, the sun's high enough, it everything's everything's okay.

And uh it doesn't have a it doesn't have a south side, it only has east and west, so it's not very good.

The backyard is pretty good size back there.

The house is in front of it on the south side, and in the morning, the neighbors got a tree that hits it early in the morning.

But I think part of the backyard could hold some solar, and the other expensive possibility is the front of the house.

There's something my my wife said, Hey, I gotta have a gable in the front.

Used to be uh just style house, a little slope here, slope here.

So we bridge the porch area with a beam and put a gable in there just for looks.

Stupid, stupid speed.

Anyway, that whole area there in the front.

If you modify it, it'd be a big surface for solar.

No, but the advantage of solar is it gives you free energy.

Within 10 years, you've paid for your solar installation.

They last for about 30 years.

So with everybody having to get an EV heat pumps or heating, heat pumps for the water heater, electric cooking, your electric bills skyrockets if you don't have some way to reduce it.

Solar offers this ability to get clean energy, no carbon for 30 ears.

It's not as it's not cheap.

Batteries are more expensive than solar, they don't take up a lot of room though.

You gotta hang them on the outside wall or hang them on an inside wall somewhere, but you can you can do 20,000 dollars in batteries, not counting the labor.

The good thing about batteries.

Well, the bad thing about solar is the sun is really bright at noon.

Everybody's off at work somewhere, nobody's home.

You're not using it, it goes to the grid.

PGE says, What am I going to do with all this energy?

There's nobody using it.

They'd have to turn down their gas generators until they can't turn them down anymore.

Then they have to try to sell it to the neighbors, the battery or whatnot.

Yet, so then they change their whole building method.

It used to be we put in solar on our house 2016.

You give them juice, they give you 100% credit all year.

You can use summer excess to pay off your winter bills.

People who started way back then still have that benefit if they don't change their system too much.

Today you buy, you put in solar, you put in a battery.

Terra's all different.

They go month by month, they convert your excess energy into dollars.

You don't get to carry it to the winter time, you get to carry it to the next month.

Every month you go like it.

So you no longer have a PGE, no longer provides a battery that allows you to move summer excess into the winter months.

You need to get a lot more.

And during all those months, the sun's coming up low.

It's up to 30, 30 degrees, 40 degrees.

So by April, it's clear, you know, everything everything's fine.

So you can April, May, and June.

Good solar.

But the winter half of the year sucks.

So we're we sort of approached the end of what we hit the end of the 10 minutes.

So okay.

If you just have maybe one last sentence or something like that.

You'll have two minutes again later later on.

So it's a bad house for solar.

I agree with that.

There are a few possibilities.

You can use the east side.

The west side is really, yeah, yeah, the wrong slope as far as the north yourself.

But the the good thing about batteries is you don't have to have solar.

You can you can get batteries now.

And what PGE does is they let you they'll they'll charge you like uh 38 cents a kilowatt hour between midnight and three o'clock in the afternoon.

And if if you buy energy after we need to okay.

This is my last once once time the grace.

Because you will have two minutes more.

Two more minutes.

Jumps up to 60 cents after three o'clock.

So you can get a battery and you save a little bit of money.

Uh and if you charge you in after nine o'clock, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, one, two, three o'clock.

I'm sorry, okay.

You'll have two more minutes.

Yeah, please.

If you could if you could so that's your time is your time basically the trees, your time, the time is up.

Okay, four is too high.

We'll come back, we'll come back.

You'll you'll have another question.

Um if you have questions of staff or the appellant.

Anybody?

Mr.

Davis.

Uh Russell, or or I believe there was also a fraction, so it's part of the original application.

And I think when I visited the site, that that's gone.

It looked like a pretty big tree.

Correct.

Like really big.

Um, would that have had any uh influence on the concrete lifting?

Absolutely, it had the potential as well.

That it it was a little further than the neighbor's tree from their driveway.

This one I'm gonna say was closer to 12 feet or so.

Um, but absolutely it had the potential, it was large enough.

It was, I'm gonna say going from memory, it was at least 30 inches or so on the trunk to where the root system of that tree absolutely would have extended at least to the driveway, perhaps even to the neighbors.

And that that tree wasn't bad.

Correct.

Yeah, it was a modesto ash, and it had several previous limb failures, ultimately was already in a state of decline that we felt it was appropriate to allow for removal of that one.

Thank you.

So any other questions.

Go ahead.

Um, one question for staff and one quick question for the appellant.

Um, did I understand correctly, staff that you said the tree is in um marginal condition?

Fair condition, yes.

Um, I did look, I went to the property too and took a look.

Um can you explain a little bit more about what is marginal about it?

I know you said it the way the canopy had been cut, maybe thin too much, but is there anything else?

And would you be able to say a potential lifespan for the tree?

Sure.

So I'll get to the lifespan in a second.

Ultimately, the reason that we reached the fair conclusion for the structure and the health was because it had been skirted up a fair amount.

It wasn't completely inappropriate.

Um, but typically we want at least 60 to 70 percent of that stock to have foliage.

In this case, it was closer to probably 50 or 60 percent.

So a little bit high, but reasonable given the roadway next to it.

I think it was raised to 20 to 25 feet, where we typically recommend 16 feet over the roadway, just in case moving trucks or anything large comes in.

That not that's not always just standard cars.

So that's the first reason we went there.

Second reason because again, redwoods in general, we want to leave those as thick as possible.

As the applicant had kind of stated, that's how they catch the fog that comes in.

Is that extra foliage catches the fogs, helps it to self-water?

So it doesn't have to go out and search for it in other locations.

It's typically gonna find it in our irrigated lawns or any of those other little areas, and so it helps to kind of keep it a little bit tighter, not an exact science.

But ultimately, above and beyond that, the foliage that we did see was fairly green, fairly dark green, fairly healthy.

And so it really is those two conditions that I would point to is just it was up a little bit high and it was a little bit thin.

That's part of the balancing act.

When when you prune to improve airflow, if you overthin it, you're now exposing branches that aren't typically exposed to wind.

They're going to be a little bit more fragile, perhaps, because they haven't adapted that girth on their branches, that diameter to the branches to where they can fight the wind any better.

Um, so you know, that's kind of where we go with it.

In terms of lifespan, it's always a crapshoot because of pest disease and all kinds of other things.

But ultimately, what we kind of use is five to ten years.

When we're reviewing these applications, if we feel we can get at least five, maybe is at least 10 or more, then we feel it's a reasonable attempt to try and mitigate the concerns that are there.

So I would say five to ten years is reasonable.

Thank you.

That's extremely informative.

Thank you.

And the quick question uh for the appellant, Mr.

Reese, thank you for a very thorough presentation.

I really appreciated what you had to say about climate change and fossil fuel and the trade-off with tree canopy.

Um just the quick question is how long ago did you do the grinding of the driveway?

When was the last time you did that?

Maybe years ago.

Three years ago.

Something like that.

Yeah, I think it was about three years ago, four years ago.

A few years ago.

Thank you.

I would say within six is what our determination was for sure within the last six years.

Relatively recent.

Yeah.

Okay, thanks.

Yes, either uh a couple of questions for staff.

Um, so it did look like that sidewalk in front of the neighboring property had been replaced at some point because it's a lot brighter color.

Is that done by the city or I'm going to assume so.

Again, in this case, for the the adjacent property, he chose to do it himself, but the city absolutely is responsible for it and will do it.

I didn't check the records to determine, so I can't tell you with any certainty.

I'm not aware.

And then the report said something about it would be considered a street tree.

Is that because it's in the right of way?

Correct.

But that has no bearing on the decision to remove it.

No, typically not.

We're very weighing it on its own own merits.

It's just a question of when it's a street tree, it's similar to the sidewalk.

We will accept responsibility.

And if the tree needs to be removed, the city will remove it.

Okay.

That's really the only difference between private and and street tree for us in this case.

Okay.

All right.

That is my question.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Um, I just had a couple.

I mean, the first one I had Lisa's a question, you sort of touched on it, but I just wanted to be clear.

Um, the report describes pruning services and sidewalk repair that would be the city's responsibility since it's a city tree.

Does that city assistance also extend to sharing and driveway repair if the damage is caused by the tree?

I think you implied that it's not, but I was just I I would simply say by code or ordinance, no.

By law, I would leave that up to the attorneys or the judges to kind of make that determination.

But my understanding is typically the roots are the adjacent property owners' responsibility to address because they receive shared benefit from that tree.

Okay.

Um this the other one is partly for this, but it's partly just for my general knowledge.

You know, sometimes in the staff reports, there's there's wording to the effect of you know, once the driveway is removed, and sometimes it's a sidewalk, staff can better evaluate root root systems or root removals to see if they're necessary.

So, just for my general knowledge, in practice, how does that happen?

I mean, would staff come out immediately to assess something?

Um, would there be a city appointment that's coordinated with the driveway demolition?

Because otherwise, you know, the homeowner is sort of in a limbo period with a torn-up right driveway waiting for someone to come to how do you so the two different scenarios you kind of discussed, sidewalks.

I'll talk about first, um, because typically, again, that's going to be the city that takes responsibility and is willing to cover that cost.

And it can be significant.

So as long as the owner knows it, they're typically going to let the city do it.

In those cases, yes, the city crews are absolutely aware that when they remove that, they should be calling us if they have concerns about what needs to be removed or otherwise.

Um, when it comes to the driveway, it's a similar situation where typically, if we get into a situation like this with the owners having a conversation about wanting to remove, and we're encouraging to you know, try and mitigate, try to address it first.

That is exactly what we tell them is find your contractor, get it scheduled, and then give us, you know, 24 to 72 hours notice.

But typically, even same day.

If they were to call us up and say, hey, we removed all this, we see all these roots.

Can you come out and look at it?

Typically, we're gonna be able to do it same day, but for certain by the second day within 24 hours of the call, we would go out and take a look at it and give them some advice as to whether we think it's appropriate to root prune or otherwise, and if it is excessive, because we do to run into those where we run across 12 inch, 18 inch roots where we get very concerned.

Um, in those cases, we typically will make a judgment call as well as to go ahead and proceed, cut the root, do what you need to.

We just know we need to make it a priority to get back and remove the tree, not to leave it for an extended period because of concern for fallover or otherwise.

But yeah, we typically try to coordinate 24 to 72 hours notice, we can help out.

Thanks.

One last check for any other follow-up questions.

Okay, um, all right.

We'll now move on to public comment.

Are there any members of the public who would like to comment?

Um, we have Elizabeth raising her hand again.

All right, let's Elizabeth.

You're muted, Elizabeth.

And your hands not raised anymore.

Elizabeth, are you there?

Signs of life.

Elizabeth, go ahead and speak.

We're we're trying to listen for you.

I don't think she was here also when you mentioned the emailing or comments.

Yeah, Elizabeth, just so you can you can hear we're having a tough time getting it getting you to communicate, but I I want to make sure that you know that there's also an option.

Uh, if you email your comments to prc at mountainview.gov, um, they'll get distributed to the to the full commission.

So um you have that option as well.

But we're gonna move on because it doesn't seem like we're successful in uh in hearing you.

Okay.

Any other public yes?

So it seems like there's a especially in the other case that I'm involved in, there's an extreme need for a root pruning service or a vetted root pruning company tree service in this area.

There's high liability involved in the process, and it'd be good to have that option.

Right now, my company won't do it.

I don't know a company that will cut roots like that and try to address some of these issues of the pavement and save try to save the tree at the same time.

There's high liability involved in that.

Thanks.

Just for the record, you if you could state your your home.

Thank you very much.

Any other public comment?

All right, I'm gonna close the public comment and we'll go back to staff for uh up to two minutes of final comments.

No additional comments from staff.

Thank you.

Right.

And we'll now go back to the appellant again.

Two minutes, it'll be o'clock, so so you can sort of see, but we are gonna adhere to the two.

Well, I really only have a minor thing to say.

I think the uh policy of Mountain View should realize that climate change is a serious issue, and having uh what I call the sacred tree policy is not a good policy.

You destroy more trees because you along the block solar than you do if you put solar in its place.

Solar produces reduces prevents CO2 from being emitted in the future.

The tree only sucks up like uh estimates using AI on the computer.

Should the uh the uh leaders about a 10 kilowatt system to balance the needs in the future, like it you know, your EBs and all of the other electrical stuff would produce save it about twice as much carbon as tree sequesters.

And the tree only does that if you water it, right?

Now we don't want to water or yards, right?

It's been forbidden to water your put grass and water in, and we have fire danger, right?

So you don't water you have to worry about fires.

You don't want to have trees near structures.

I think you should have a policy where no new tree being planted should shade anybody's southern exposure.

See not go over 11 feet.

So the north the other side of the house doesn't matter except for the neighbors, but right now I'm saying the tree policy needs to be modified to where it doesn't prevent solar.

And the reason is not because solar isn't being taken care of.

PGE's claiming all our grids are so clean now.

They they lie about the way they do their accounting.

But if you look at California ISO, you'll see that renewable energy, primarily solar, is dropping using like 80 to 80, 90 percent of the electricity being produced.

So it's good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

But you don't save any money by buying it from PG and E.

And thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Lisa.

Okay.

Uh we'll now bring it back to the commission for comments, deliberations.

Anyone wants to start one?

I'm happy to go ahead.

Nobody else wants to jump in first.

Uh I will uh support the staff recommendation and uh resolution.

I really respect and appreciate um uh the city staff determination.

I respect the city staff not only for your horticulture and arborcultural knowledge, but for the understanding of the policy and ordinance implications and um I guess the uh the community interest, and I think those things are all at play here.

I want to say I also appreciate the appellants um thoughtful concerns about climate change and the role of residential solar, particularly as a landlord and renter.

I think those are very real concerns.

Uh they're legitimate.

Um I just think it's somewhat of a false dichotomy to put tree preservation and uh climate change against each other.

I think there's still an opportunity to have solar and the tree.

Uh in my opinion, um, this gets into uh probably a longer discourse.

Um I think that the city is committed through its biodiversity plan and other um stated interests in resilience and climate change.

Um I probably agree with you that the the ordinance and policies probably should be looked at.

I think we as a commission um don't have a good understanding of how the uh tree ordinance revisions might um address things like solar, and I think that it probably does need, I think this is gonna be a continuing issue.

But um I have to say in this instance I am for preserving the tree uh and I'll leave it at that.

Okay, thank you.

Anybody next?

Anybody sure, Bernie?

Uh so I I basically agree with uh Commissioner Davis.

Um I I completely accept staff's uh analysis, and and I also I also think in thinking about solar, one has to also think about the benefits of tree canopy in cooling the atmosphere, which is I I listened to your your analysis and I agree with a lot of it, but I think that the question of cooling the atmosphere and cooling the area and therefore needing less air conditioning is is something that should go into the uh calculations also of the relative benefits, and and this would be a different conversation if we had your plans for solar for that house, which you know, then we would have to look at it in in in for the detail at this point.

It's the preservation of the tree, which is kind of what we are charged with if there isn't an issue of safety, and so at this point, I I will agree with staff's recommendation.

Um quickly, I I agree with staff's recommendation as well.

Um also iterate of what everyone has already said.

Um, I really appreciate the thoughtful analysis about climate and fossil fuel and the importance of trees.

I I do think that the tree does provide some afternoon shade in the summer, that's probably helpful, keeping cooling.

That's probably helpful keeping cooling.

Aesthetically, it's a beautiful tree.

I do think, and it was mentioned in the staff report that if there's a future solar feasibility study to we could take another look at this.

And I think also as the tree ages in the next five to ten years, again, we can come back and look at it too.

Commissioner Summer.

Thank you.

Yes.

I think that, however, I'm not seeing anything in the city's current ordinance that would allow me to find for removal of the trees.

Unfortunately, this group isn't the one that makes the policy decisions.

That would be the city council.

And I do believe that the upcoming park and rec strategic plan, either that or the urban forestry plan, both call for the review and revision, potential revision of the city's tree policy.

And we all look forward to that time, and maybe you'll be able to share some of your uh knowledge at that moment.

Um, but I will support the staff's recommendation to uh retain the trees and deny the appeal.

Um sorry so it comes to me.

I again, you know, I I'll agree with mostly what what others have said.

I I think it's a nice looking tree.

Um it's mature enough that it it stands out in the immediate neighborhood, which is another factor that we we often take into account.

I think there's a bit of uplifting of the driveway and the sidewalk, uh, but in comparison with other tree situations we've seen the lifting isn't substantial in this case, especially for a tree of this size.

Um, you know, I thought that the shaving of the driveway at the sidewalk um merge um should definitely dampen the the bump.

Um you know, I agree that mitigation measures are possible.

Um in further census is categorized as a street tree, the city of Mountain View will actually do a lot of the maintenance work at no cost to the owner.

Um so for us, you know, it comes back.

We're we're sort of bound to to follow the city code and uh 3235.

The urban portion board is charged with rendering decisions with the emphasis on the intent to preserve heritage trees.

Um so in this case, you know, I just don't feel that the removal criteria have been met.

Um so I'll be siding with um denying the appeal and upholding the staff decision.

Um but a couple of things, you know, as has been noted, if root top solar becomes a realistic and approved option, you know, then that's a change in circumstance, and a new application could be filed at that time.

Um you know, I almost the entirety of the argument was was related to solar, and and but there's not a solar plan.

Um so that's not something that we can consider right now.

Um, I also thought I I just want to say uh your analysis was really thoughtful.

I I really appreciate it.

I thought that the comparison of um you did a comparison of CO carbon dioxide absorption by the tree versus savings from household solar.

I thought that was interesting, but as Commissioner Summer mentioned, you know, that's a sort of a policy discussion and decision that's not in our current purview uh right now.

So I'll also be um siding with uh denying it, denying the appeal.

But I I really appreciate your your thoughtful.

I mean, it's insightful to know if you spent a lot of time on that, and yeah, and I appreciate that.

Chair mentioned I'll move we adopt a resolution of the urban forestry board of the city of Mountain View to deny the review and uphold the SNAP decision to and deny the removal of one heritage tree at 1145 carbureted to be read in title only, further reading waves.

I'll second.

So we have a motion by uh Commissioner Davis, second by Commissioner Bryan Bryant, yes, Commissioner Sylvester.

Yes, Vice Chair Summer, yes, Chair Mitchner.

Yes.

Just real real quick.

I uh appreciate the opportunity to come here and speak and give you my review.

And actually, I agree with your decision to leave it there for now because the uh the difficulty of putting enough solar on that house to make a big difference is quite high.

I'm not considerable reconstruction.

There's a possibility of getting about half of what I need in the backyard.

Um round on the solar.

It's horrible.

Anyway, we we we need to move on.

But my last thing is I think you should seriously have your city or whoever's responsible.

Look at your tree placement rules.

Because I see over and over again.

This uh tree mixed.

Yeah, okay.

We got we've got all sorts of people.

We we got stuff, we gotta stop.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um we are now gonna move on to thank you, Mr.

Reese.

Uh, we're gonna now move on to uh 139 easy street.

Um, I will not reintroduce the city attorneys.

Um everybody was present at that time.

Um it'll be the the the uh the the order um there'll be a staff report.

The appellant will have 10 minutes.

Um if the appellant are you Blake Freeman?

I am late.

Okay.

I was just gonna say if the if the homeowner is also here or the homeowner association, um you could delegate some of your 10 minutes to them, but I don't know if they're if they're here, but that would be part of your your time.

Um then PRC will have questions.

Um there'll be public comment.

Staff will have two more minutes, and the appellant will then have two minutes and then it'll come back to uh PRC again in your final two minutes.

You can delegate some of that time to others if you choose time for the one that I can um like okay, and and as you saw, I'm gonna try to do a better job of sticking to the to the time.

So there'll be a clock on there, and if you could uh to Rob okay, so we're gonna start with the staff, the staff report, and it'll be a Russell Hanson again, our forestry staff first staffers.

No worries.

All right, thank you, Commissioner.

Again, Russell Hanson, Urban Forest Manager presenting um the appeal hearing for 139 Easy Street Drive.

Sorry about that.

Um, for 139 Easy Street.

Um, as you can see from the overview picture here, this is a multi-family unit, and these two trees are located to the right-hand side of one of those units.

Why am I not moving forward?

Oh, there we go.

Okay.

So the trees in question, we have two sequoia sempervirens, coast redwoods, both of them are approximately 34 inches in diameter, approximately 60 feet tall and approximately 25 feet of spread each tree overall canopy.

We estimated to be just over 50 feet or so is where we went with that.

Um, in terms of the application itself, the applicant listed that the tree is growing in close proximity to the structures and causing damage or will in the near future.

And they had an additional note that said that the trees had tree had caused or trees had caused um approximately 20,000 in damage to the adjacent building foundation.

So those were the factors that we were considering.

Um, when we look at the trees, the left-hand photograph that we have here, again, overall feeling was trees were generally good health, good structure, no real significant decline in the upper canopies.

Again, skirted up a little bit, but ultimately that's to clear the building.

It's understandable they have some additional screening from that building.

Um, and so that isn't as impactful, I will say, um, in terms of kind of raising it up perhaps a little bit higher.

But the trees were also offset a little bit in terms of the foundation of the building to where the trees are actually located.

That's evidenced in the photograph to the right.

Um, you can see the tree number one is the one closest to the camera.

Um, it was located.

We put it at about 15 feet from the structure.

Um, and then um six six and a half feet from the edge of the retaining wall, which you can just barely see above that first row of hedges there.

Um, there's a little piece of concrete you can see that's that very first retaining wall.

There is one on the additional side or on the other side as well.

Um, when you look at it from the street view again, um, you can see in the picture to the left um that there are significant surface routes that are present in that.

I'll call it a planter because we have the two retaining walls on either side.

Um, that ultimately there are some significant surface routes in that area.

Um ultimately not real sure as to why, but absolutely the watering um, having water available at the top or otherwise um throughout the soils will sometimes cause them to lay more roots towards the surface, et cetera, just because they need air just as much as they need water.

And so if they're perhaps oversaturated or otherwise, that could be problematic.

In this case, we don't really think it was oversaturated, but we do feel like it was very moist.

There was standing water, at least one of the visits that we had.

So might be a contributing factor.

The picture on the right is along that retaining wall.

Again, you can see there are some absolutely some surface roots that have gone underneath that retaining wall and are running through that planting strip that has the small hedge or otherwise kind of between the walkway and that retaining wall.

And so that's representative of that.

Some additional surface roots are present.

That picture to the left is the actual door stoop or that landing for coming out of the residence there.

You can see both in the one on the left where it's a little bit closer, as well as the one on the right.

You can see at least two or three, I'll say three to four inch, maybe five inch on one of them, large roots that are going underneath that landing.

As well, the picture on the right, you can see that that landing itself may be tilted slightly because as you look to the left where the ADT sign is, there's a nice large gap underneath that where the siding stops and the concrete comes in.

You look to the right on or to the right of the driveway, it looks like there might not be as large of a gap.

So we did feel we didn't put a level on it.

We don't know for certain how much it's tilted, but we did feel like that landing had been lifted a little bit by those tree roots that we're looking at as well.

Um, the root or the cracking of where that landing comes down and joins the walkway.

You can see that real real common happens at score joints or at these little kind of areas.

So I won't say it's too problematic or otherwise, but again, maybe symptomatic or maybe a sign that that actually has lifted or otherwise been displaced slightly.

So this picture or these two pictures here show that that walkway has been replaced or at least refurbished because of some of that same tilting or some of those same concerns.

Um that has been addressed.

Ultimately, we don't know how many roots may have been pruned or otherwise that were under that because we weren't involved in this case.

Um, but ultimately, um, you know, again, we just want to make sure that that is a considered factor for this.

Um, the biggest impact that we saw on this application was inside of the residence itself.

That picture to the left is the floor in either the kitchen or living room.

We're not exactly sure, but it was kind of that same area within the home.

Um, you can see several of the tiles are cracked or otherwise.

Um, our understanding, again, we did not get a chance to see this prior to repair or otherwise.

Um, but our understanding was is that that was a fairly significant raise that caused those tiles to be kind of uneven and subceptible, susceptible to cracking or otherwise because they weren't fully set, they were on two pressure points or otherwise, may have contributed to that as well.

But again, we don't know how significant, we just know that it was presented as significant within the arborist report of a lift, but no exact measurement on that.

The picture to the right, it was also included with the arborist report.

It shows the roots that were identified underneath the foundation.

Um, what was reported to us is that all of those and and the photographs showed us that all of those roots were at least less than four inches.

Um so they weren't too significant.

What we interpreted that to be is that those were what I will call seeker roots, where ultimately those are the roots that just kind of continue to extend out and see if they can find additional water to support additional growth.

Um, that redwoods in general will have a fairly compact root system around the drip line of the tree, but they absolutely do like any other tree, they will extend one and a half to two times that distance searching for water.

And in this case, competing with the ground covers, the shrubs, etc.

Um, you know, there may have been a need for that tree to identify some additional water sources.

And so we don't dispute that it went underneath the foundation.

What we're left kind of trying to interpret is how much the lift was compared to how much those roots are and whether they are the only thing directly responsible or whether it could have been related to just natural concrete subsidence, um, you know, poor foundation building, any number of other contributing factors there.

We just we don't know because we don't have measurements on the lift, we don't we didn't see these roots while they were exposed, et cetera.

We're left to interpret what we've been given in the Arborist report or otherwise.

And so in this case, um in the Arborist report, that's the other thing that we used is in the Arborist report itself that was presented to the property owner from their own arborists.

Um, is it provided three alternative methods or three methods for trying to mitigate or address this issue?

Um, first one was root pruning.

It talks about trying to do that, but that there's no guarantee that that will eliminate the problem, but it will allow for preservation, et cetera, and that that is ultimately the decision of the HOA or the property owners to kind of weigh that in there.

The second option was removal of those redwoods to make sure that it was 100% addressed and would not be a problem in the future.

Um, and then the last one was just kind of a wait and see.

Just monitor it, let's see what happens and potentially deal with any problems as I come.

And so even their own arborist report kind of led us down the same path that we typically go down is is mitigation an option and will it allow for the extended life of these trees?

Will we get another five, 10, 15 plus years?

Where we reached the conclusion was ultimately it was far enough away from the trees to the house that we felt like we were going to save enough, I'll say dense root mass, um, that it wasn't an immediate concern for fallover or otherwise.

Um, if and when additional trenching is perhaps done outside of the building, and we can see those for ourselves, and we can make an interpretation of those.

Um, you know, we would see that as a change in condition where we can come back and revisit it.

But again, bottom line, we were operating off of kind of photographs and reports and all of these others.

We didn't see a lot of these other conditions as they were being addressed.

Um so we're just kind of left to interpret it.

So, based off of that, um, and the fact that there were was some root pruning that has already occurred.

Um, we did not find that the condition of the tree required its removal.

That was our first finding because the trees still are in generally good health or otherwise performing fairly well.

Um we did not find it was necessary in order to construct improvements because there were no improvements proposed.

We did not find that the health and structure was problematic, that we felt it was good and could be managed.

So we didn't feel that that one was there.

And then again, the staff's evaluation did not find that it needed to be removed for good forestry practices because we still felt like there were options available to try and mitigate that would allow for preservation of the tree for a period of time.

Thank you.

Uh we'll now move on to uh the appellant, Mr.

Freeman.

And then if you have somebody else, you can introduce them when they speak, and then uh Alison, you'll put a clock up there.

My turn.

Yeah, go ahead.

So I'm Blake Freeman.

This is Jason Lynn, the homeowner.

And of 139 Easy Street, that's the address in question.

This is Ken Ohm from Bay Area Tree Specialist.

He wrote the report, and he managed the excavation and the root removal inside the unit.

And so first of all, I emailed our slides to y'all late.

Okay, so you've got them.

Oh, great, you've got our presentation.

All right.

So this matches what you have on paper.

So my first uh goal here is to just kind of set the stage, give you all the big pictures so you understand how the different pieces interconnect.

But you so you can see here, uh, this is a scene from Easy Street, and the trees in question are redwood number one and number two.

Um, despite what Russell said, they're actually nine feet and 11 feet from the unit.

And Jason measured that himself, and I also measured it.

So they're very, very close to the unit.

And you know, uh sidebar for a second, but the problem here, folks, is that this place was built in 1985, so it's 41 years old.

And you know how developers are.

Uh, they put in a whole bunch of trees to make the place look pretty.

And when they put the trees in, uh, they probably put in, you know, some six or eight foot redwood trees, which looked really nice at the time.

But the problem is they planted a lot of them very, very close to the building.

And I mean, there's even worse examples than this on the property, but this is these are the trees that are causing the most damage.

And I can say that from personal experience because I have a townhouse in Mountain View, and then I mean the yard is a third as big as this room.

And the developer planted a eucalyptus tree, which I ripped out after about five years.

Anyway, so this is the lay of the land as you see from easy, south towards central, north towards middle field.

Next slide.

So now you have an aerial view.

Same thing you just saw, but just from the sky.

And so property line is kind of irrelevant.

It's just an adjoining property.

So there's your two trees, your two redwoods.

And again, the distance from the unit.

And the blue oval is where damage occurred.

And the damage is significant.

If you look in your kit, and maybe we'll get to, yeah, we'll get to a page later.

Uh you'll see there's damage at the entrance, there's damage in the living room, and there's damage in the kitchen.

The kitchen is up here where the vents are.

It's a long way from the trees.

And when I first saw it, and I saw this with my own eyes, and so did Ken.

And I couldn't believe it.

Um, that tile, that broken tile that Russell put up a few minutes ago.

Uh, the kitchen was a wreck.

Uh, the tile was all broken up.

It was like a jigsaw puzzle that somebody had, you know, turned the box over and just dumped the pieces.

So uh I couldn't believe it.

But then Ken came in, and so I I want to make a point here.

Um there's no question in our minds, Ken and mine, that and anybody who saw it firsthand, that the damage was caused by these two redwood trees, and there's because there's no other trees that could possibly cause the damage.

Ready for the next slide.

And so getting a little drilling down a little more deeply.

Um here is uh some trees near the front driveway and the pathway, which by the way is not a concern of ours.

So you can just push the driveway and the pathway aside as a concern because the concern is Jason's slab foundation in three different rooms.

Well, not really three, it's the entryway and the living room and the kitchen.

And so this is there's there's some roots there, they're going under the concrete.

More importantly, here's this raised planter area where the builder installed these trees, and um, you know, the roots are growing.

This is from the top looking towards the unit.

The roots are growing to the side of the planter and then down and then towards the house.

So we have very very compelling evidence that the tree roots are the culprit here.

Uh, there's no other candidate, they're nine feet and eleven feet away.

There's two of them.

And so that's our argument.

Uh Ken will expand upon that because he's the arborist and I'm not.

One last point is that in the backyard, the purpose of this picture is to demonstrate to you all that there's there's no other tree in the backyard that could possibly be causing this damage.

It's the redwoods.

There's a little bitty peach, but it's it's not even a candidate.

All right.

Next.

And then here uh we segue to inside the unit.

Again, it's a slab foundation, and Jason recently bought the unit.

Uh, but the previous owner did these repairs, knowing that oh my gosh, I can't sell my house in the condition it's in.

And so she was obviously prudent enough to basically she had to demo the living room and demo the kitchen so that Ken and his team could come in and do this excavation and find the roots.

And I would encourage you all to look to pages uh 20 and 21 to really see the evidence.

And then page four is a summary slide showing all of the the living room and the kitchen together.

But 21 and 22, 2020 and 21 give you a really, really good idea of the problem.

So I know we got limited time here.

I'll close with a couple of points.

Um the trees are nice, they're great.

Nobody wants to remove two 60-foot redwood trees that are in very good health.

Problem is Jason just bought a two million dollar home, and the trees are wreaking havoc on the foundation.

And the solution, as you saw, they're very limited.

I mean, Russell just ticked them off.

Number one is cut the roots.

Ken will speak to that and why that's a problem because it's it comes with a ton of risk.

Number two is remove the trees.

That's what we're hoping you will decide to uh agree to tonight.

That's a time shock, you got three minutes or I'll hand it off to Ken.

Number three is to do nothing, and doing nothing is just unacceptable for obvious reasons.

I mean, the poor guy just bought a two million dollar home, and doing nothing would just not be viable.

Ken, I'll turn it over to you.

He's the arborist, I'm not.

Thank you for your time.

Excuse me, did you have anything quick?

Oh boy.

Yeah, so the roots here.

I was there, I cut these roots.

These are redwood roots.

The point that he makes about seeker roots being four inches, I get that, but we only measured at one point.

The roots can come in and graft with other roots and become very larger, not just four inches.

They can start out at four inches, hit some good stuff, get wide graft with other roots.

This is just a snapshot.

These are the interior roots that were causing the damage.

We didn't even address the roots outside.

Let me go back to the outside pictures, possibly on uh your report.

This is so right here.

We can go through your slides if you want to.

Those those are those are also good.

But can I get a picture of the front yard?

So this is a major 12 to 15 inch root.

The whole properties are draining right into here.

There's a drain right here in your report picture in my report picture, where all the properties drain right here.

It's not a small saturation thing.

This is a 15-inch root there coming off the tree, major drainage problems with all the properties, draining chair.

The roots are going into the house there, going into the house there.

These trees are stable, they're in a train wreck of a planter bed.

This is an absolute nightmare.

You are tree people.

I know you are.

Would you put overall it's a 70-inch redwood?

That's about here to here.

This whole thing, would you put it in a small planter bed and expect it to be a natural tree?

So going to your points for removal.

Number one condition of the tree.

They've already it's causing it, they say it doesn't cause damage, it's already caused $18,000 worth of damage.

You're likely to get future damage with this train wreck of a setup.

Major drain is there.

Number two, number three, the nature and qualities of the tree.

You're only looking at the top of the tree.

You're looking at the aesthetics of it.

This is a nightmare.

This is a train wreck.

This is not compatible with the trees or the property.

So point three, you didn't, you took into factor, yes, this great canopy, but not the roots and the issues they're causing.

And then real quick, I have a question for you.

Do roots heal like branches when you cut big roots?

No, they don't do coated like branches do.

They start rot, and that's why no tree company will do major cuts on this because they don't want the liability.

And you can only cut the roots you see.

You're gonna have to jig weight out and get all the roots you can barely see.

It's not a thorough process.

So I gave you options, but your second and third options have major residual risk to the homeowner.

So I'm not here to tell you to kill trees, but all right.

Understand all the factors.

Thank you very much.

And you guys will have two minutes more later on.

So if you want to delegate differently, uh okay.

Uh we'll now go to uh the commission.

I'll maybe turn this way first this time.

Commissioner Summer, you want to sure.

I have um a couple questions.

Thank you.

Um I first a question for staff.

Um Russell, what do you think about the spacing of those two trees?

Do you think they're too close, and would that affect the root growth?

I will say too close is a subjective measurement because ultimately in the forest, redwoods grow in very close proximity.

And so too close is just I'll I'll say subjective, and I would say no, they're not too close because ultimately they will coexist even in very close proximity.

Yes, however, it absolutely affects the root structure.

As the other arborist had kind of mentioned, you will get root grafting, you will get all kinds of things to where in some instances these trees will become codependent because they're able to draw off of that other root system to support themselves.

And so to take one of them and leave the other could be problematic.

Does that answer?

Yes.

Um, and then another question I have did you observe any cracking or damage to the retaining wall that makes up that planter bed?

We did not.

Do you have any thoughts that would explain why not?

Ultimately, I would say luck is the biggest factor.

Um, again, I kind of agree with the other arborist, and that long-term sustainability in a very tight planting space like that is going to be difficult.

But I think what's benefited it is that ultimately there is no sealed bottom.

And so those roots were able to get down underneath that wall and continue to spread.

And so I would say that really is kind of the biggest contributing factor is having that open space out the one end, perhaps even the other end.

And then underneath that retaining wall is kind of what's prevented that.

But I can't say that that's going to be sustainable.

There may be roots absolutely up against that water wall right now that are growing that are going to crack it in the future.

Okay.

Just not currently.

You got to spend more time out there than I did when I did have the mission to walk.

Sure, up on a private.

Yeah.

So with that in mind, I didn't see any cracking on the adjacent property when they've got a lot of asphalt parking and such.

Did you observe any cracking on the older side of the trees?

Nope.

Okay.

All right.

And then I have a question that maybe nobody can answer on the applicant's team, but was there ever a water leak in that house?

Not to our knowledge.

I can answer.

So the outside is a major water leak from any arborus looking.

It's saturated soil.

You've got the water drain there.

And it's at a low angle.

So all the properties drain into there.

You don't need a water leak.

It's floating.

You've got a houseboat.

So the roots are just going around under it.

It'd be better if you had a water leak.

It'd be left of a situation.

If it was dry outside and you have a water leak, we can save these trees.

So it looked like it was at least today, it wasn't um very wet.

Uh was there an irrigation leak or something there?

That's one day.

We're looking at 30, 40 years worth of growth.

So we can't we can't go back in time and fix all that.

So yeah, they're addressing the water leaks, but the roots have already grown.

That's the issue, is they've had 40 years, whereas addressing the water leaks this year will not compensate.

Now with a redwood.

So really you're just uh you're attributing uh your your position is that there's there's it has to do with the drainage uh being directed to that drain and the so the water is accumulating and that on that property.

It's it's sleepless and mountain view.

It's a it's a houseboat.

It's total water there, and that's what redwoods love.

They're just drinking it right up.

Okay, all right.

So it's my turn to ask questions.

Yeah, and you'll get yours.

So if you have something you want to respond to, I'm happy to hear, but can I take my turn?

Absolutely, of course.

And one more thing with that, please.

She's she's back to her question.

It's the same, but let her know your rules.

Um, so my final question is the tree, so the was the tree built by or planted by the developer making it uh 1985 planting.

Is that correct?

That's what the record show, and from that amount of water, it's really taken off.

Okay.

All right, those are my questions.

Thank you.

I do have a couple questions for staff and a couple for others, depending on how the questions go.

Um, I think we're all questioning what happened 41 years ago on this property.

Um, why they built such a retaining wall between the two developments, why they built such a narrow planter.

Um, what kind of experience do you have in terms of how trees evolve in those tight planter spaces, or do you in terms of root growth, their overall health, and their overall longevity?

Because it seems like just not a healthy way to plant a tree that's going to get that big.

Correct.

So ultimately, I do have a fair amount of experience dealing with trees in confined spaces.

Um it really is uh all kinds of different factors that are going to influence that.

I I have some instances where we have um, you know, you obviously you plant a smaller tree and a smaller planter, it's going to be more accommodating, it's going to be more successful.

When you go to the larger trees, like we have in this situation, um, it can definitely be more problematic.

Um, from stunted growth to circling roots to just in general the tree underperforming, because once they grow out, hit a retaining wall or otherwise, they're going to divert.

And then if they hit another one, they're going to divert again.

And they end up circling as they get larger and larger over time, they start to choke each other out.

They eliminate the soil the pore space in the soil.

They also take all the same nutrients.

And so you have to kind of replenish those nutrients.

You have to refertilize, you have to make sure you're getting enough water to the trees, all of those different factors.

But ultimately, any time you're planting any a tree in a confined space, it has the potential to reduce the overall size of the tree where that species may generally get to be two to 300 feet in some cases.

It may only get to be 60 or 70 feet because it just doesn't have the space to lay the root system to get the water to get the nutrients to support it so that it can get higher into the winds and all of those other little things.

Um, so it's just a matter of how long can we get it through those conditions?

I can't tell you because every tree is different, every planter is different, every situation is going to be different.

I can't give you any more guidance than that.

Okay, thank you.

There's no evidence of that root circling that we could see.

We did not do any significant excavations to where we could determine that, but no, right around the root collar, we did not find any circling roots.

Okay, thank you.

Um, one of the solutions suggested was extensive root pruning to help uh or even trenching, which we didn't talk too much about.

Um it sounds like it's so extensive it might impact the health or the stability of the tree.

Um any insight on how much is needed.

Sure.

So what our recommendation would be is to come in between the walkway and the unit itself.

There was a small planter there.

Obviously, there's plants, everything else that may have to be sacrificed to accomplish this.

Um, but what that would be our recommendation is pick a spot, you know, 12 inches to 24 inches away from the foundation and do either a hydro excavation or an aerial spade excavation that allows you to remove all of the soils and everything else, the rocks, etc., while maintaining those roots in place.

You're able to kind of work around those.

Once we get a look at all of those roots and how big they are, how extensive that may be, where we're fairly confident now because we're really close to that foundation, we're fairly confident that we can identify how many roots are going under there.

It gives us a much better opportunity to identify the potential impacts.

The real concern for me generally, in my practice, my experience has said 30% is typically okay.

When we're at 30% or so, that's going to be okay to root prune.

When we start to cross over to 40, when we start to get to 50% or more of the root system, I start to get concerned.

I start to worry not just about the health of the tree, but the structure of the tree.

Again, structure on this one, there's not a lot of other trees of equivalent size directly adjacent as they kind of presented.

Um, so there is going to be a little bit more wind sail effect on that.

Um, I would simply say, I'm trying to get my bearings on this one.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Um, ultimately, the majority of our winter storms, et cetera, tend to shift the winds where a tree is growing with most of the winds coming off of the bay from the north to the south on a daily basis.

When our storms come in, that flips it around and it sends it the other way.

If we're root pruning on the side closer to the house, I think that is more beneficial.

It's still not an exact um because that is more of a northern exposure that the winds coming from the south are going to be fighting over the roots that are still intact that aren't root pruned that aren't problematic.

Doesn't mean we get a strong north wind, it's not gonna knock them over or otherwise.

But again, without that excavation, I just can't make that determination.

I just don't know.

Um, just a quick follow-up.

If they're prune on the north side, the south side is facing that retaining wall.

So theoretically, wouldn't the roots start to try to grow more towards the retaining wall?

So there's retaining walls on both sides.

Yeah, thinking the one that faces the neighboring property.

So ultimately, your question is if we root prune on the opposite that side.

Does it compensate by going first time the other direction?

Yes, to some extent, it will promote more root growth on that side of the tree to try and compensate, but it will also start to form new root growth where we root prune.

It will start to put out new roots there.

Very subjective as to how much it does and how well it does and all of those other things.

But the feeling is is that once you excavate, if we'd make that determination that we feel comfortable that the tree can stand, you could put a root barrier in there that's gonna buy you additional time for any of those new roots that grow that they're not gonna be as quick to get under the foundation.

Root barriers are not perfect, they're not an absolute solution.

But what I have found in my experience, once the tree root hits that barrier, it either goes left or right, first and foremost.

Occasionally, they'll actually go up over the top of the barrier if it doesn't have a good inch or two inch above ground.

Trees are resourceful, they're gonna go over the top, but most frequently, if they're not going left or right, they're just gonna go under the barrier and then start to resurface again.

So it's not truly going to solve the problem by putting in a barrier.

So I don't always recommend the use of barriers.

Um, but again, there are other things that could be considered that would potentially buy additional time.

Okay, great.

Thank you so much.

Just I think one quick question for the appellants.

Has any other unit in the in the HOA, especially in the adjacent in that actual building, the same building reported any kind of damage in their foundation or any kind of cracking or other issues.

Yes.

This fellow was here because he has a similar situation with redwood trees planted too close to the unit, but you know, back in the day, probably looked okay.

So not and we have one other one other unit where uh I don't know if you know Catherine Nagel from Aeschylus, but she looked at his tree, and uh she said your tree, your Redwood tree is causing raking havoc on your unit.

So we've got two people in line to uh potentially come back and ask make make the same request, a similar request.

Not in the same, so there's been not on the same unit.

No, there's been no other reports of cracking in the units down this way.

There's about a dozen buildings, these would be another building.

So it's only the buildings that have the tree.

Okay, thank you.

Oh, thank you.

Any questions on this side?

I've got a few, but would you like to just win over?

Okay, uh, just um some clarification.

A couple times foundation damage was mentioned.

Are we using slab and foundation interchangeably?

Yes, correct.

Okay, there's not a okay.

Sorry, um, yeah, it's not a pure post or anything along those lines, it's a solid slab foundation.

Okay, um so I noticed in the uh I guess the original pack at the contractor and the details of rebuilding the slab, and they put in reinforcement.

The photographs of the existing condition show what looks to be a pretty big slab.

I would say three inches, maybe it's four, but it's a thin pore at that.

And it doesn't appear that it was built with any um reinforcement, welded wire mesh or rebar.

Is that might correct in that?

Or as far as the V building, I wasn't there when they it was excavated, the slab was cut or reported.

Uh so I don't know.

My guess would be pictures that show the the cut.

My guess would be four inches, whether we reinforce it, I don't know.

Yeah, you know, I don't see I don't see pictures of rebar in there.

I didn't see it when in the pieces of concrete.

I can't comment 100%.

But what you're saying, yes, I I didn't see the rebar.

But the uh replacement slab is reinforced.

I wasn't there for that part of it.

Yeah, but the uh seat it should be up for the recharged for the cycle of those remote for it.

Well, we all be out of money's worth.

So uh I would assume reinforced concrete would hold up better than unreinforced concrete.

Potentially, potentially was there any kind of geotechnical information available?

Um like uh resistor graph, sonar, what are you soil?

So, in my own experience, my own house with expansive play soils and water is the primary cause for this kind of damage.

So this is really a drainage and water issue as much as it is a tree issue.

And um, I would hope that somebody did the geotechnical work and came up with the appropriate uh suggestions of some pump frame, frame things like that, because it looks to me like that's a real issue here.

Um all the pictures with the tape measure on them show three or four-inch roots.

Did you see any evidence of the this bundled root falls or where he was talking about a rejoining and grafting and so forth?

Yeah, no, again, we were not present for any of the excavation or otherwise.

Did you see the rotate pictures of those?

Yeah, we didn't.

I cut some of those off, they were large pieces.

And if you go to the picture in the report, you can see three roots coming together and starting to do that.

And in the report picture, you see three roots, and if they're each four inches, they've added up to 12 inches real quick from the entry point, and they made their way all the way to the kitchen.

So and we're only doing a snapshot.

This is only a snapshot of what we could jack hammer or what they jackhammered out, could be much worse, especially in the garage.

Can I give you some additional data?

If it's an answer to that question, yes, it is.

So he's talking about the root.

I'll talk about the concrete.

When I went in there pre-excavation, the concrete floor was severely deflected, and I we put a level on it, it was in the realm of three or four degrees.

And all I know is I remember this is we took she had a ball and we put it at one end of the living room by the sliding glass door, and it just rolled right to her front door.

This is a question about the roots.

I mean, well, yeah, but it's it addresses deflection of the floor as a consequence of I think most.

So the oldest and the peach were part of this, and they're gone or beach was not, I don't believe.

But the alder was, yes, absolutely.

And that was removed.

That one was removed.

That one was in a state of decline that was probably 80 to 90% dead.

Was it a heritage tree?

I believe so, yes.

So I think I I don't think there was, I think everything else was under the permit size, and the alder was crispy dead, so its roots weren't it.

It was out competed by the red list.

Sir, would um I I can kind of see another garage, but not really uh is there any evidence of cracking in the garage floor?

Uh I didn't say pictures, but they yes, there there is in the driveway, definitely leading up to the garage in the garage.

On the left side of the photo, it's it's the exit from the garage is is cracked also.

Um that's it.

Thank you.

Brian, do you have a new question?

Yes, so um you you're talking about a planter box, but would when I looked at it, it looked like two walls, and then to the street and to the back, it looked open.

So to me, it looked like uh the concept of a planter box rather than actually plant a box.

Uh and I I had a question that that completely uh was basically the same as as uh Commissioner Davis.

Uh to me, I I was very impressed by the concept of the house both.

Um so much water in the soil.

Uh I I would think that that has to has to uh affect the flooring and the slab and everything that's sitting on it.

You you did not see that because you did not check the soil, basically visually there's no standing water, but there is there seems to be water, the soil seems to be wet somewhere.

I I would say when we visited the tree, there was never an instance where we saw large puddles or otherwise standing water, but there absolutely were smaller ones.

Can't say that that's because irrigation ran an hour before we got there or it ran a week before we got there.

I we just don't know.

There was some very minor standing water when we visited the tree, is all I think.

Um so I'm I'm I'm a curious.

Um was all this information about the the roots and the damage to the kitchen floor, was that disclosed when the unit was bought?

It it was disclosed to us that HOA was in motion to file for permit to removal.

Um, and that um looking at the uh receipts of the damage that was done, it was uh I felt confident that the removal would be successful.

Um the board has to look at things holistically, so at this point, you have you your unit is okay, you don't have uh kitchen floor that doesn't exist.

Uh correct, because that was replaced back in August, I believe, summer of 2025.

So she did 20,000 worth of work to basically address all the the uh deflection issues.

So it has been less than a year, and uh what I noticed was that uh by the planter, if you don't mind bringing up uh slide one uh of the entryway, you see the roots underneath the step uh already, and that uh the concrete step was lifting up already uh in that same direction to uh commissioner, your point question earlier about the garage that leads right to the garage, and that's where my electric panel is.

Um that's where my uh main electrical line is and my sewage line is so um for me, I I have a safety concern um of that existing what's left over uh of the roots.

Thank you.

Yeah, okay.

So I have a few questions.

So first question, this is a legal legal question.

So the the whole reasonable and conforming use is always kind of a nebulous concept to me.

Um so I'm just would the ability to have a level living room floor and a kitchen floor that's not subject to uplifting qualify as reasonable and conforming use of the properties.

Well, as far as the conforming use, I mean that just means it complies with zoning regulations.

Uh you know, reasonable use of the property is just can you you use it and function in it?

Okay, because I think the the remainder of that sentence has to do with in comparison with other similar properties or something.

Um I'm just the the staff report actually, I I think there was a place where it said you know that the roots were not the necessarily the primary cause of the damage to the foundation.

I I realize it's speculation, but but if it if it's not the roots, what might have caused the sort of described level of of damage to the foundation?

So so ultimately where we go with that is similar to kind of what we've talked about, that the expansive soils that we have in the Bay Area that have clay, etc.

Will expand and contract over time, and sometimes that will lead to issues with foundations above and beyond that.

I don't ever want to throw a contractor under the bus, but not everybody builds everything to spec or standard, and they will cut corners occasionally, and I can't say if that was the case here or not.

But those would be the two primary other factors that I have run into.

And I don't build a lot, but I if there's no rebar, that would probably also be a problem.

Um just a question if I'll start with you, and then maybe I'll have the Arborist also answer just to have if if tree number two were removed, how might tree number one react?

Would it remain healthy?

Um would its canopy grow to sort of fill some of the area that's currently filled by tree number two.

Um, because there is some overlap with the trees, but and you know, with the roots, would the roots from number two still be vibrant enough to support tree number?

I'm sorry, would tree number one's roots still be developed enough to support tree number one if even if there was some intermingling of roots and stuff like that.

Sure.

So my general belief would be that yes, you could remove one and the other tree would survive and I don't want to say thrive, but ultimately I don't think it would be a big issue that perhaps it would have some stress, it could have some other challenges in initial response.

That really is dependent upon.

Here's the other challenge with this.

You take that other tree down, how far are you going to grind it down?

You can't leave it a stump because ultimately redwood trees will re-sprout.

He'll have 20 trees instead of two trees.

So the stump would have to be dealt with.

Then it's a question of how deep are you going to get that to prevent the resprout without damaging too much of the other root system?

But my general belief would be absolutely you could do that, and that other tree would be okay.

Um, absolutely the response would be it would take advantage of that additional space, it would grow bigger, it would grow more canopy, which would result in more root growth down at the bottom that ultimately is required to kind of feed all of that growth, et cetera.

And so it might be counterproductive to take one because it may cause the other one to kind of accelerate and compensate.

Even if you took the one that was further, if you left the one that was further away from the main part of the house, like tree number one is further from right, 11 feet according to theirs.

Yeah, although it's 11 feet to probably the garage, not to the to the house.

Not that I don't worry about garages, but it's not living space, the corner of the porch.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Through the root systems or otherwise, they take advantage of that and they do prove that's one of the things we've learned in the last 10 or 15 years.

So I'll just go to the can.

Do you have any further comments on one tree without the other?

Or uh like I said before, the root system, you put it in a three-wall planner bed, so you've confined it.

It has three walls around it, one wall is cracked in buckling, they've grown under the other wall, the roots have fused together.

So you might cut the tree, but you're not going to cut its roots, it's already fused together for 40, 50 years.

So I don't see it as a long-term solution.

Okay.

Um so Ken, sticking with you, um there were three recommendations in the in the report.

Were those in priority order or random order?

And I assume that the third one is the last priority.

So I I mean, you listed pruning mitigation.

You listed getting rid of the trees and then you listed do nothing.

And accepting future damage.

Yeah, was that the order that you would do it in?

The order of it's the order of logic and it's uh ethical order too, as far as cost and costs involved and the residual risk involved.

So, yes, that's the preferred orders.

Um, you did the you did the excavation and stuff like that?

They did the jackhammering.

I was there with them and cut the roots.

Do you think you got it all?

So do you know?

As I said before, it's just a spot check of the interior.

It's coming around from the south and west side.

We just did a check where the cracks were to your case.

We started where the cracks were, and that's where that straight line is.

That's directly under the cracks.

That's where the roots were lifting, which could be an inferior slab.

I understand that point.

That is it, but that's directly where the roots were.

We started there because we wanted to just do that, and then it kept going and going.

And we we did the perimeter on the inside, but it's only a sample.

Okay, thanks.

Um you described an exc uh uh um excavation process.

How much how much would something like that cost?

It depends on the extent of it, but I'm going to estimate if we were to do a lung from the front of the garage, not counting the driveway, front of the garage, to at least half three quarters, if not all the way along the frontage of that home along the trees.

Anywhere from between three and six thousand dollars, it would be reasonable.

It might even go as high as 10.

And that's just the excavation, then there would be work potentially on top of that.

That that would include excavating, cutting the roots if that was approved and backfilling.

All right.

Uh, I think that's it for my questions.

Um other questions before we all right.

Um we'll now go back to uh to uh oh actually sorry, uh public comment.

Is there see if she she wants to come?

Uh is there any public comment?

Go ahead.

I will try to state your name even though we sort of I will turn in a card uh later.

Uh my name is Bill Lambert.

I'm a resident of the Monoloma neighborhood, and I'm speaking as our president of Monoloma.

Um I think the commissioners uh asked some very, very good questions about this.

Uh I as you know, I've been to a lot of these heritage tree removal uh presentations.

One thing I'm struck at the pictures here.

I've never seen so many surface roots around a redwood tree.

Um in a lot of these pictures.

I mean, we see raised uh concrete and things like this, but here we see very extensive um surface roots.

So I think a lot of the questions appear to be directed that there's a lot more going on than just these trees that um you know, we're talking about uh sort of ground and drainage and the type of soil underneath.

Uh, this is about parallel to the Monoloma neighborhood where I live, uh sort of north of the berm where the railroad track is.

You know, this historically was all the the bay at one time.

And after the bay you know, sort of receded, there were also very uh sort of almost lakes and and and willow marshes in a lot of areas.

The soil is very different here than it is, let's say in the Questa Park area, things like this.

So I can understand how the drainage and things like this with construction next to the freeway here.

Uh um could be very much different than it is in a lot of areas.

So I sort of I think I agree with many of you that it looks like there's a lot of things going on here, rather than just threes that are causing significant damage to uh foundation thick or thin, uh reinforced or not.

Um it's still causing uh damage.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Anyone else uh public comment?

Allison, anyone online?

All right, I will close public comment and we'll go back to staff for uh final two-minute sure.

I again I would just reiterate that there are in our opinion, there are a lot of factors.

It doesn't discount the fact that the roots may be causing damage.

There may be more that need to be addressed, but ultimately our belief is is that we need to spl explore some of those options before we finally say yes, that tree has to be removed.

Thank you.

Two minutes for the appellate, and you can allocate time, however you choose.

Sure.

Uh I'll start by saying I appreciate the inquisitive nature of the board.

Um that you guys are looking at the problem holistically.

Uh I would just keep it to two points.

Uh one would be um the possibility of exploring uh extensive root pruning.

Uh I was genuinely curious to explore that option.

Uh so I reached out to four different contractors.

So I reached out to four different contractors.

Davy, uh Barlett, uh Monin Tree, one of your tree services.

All of them came out verbally recommended to remove the tree, but they wouldn't put up paper on SIK for Arbor's report.

Um looking at the trenching option, uh one declined to do the work, two was telling me that the risk for uh excavating and opening it up was too high that the tree might top all over.

So if you imagine a tree planting on top of the plant bed, and this is the ground, and we're excavating further, we're looking at one feet with two feet, and we're limited to how wide the walkway is.

So with that said, they declined to take on that liability.

So if we do proceed down the the exhibition uh step, um I'm gonna have a hard time finding a contractor to do it.

That's locally and within reasonable costs.

Um the second point I want to point out is displacement.

Uh we have a four-month-old baby.

Uh, when we bought the house, we saw the exhibition.

Um, so that portion scares me.

Uming that the roots are already visible, making the walkway uh crack that leads to the garage where our electric panel is, our main condo is uh I I fear for safety that what if that disrupts the uh electric panel?

So those are my two points.

If I may, I realize I'm at the end of his time, but I have 30 seconds.

Give me 20.

Okay.

Um so the fundamental issue here is that the trees were planted too close to the house 40 years ago.

In terms of the HOA, the HOA would be more than happy to plant four new trees to replace these two.

They're great trees, they're beautiful trees.

Um it's sad that they would have to go, but there's a lot of reasons for them to go.

We're happy to plant as many trees as the city would like us to plant.

Up to you know, four.

Great.

Thank you.

Just I know we we're done with it.

What is your position just?

I'm the property manager.

Okay, great.

The board asked me to be here.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Uh we'll bring it back to the commission.

Uh we'll see.

I'll I'll wait in.

Okay.

No, you're done.

No, sorry.

Um I don't disagree that this is the wrong place to plant redwoods.

You know, fine clock back.

I mean, I used to work for landscape architecture firms and you know, fairly there was one firm that always did this.

And the redwood trees were just really close to the the building.

Um I'm just this is a brain dump now.

I don't really have a coherent position, but uh, I was uh intrigued by Russell's um staff's thinking about buying time.

Do we get five or ten more years out of a decision?

Um that's something that I think factors in here.

Uh one thing that I'm very concerned about is the precedent because there's a lot of redwood trees.

The other side of this development.

Oh my god, there are two feet from the building.

We think this is bad.

We're gonna have sounds like those folks are cued up.

Um definitely listened carefully to the case for removal.

Um this is about a severe situation that I've seen while I've been on this board, and I also have experience in living with a redwood tree that was probably about 15 feet from my house.

Um that you know, in that case, that tree did not have this many surface roots.

So I think there's something going on here that is preventing the roots from growing down where they want to be.

Whatever it was, they're now up in there, up in the building area.

Um in my mind, it probably had more to do with water than anything, whether it's you know, shallow aquifer, place soil, who knows, right?

We just don't have any information.

But to me, I was very curious why the wall itself is not damaged because usually when you have that kind of you know, exploding at the seams thing, the walls crack, they start to tip over, and I can't figure that out.

Um, I think there's a question about how far do we want to go to keep a tree?

Um, or two trees.

I remember uh situation from a couple years ago where fairly large redwood.

This was in shoreline west, so you know my in my neighborhood.

Um pretty close to the house, it's kind of an old structure, hard to tell what was going on.

We required them to keep the tree.

Um we just kind of need more information.

Um I think if we do decide to permit the removal or uh deny the removal, uh you know, deny the appeal, agree with staff's recommendation, we should do it without prejudice so that they could return if they do some of the uh investigative work that staff's recommending.

You know, we don't want to keep them away for a year if we have good information that is coming out.

Um I could I could agree to moving uh to removing tree number two.

If I I'm not getting the sense that the experts think that would really solve the problem though, so we scratched my head.

Uh Russell mentioned that the tree number one closer to the street would likely survive, but it might cause a growth spurt, and you know, I need to be faced with the same problem in five to ten years.

Well, then we would have gained five to ten years.

So I'd like to hear what everyone else is thinking about.

This is definitely a head scratcher and more into a lot of discussion.

Thank you.

Sure, all of them although I agree with everything uh commissioner summer has said.

Uh especially looking around the development.

Um these trees are relatively far compared to other trees that I saw there.

And uh it's actually a frustration.

We have had any number of times on the PRC, where A, redwoods shouldn't have been planted, B, they shouldn't have been planted so close, and C, nobody thinks how big these things should get.

Uh, but they're there, and we are you're stuck with them, and and we as a city are stuck with them.

And the question is, what now?

Do we just clear cut basically the whole city because most of the trees, the native trees we have we have already trees, and uh and and in um in in to me the question of of the the soil and the water I I have really questions about whether if even those red woods were taken out, whether that would actually resolve the problems of the soil and and the shifting of the soil and what happens to the foundation.

Uh I I don't find I don't find taking out one tree a particularly attractive solution.

I think the other tree will grow larger or maybe die.

I I don't think there were because of the trees are so close to each other, the roots are conjoined.

Um I I don't think that's that's a solution small making us feel that we're doing something, and one would like to be helpful, but I don't know really what the helpful what would be helpful here.

Uh the thought of doing some more investigation, and certainly if the situation changes, of course, uh staff and the PRC should look at it again.

I think the the root pruning seems to be a way to get more information to get clear idea, but both the root pruning and maybe also an analysis of the soil and seeing what is happening with the soil and is that shifting.

Is that what is mainly causing uh or cost in the past um the problems with the soil with the foundation would be kind of the direction I'd be inclined to go in?

I support the staff recommendation further.

Uh I think I think you take two trees out, you still got a big problem, or you have other things to address to resolve the problem.

So I don't think taking out the trees is an answer.

It's not a complete answer anyway.

So I support the staff recommendation.

Um all the PRC meetings, even before my time, um, this one feels like one of the more complicated ones.

Of all the PRC meetings, even before my time, this one feels like one of the more complicated ones.

So with that, I'll probably do a brain dump as well.

Thinking a lot about the soil issue and potential standing water issue.

That's why I asked the question are other pro other units in this little part of the complex or any other part of the complex facing it.

And seems like the answer is no.

So I think the trees play a contributing factor in some way or another, or the planting bed itself might have something to do with how the area was graded.

I don't know.

I think they're conflicting.

I wish we could unline time too and make better decisions and be looking at beautiful or other beautiful trees that are doing wonderfully today and not be here today.

There's a lot of sense in having some additional work done, um, doing some trenching, looking at the roots, considering extensive root pruning.

But what I'm hearing is there's nobody willing to do that work.

So I'm very concerned what we're leaving the applicant with.

If we say we'll go do some additional work, come back to us if you find something new to tell us.

But there's nobody to do that work because of the potential risks involved.

So I would probably lean that direction if I thought it was viable.

I'm not sure.

Um, I would also be willing to consider discussing the removal of tree number two.

Um, but again, I'm not 100% sure that's the answer.

So that's where my thought process is right now.

So let me just ask a quick question before I get into my excavation work that you suggest.

Would the city ever do that for a charge?

Typically not on private property, no.

Okay.

But since you asked the question, I'm going to take the opportunity to say there's little to no risk to do the excavation as long as you leave the root system intact.

And that's what we're proposing by doing the air excavation or the hydro excavation, is you're leaving those roots intact.

So there's no real increased risk until you start cutting those roots or you start doing additional work.

And so I will just say I would be fairly confident that I could work with the property owner and try and identify a contractor that it would at least do the excavation.

Thank you.

That's great.

That's that's helpful.

Um getting to my thought, you know, again, these are these are mature redwood trees.

I think they're you know, if visibly they're they're beautiful, um, they're lush, um, seem quite healthy.

Um, you know, specifically in this case, we're looking at redwoods, which fall into a special mountain view uh protective category for only 12 inches of circumference is needed to be a heritage tree rather than um 48 or 54.

Um anyway, um, and these are these are over a hundred.

Um the city code, you know, which we try to follow pretty carefully, uh, specifies that a single removal criteria is just a minimum, and that additional criteria shall be considered and rendering this decision with the emphasis on preserving heritage trees.

Um, staff per their report um believes that pruning the surface roots near the front of the entryway would reduce the possibility of future damage.

Um it would be likely safe for the tree given the smaller size of those roots and the distance from the the tree trunks and uh staff is also offered now to help locate a uh an excavator if if if if necessary.

Um so anyway, if if there were additional root pruning, I get that would supplement the internal root pruning that was done at the time of replacing this the slab.

Um the arborist report lists extensive root pruning as the first recommendation, and um I was assuming that that the recommendations were in the order in priority order, and and that was confirmed.

Um this is a hard one, you know, because so much has to do with what's happening underground.

And we and we just don't we don't know.

Um I totally sympathize with with the property owner.

Um to me, damage to the internal slab of a home is quite different from damage to a driveway or walkway or even the corner of a garage.

Um but at this point, it seems like attempting the mitigations would be a reasonable step before pursuing removal of the trees.

Um because at the current time with the pruning that's already been done indoors under the slab, and with other mitigations possible, the removal criteria, I don't think are are sufficiently met when you look at the current step state of affairs, at least with the roots and the soil is again that's that's something not only nobody's even looked at that yet.

So that's that's also an unknown.

Um so again, you know, we're tasked with preservation if possible.

Um seems like there might be some steps um before we we remove so I'm I'm I'm probably gonna side with denying the appeal.

Um I did have in my notes that that I would be open to to removal of tree number two only.

Um that was what I came to this meeting thinking.

Um, but it sounds like that that may not be a great um alternative just because of the intermingling of the the roof.

So I I don't know about that.

Um but I would I will say that you know after root pruning mitigation, if if that was the path that we went on, if there were future slab foundation damage, you know, I would I would certainly support uh removal of the trees or the tree uh causing the damage because you just can't keep keep going through it, but hopefully that there's maybe some soil investigation as well.

Um that's those are my thoughts.

So I don't know if there are other motion or if there's a motion or people want to talk a little bit more.

We can do talk more.

Well, I uh since I started I'll I'll just say you know, I think we everyone raised some really good points and um you know quite due fully that we all have sympathy for the property owner.

Um I'm ready to move forward um on the staff recommendation myself.

Sounds like you're itching to make a motion.

Do you want to I can't if you'd like unless you uh second?

I'll uh move to adopt a resolution of the urban forestry board of the city of Mount View to deny the appeal and uphold the staff decision and deny the removal of two heritage trees at one three nine eighty street to be led title only further reading wave.

Second, yes, yes, commissioner slavery, yes, Ms.

Chair Summit, yes, yes.

Thank you all.

Um and again, if if if you need help finding somebody to we're gonna take thank you all for me, I'm being asked to take our so much thought.

Let's do a five minute I was about to five minutes break uh what's our official uh miss flyn't what's what do we like uh eight fifth description eight fifteen I'll come back at eight fifteen?

Thank you very much.

I'm gonna watch it for property.

Thank you.

I are referring to this.

All right.

Allison, you're ready.

Um, we're just testing to make sure.

These are ready, I'm not.

All right, we're going to resume our uh parson rec meeting.

We are on item number five point three, Shoreline Projects Update.

This is an information only uh item.

There will be no vote or anything like that.

And I'm going to turn it over to Shoreline Manager Brady Rebush to lead the presentation.

Thank you, Chair.

Yeah, so uh after one of my uh one on ones with Brenda, uh, she looked at me and said, We should probably let people know everything that's happening out here.

So this is really just to kind of show you guys what we've had going on, um, what projects have been recently recently completed, projects that are in design, projects that are in construction, um, a couple of our volunteer projects, and then a last slide that is like a data dump of kind of more North Bay shore collaborative projects and all of that.

So I'll be taking questions if you want to.

I know you're not supposed to ask questions throughout, but if while I got the slide up on point at the map, feel free to for any clarifications.

Um yeah, so this is really just to give you an idea.

We have a lot of capital projects going on in the North Bay shore and out at shoreline.

So everything you're going to see is considered a capital project, not part of our O and M.

So this isn't landfill cap repairs, sewer lines, stuff like that.

This is really a major infrastructure improvements with a few paving projects thrown in there so that I can update you on kind of how that affected operations.

So first we're going to start with uh completed projects.

So we recently finished the Fire Station Five classroom.

So if you let me see, is my mouse on the screen?

Can you guys see that?

So this is lot A and B in Shoreline.

This is Crittenden Hill.

This is where the fire station is, right at the corner of Crittenden and Shoreline.

And so we uh just finished a new classroom and training facility there, uh primarily used by our public safety department.

Um and so uh not a huge thing for the public necessarily, but it required a lot of coordination, especially with the additional items we have going on in lot B, uh, which I'll get to later.

Um, and then on the other side, we have a roadway improvement.

Uh so we repave the entrance to shoreline, uh the entrance exit road, and then we also repaved Crittenden Lane.

Um, this was quite the undertaking, even though it was just a pavement project, because to get the best pavement, you have to do it in the warm months when the warm months happen to be our busiest time out there.

So we had concerts with Live Nation.

We still had dirt hauling for the Pond A2W project.

And so there was actually a whole lot of group coordination, contractor coordination, staff coordination to get the paving done.

So I know it's just paving, but we wanted to highlight it because it was quite an undertaking.

I'll say for those of you that had exited Shoreline Park over the last couple of years, there was continued settlement, and off on the right hand side, there was a big near a manhole, and now it is really great.

Our streets department did wonderful job.

I just drove out there today, and every time I go by, I think I don't have to miss the manual cover.

Um yeah, and we actually uh our streets group also did a few uh cut and repairs along exit road, so that kind of was a brand new look and feel driving out so that you didn't have that.

So uh it was an awesome coordinated effort.

Um at the risk you did say we could just ask questions.

I I'm fine with it.

I don't know if it's protocol, but just asking.

I think since we're not taking a vote, I you know, it's more informational.

Do it just um so if you could go back to the first slide.

Just while you have this up there, I thought I saw there was there's a recent council um item about additional RV parking space.

Sure, you're getting ahead of me.

Yeah, I got you on a later slide.

No, I I can I don't have a photo for it, it's on my data dump slide.

So basically what you see down here.

So this is the safe parking program.

Um we are partnering with the county, and then the county uh has hired a nonprofit to run it.

Um and so what you see down here is phase one, which is complete.

My mouse keeps disappearing.

Um there we go.

So what you see down here is uh phase one.

Uh so we were just approved for funding and for uh expansion for phase two.

So phase two is going to go.

That's the only problem with presentation mode.

Um phase two is gonna basically go halfway down the parking lot.

Um, and we're gonna be making improvements to the parking lot uh in order to support the RBs.

And then uh there was also some permitting stuff that had to get figured out because they're gonna put in a uh temporary like shed essentially in terms of size shape and what it is for the uh staff that are uh overseeing the site to have a facility to be at.

Um and then phase three will actually extend pretty much to the northern side of that parking lot.

So that entire right side.

All of lot B will essentially be safe parking.

Um we're not going necessarily uh grass to grass, but uh lot B will not have any other uses in it other than uh the safe parking program.

We currently uh, although we've really reduced it, we did use it for uh vehicle testing for uh rentals.

Uh we use lot A for that as well.

Live Nation also still uses it for concerts.

Um and so those will be the and then our staff actually uh use it for vehicle training.

So for uh class A licenses, uh PD uses it for vehicle testing uh for vehicle training, and so does uh the fire department.

So those will be the primary impacts to the use of it uh going forward.

Biggest one probably being or is live nation and their use of it for the concerts.

But um, yeah, I we're gonna be expanding it.

I don't want to misquote the number, but I believe we're essentially gonna be doubling what's already there.

Uh the main impetus for this is the Edelin safe parking lot is closing because they're going to be actually building affordable housing there.

And so we wanted to have this site so that we can move the uh RBs that are there out to here before they close that to build the affordable housing.

Just as an anecdote.

When I was teaching my kids to drive, that's where we did our vehicle training as well.

I'm guessing you didn't get a permit before you went out there and used.

It was, I mean, it was 15 years ago.

And I was probably on the other side, if I set up cones and it was a good place.

Yeah, we uh we run into that fairly frequently.

Um there's a lot of people out there uh and it's not the uh biggest problem in the world except when we have uh vehicle testers out there and they're super worried about all of their proprietary information getting out early for all their autonomous vehicles, and then we have to respond and address it.

Um, but no, uh yeah.

So um we're gonna we're working with our streets team, they're gonna be making the improvements to lot B and we're helping them with coordinating with Live Nation because Google IO will be occurring again this year.

Um, and they use all uh five of our parking lots out there, lot A, B, C, D, and E.

And so we're coordinating around that puzzle.

So those parking lots already like paved over, or are they uh going to have to pave over some great question?

So um these two parking lots.

Uh so we have lot C and lot D, which are in the bowl and next to the uh amphitheater, those are paved.

Lot E is to the north, the top of this picture.

That's our dirt lot.

And then uh these two lot A and lot B are a slurry gravel.

Um we believe that there's actually about two, three feet of slurry gravel, and then underneath that it actually is paved.

Um, but uh they are not going to fully pave over it.

Um they, if you go out and look at uh the current safe parking site, it is like a slurry gravel seal.

Um, and so they're gonna do something like that.

They may have to put in concrete here or there uh for like the um judge structure or something like that, but we're working closely with them, but it won't they won't become fully paved.

South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project.

So this was a huge undertaking.

Uh this actually started when John was in my position.

So when I just started your position.

So long time ago.

And um, and uh it was a combined effort.

So US Fish and Wildlife and the Coastal Conservancy and a whole host of other agencies um are doing a South Bay Salt Pond project, which is restoring a number of former salt ponds to salt marsh uh saltwater marsh habitat uh along the uh edge of the bay.

And so they go in and basically build a transition zone using a whole lot of dirt, and then they breach the levees in the salt ponds and it becomes national tidal flow.

Um, as part of that project, the city uh had a portion of it right along the edge to do sea level rise.

Um and so there's was a city sea level rise component, a city uh stormwater uh overflow component.

Uh and then we got some of the trail redone, and then they did their transition zone.

They also built a new song sparrow trail that goes right off the end of Stevens Creek Trail out into the bay.

And then we also uh installed Habitat Island.

Well, we uh they installed Habitat Islands in Pond A2W.

So we have more island habitat now around shoreline, which is exciting.

Um, and so this project is essentially done.

The city parts are all done.

There's still some ONN stuff.

They're gonna do some volunteer projects out there with plantings for the salt marsh uh habitat.

Um, but we we've taken the contractors' gates or locks off the gate and consider it done.

But there's still some little OM stuff we're gonna be doing.

But this was a huge undertaking.

It had a lot of uh impacts on shoreline, the uh contractor and uh Ducks Unlimited and the US Fish and Wildlife and the project team all worked really great with the City of Mountain View.

They're they're a pleasure to work with because this this was a huge undertaking.

We're really excited about this project.

Yeah.

Um so going back, we did start working and talking about this project back in 2009, is how far back this goes.

Um if you recall, there are some summers specifically like August, September, where the bay would actually smell really bad and it would waft into into town.

This project will eliminate that happening in the future.

Um with the the tidal flow, now that they have um breached the the levee, there's enough water flow that um it's gonna keep the water quality high enough.

Yeah, that um hopefully we'll never have to deal with that again because there were there were some years it got really bad, um just depending on the temperatures and what was happening.

Now I have to show you all the other places that still smell.

No.

Ready, what's the public accessibility status here?

Can you on the east side?

Is that trail?

Yes.

It's the mouse back.

All right, I got the mouse back.

So basically, this is the uh Stevens Creek Trail coming up here.

This is the bay trail peels off.

There is a gate right here, and then there's a trail that goes up around this side of the levee up to about here.

They actually installed bridges over where they broke parts of the levee to create the natural tidal flow.

Um, and I there's some benches out there and some signage with information.

Um the big thing that we are figuring out operationally is that it is a different, different jurisdiction, and therefore a different set of rules for that trail.

And so if you are taking your dog on leash on the Stevens Creek Trail and get to that gate, you must turn around.

And so that's the thing we're working out right now, is the jurisdictional kind of rule changes for the general public.

But it is a super cool trail, and it's cool to go out there and be that far out.

Any new um view areas or infrastructure for not necessarily infrastructure, but there are some viewpoints out on the trail that they put in for that people can look at.

Um we didn't put in like scopes or anything like that.

Um, but uh there are some cool look little viewpoints that are out there on the trail.

Yeah, it's really worth it to go out there and check it out.

It's pretty cool.

And then on the right is the Moffat Ameswell connection.

Uh so we oversee the OM of the trail.

So there's gonna be a few trail projects sprinkled in here.

Um but uh this was a big undertaking, uh, a lot of impacts to the trail, a uh very very long detour route.

And so we were happy that we got this one done and we're able to open this up.

This connects to the new uh Ameswell Hotel, and um, we're excited about it because it gives us another access point for volunteers and stuff to have parking and be able to get on the trail.

So this actually really helps us out with getting our accessibility out there.

The North Bay Shore Reclaimed Water Reservoir at Charleston Park.

This came to the PRC previously, but this is to put in the new uh reservoir so that we have a backup plan if the plant in Palo Alto goes down.

So this will really help with the reliability and sustainability of the uh recycled water system out in the North Bay Shore.

Um, and then on the right, this is uh not probably a big deal to the public so much, but a huge deal to our operations.

We're gonna be doing uh improvements to our irrigation pump station.

So these two projects are in design.

Um sorry, I moved from finished to uh from finished projects to projects that are in design.

Um the irrigation pump station is gonna be getting new pumps, be on a new system, and we're just really excited about this.

So all of the irrigation for shoreline amphitheater and shoreline, including the golf course, flows through this building.

And so uh we actually pump reclaimed water into that irrigation pond that is on the golf course just to the north.

It is then pumped into this uh station where it's mixed in a wet well with domestic water, and then we distribute it out across the rest of shoreline.

That is a separate line than the rest of North Bay Shore.

So the recycled reservoir is going to really help with the rest of North Bay Shore.

The pump station upgrades are for me and my team selfishly.

So we're uh very excited about that one.

Um back nine golf course landfill gas collection system replacement and golf course renovation.

Uh we should add a shorter name.

This is uh a large undertaking.

So the uh landfill system on the back nine of the golf course basically needs a full uh retro upgrade renovation.

Um because we have to go through the full sequel process, and because there is going to be uh extensive construction going on, we're gonna take that opportunity to also redo the back nine of the golf course.

This also allows us to sync up the irrigation, the drainage, uh, the contours and the landfill system, which is really important.

Uh standing water on the landfill system is really bad for the cap.

So we don't want to have any puddling.

Um, so we're gonna be able to combine all of that together into one.

We are just starting the design process for this one though.

So this is probably still two, three years out.

It's gonna be a little while before there's any construction.

Um, we also expect the sequel process to potentially be very extensive for this one.

So um, but we're excited to have such a large project, be able to address the golf course and really fix an area of the landfill system that needs it.

So you just redid the green on number 12.

Re-redo the green.

Probably not.

Uh the intention is not to.

There's also not a ton of landfill infrastructure right next to that green.

So we're hoping to keep that green.

Um, it's more gonna depend on how creative we get with the layout of the course.

So we can't make a lot of changes to the golf course because of the landfill infrastructure.

Right now, the landfill infrastructure runs along the holes.

We don't want to put a well right underneath the green and then have to dig up the green every two years to fix it.

Um, so I don't think there'll be a lot of changes, but we've talked about like switching hole 10 and hole 18 so that you can see the T box for hole 10 from the Pro Shop in case we ever have to switch the front nine back nine.

And so all spaghetti against the wall and spitballing, like I said, we just started the design process.

But if we end up re-orienting the holes, then we might switch it.

That would probably be the only reason.

If hole 12 stays exactly where it is, we would not touch the green.

Robert Trent Jones.

It is Jones.

Yes.

The third second.

Who did the part nine previously, right?

But not the back nine.

He didn't.

I don't remember.

I'd have to go back and look.

Yeah.

I believe he did, I think original Robert Trent Jones did all of it.

And then we've been working with uh, yes, Trent is I believe he's the second.

Could be the third.

It could be the third.

The family.

I know he really wants to get his dad out here to see the course again and play with them.

So yeah, we're excited to get this one underway.

Like I said, there's a whole lot to figure out with this one.

We just are starting.

We just got all the contractors on board, subcontracts signed and all of that.

So are you gonna have like a temporary course layout-ish thing?

We will probably have to drop to a nine-hole course during that time, but that'll be all TBD, how we handle that, and we'll be coordinating with the golf course operator on that.

That'll be a couple years of construction.

Right.

It'll depend.

It'll depend on the changes.

Um, we're hoping it's not a couple years, but I I would be remiss if I knew the answer to that directly.

So yeah, again, through this process, we'll have to identify just how long it'll take to put in that new infrastructure for the landfill.

Um, and then come in and complete the job with the golf course.

Do you have a sense of how much revenue gets dropped or the city from?

I don't at this time.

I can look that up.

I I just don't, I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head.

But and I don't have to when you get through this process, we will be looking at that.

Yeah.

Um the time it's being closed down.

But it would be you're thinking you would shut down the whole nine holes as opposed to put in a temporary part three-ish, some little part three holes and stuff like that.

That is the plan, mostly one to speed up the work so that way the land, because one of the things with the landfill system is if we give them full access for their vehicles, then you know, if they're trying to work on hole 15 and they can drive across hole 13 and 14 first, it goes a lot quicker than if we make them drive on the car path and try to go around.

Um, so the idea is that the project will go quicker.

Um, the other side of that is is that due to our uh limited space, we don't really have any place to put a 19th hole or to kind of make it work while we're going.

And so it's been explored.

Uh, we pretty much have determined that we have room for one additional T box and not anything else.

So I can give you a third of a hole, but I can't give you a hole.

Um, and then shoreline golf links parking lot repaving.

Oh, yes.

I hate to do all this.

Do I assume the driving range remains open?

We are expecting it to.

It's gonna come down to when we get into the design and the construction if we need to close it.

The hope is uh because we recently redid the driving range, and there's technically not supposed to be a whole lot of landfill underneath that, but it's gonna come down to when they're assessing the landfill system where what they need to touch.

We're not planning on touching it as part of the renovation.

Um, but it'll come down if to if we have to get in there doing anything with the landfill system.

Um the parking lot repaving.

Uh, I put this one on here because it's one of our classic shoreline projects where it sounds like we're gonna come in and just pave and uh stripe, and it should be a rather quick project.

Um, it is over a thousand square feet, so it is triggering stormwater.

Uh state of California requires us to uh do stormwater mitigation for it.

So we're gonna have to do bio swells and other items.

Um, and as uh we just discussed, we don't have a whole lot of extra space to put anything new, so we have to get creative with that.

Um, we also are gonna be doing landfill repairs while we're doing it.

We also have the solar panels that are out there, and because shoreline is the age that it is, we also have to look at ADA improvements and making sure if we touch the parking lot, we have to look at ADA because we are on a landfill, very few things are flat, so we have to make sure that everything is synced back up.

And so it's one of those projects that uh a lot of people have been like, when are you guys gonna pave it?

I'm like, when I have enough money to do all of these things.

So we're uh figuring that out with our public works group now.

Uh shoreline cove and hill restoration.

Um, you guys may remember from a couple years ago, we did the new dock project.

We dredged, we put in all the erosion control over there.

This is kind of the last piece of that.

So uh where all the dirt is up top, uh it's in conjunction with the um scal project, which I'll get to on in a later slide, uh, is gonna be just uh finishing off the erosion control.

And so we'll be uh putting in some grasses, we're doing irrigation, doing some leveling out of the dirt, uh, and um basically just restoring it so it doesn't be an uneven dirt that blows into the lake.

And so um, but because there is those uh earth work uh considerations, and because we're looking at irrigation and drainage issues and the drainage had to be analyzed with the recent irrigation control, our public works group is involved, and it's a capital project.

Um Sailing Lake Island Restoration.

I don't plan to spend too much time on since we've already covered that with the PRC, but uh that is moving along.

We on my last slide, uh we are gonna move forward with the water control structure portion first.

So you may remember that when that Raymond Wong brought that to you, there were the design of the island as part of a greater water control structure uh design and that does the inlet and outlet of the lake, the tide gate up at the uh out of the bay, and a few other improvements.

And so we're gonna move forward with that first.

Uh, we received some uh federal funding for that, so we kind of need to move on that while we got the money.

Um, but also that'll make sure that the lake is in good condition when we go in and actually address the island and make those improvements.

And we feel a little bit better about it since we have uh the new islands that got put in with the Pond A2W uh project.

So we do have more island habitat around Shoreline.

Uh our public works department is starting the process to uh update their shoreline landfill master plan, uh, which is a plan, so it shouldn't uh have any construction as part of it, as far as I know.

But one of the things that we are addressing that affects our world is uh they're looking at the shoreline athletic field.

Um we've noticed over the last 12 to 18 months a uh a speed up in the uh settlement of the uh field, and so the field's getting a little more uneven.

Uh the sidewalk is spacing a little bit, and so uh they're gonna do a full assessment of the facility to and around the landfill to see if there's any structural issues, which we hope there's not, but then just what other landfill uh improvements, why it might have sped up.

Is there systems that need to be looked at and uh items that need to be uh addressed for the landfill system around it?

And then Garcia Road and storage area fences.

This is a much smaller project, but I'm bringing it to you because one, we're committing parkland funds to it uh to do the Garcia fence, which you can kind of see at the south end, the bottom of that photo.

Uh, we have a beautiful ornate fence along the Google Athletic Recreation Field, Garfield, and around Shoreline Athletic Field, and then we have a big area with no fence that the public love to come into, and we have actually tracked tracks from when we have had theft incidences of people going out that way.

And so the other two fencing projects up there are around our storage sites, and again, this is more because we've seen an uptick in theft in the last four or five years.

We've uh had that incidence about three to four times a year right now of our equipment and our uh materials.

So we're hoping that these will get in front of it.

Um, and so we think these are necessary additions.

And then projects and construction.

So the first one is the Shoreline Bistro expansion project.

Uh, I believe the technical name is actually boat house expansion, but it's mostly focused on the beach stro.

Uh so we're going to be expanding the kitchen out towards the parking lot and out towards the uh grass area.

Uh, it's going all electric, which triggers all sorts of fun PG and E requirements.

So we also had to figure out space for PGE out there.

Uh PGE also doesn't let you put a lot of stuff underground anymore.

So we had to figure that out.

Um, we're going to be redoing the walkway in the front and all the ADA parking as well.

So it'll be a new front and facade on it, and then the building will be expanded.

And then we are adding two new ADA restrooms to the uh side of the boat house building that faces the parking lot.

Um there'll be some minor work inside the seating area and in the existing bathrooms.

We're uh supposed to get two new roofs on a new roof on each building, two new roofs, um, and then a whole bunch of other uh improvements.

And so uh this project's supposed to take 12 to 18 months.

Uh it is greatly impacting our parking out there because what you can kind of see on the far right of that photo is the staging areas in the parking lot.

Um, so it's going to be a very interesting summer.

Um, but uh we're excited to have this project underway.

This project's been in the works for a while.

We've had some changes in staff, up uh changes in requirements from different regulatory agencies.

So we're excited to finally have it underway.

Um on the right, you have the scal replacement.

So uh the scal has been removed.

It's a very sad photo.

But uh we are excited to be getting the scal replaced.

It was in much much need of replacement.

Um, I actually just got an update uh today or yesterday that our uh delivery of the new scal was delayed.

So it's gonna look like this for a little bit longer, but we're hoping to get the new scal in.

And as I said, in conjunction with the Cove Hill project, we'll be doing some ADA improvements to the pathway to get out to the scal, um, as well as uh pathway and ADA access to the bench areas and to the top of the hill that's over by the uh boat house.

Um so we currently this area of shoreline or north shore area is quite impacted at the moment.

Do you remember what year the scout originally came to the PRC?

Was it pre-pandemic?

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Oh, for the replacement?

Yeah.

It was before me.

So yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I remember coming up.

Yeah, remember it.

We didn't uh let Tim Youngberg, our Parks and Open Space Manager, be here because he'd start twitching if you asked that question.

When it came to that started, but it might have been the second time when it came when you were there.

Because I think it came once and then it came again.

Yeah, I started in June of 2021, so it was before me.

So finally find dating oil.

Yeah, that's long.

Right.

Golf course bridge replacement.

So we have two bridges that are slated for replacement.

This is the uh worst looking of the two.

Um so this is the bridge to hole one, so it goes from the pro shop out to the whole one T-box.

The other one connects uh the T box on hole five to the fairway on hole five.

It's just further down the pond.

So this is the water that's that irrigation pond that I pointed out in the earlier photo.

Um, this is a series of seven culverts that has a bunch of dirt, gravel, pavement on top of it, and then foliage on the sides.

Um, we're going to be replacing it with a uh suspension bridge that is more like the one on hole five and hole four.

Uh, we're very excited about that.

Uh and so the uh we ran into a number of design issues with the water quality.

Um, because one of the big so because this is our irrigation pond, one of the big things of consideration was you can't go fully dry and cut off the water flow because we can't water the rest of shoreline.

So they had to figure out how they could install it with and do all the construction work without polluting the water, but with not getting us cut off from water for too long.

And so there's been a lot of considerations, and then we also ran into a lot of sequa uh issues with this one.

And so we've gotten through all of that.

The bridges I can say have been ordered.

So they are being fabricated right now, and we are on track for fall.

Uh California Fish and Wildlife will only let us work on this uh after nesting season because this is habitat for San Francisco Common Yellow Group.

This has been a long time coming.

Um we've tried to limp this along for a period of time, and the culverts underneath finally at least were collapsing over time.

Um we were not anticipating.

No.

So I guess I could, yeah, I should explain the picture better.

So what you're seeing here is um from continued repairs and adding additional uh pavement and all that to the pathway, and given the age of the culverts underneath, what we had two years ago, two and a half years ago, was um one of the culverts collapsed and created a big divot.

Our staff were actually able to crush it down, lay bedrock, and reconnect the path.

Unexpected consequence, or probably expected, but not much my smartest day.

Uh is that it put uh more pressure on the other culverts and then another culvert collapsed, and then and so we stopped because again, if all of the culverts collapse, we can't get our irrigation water.

And so that was why it looks like this, why we've uh sectioned off the bridge and why it's not been in use for anybody.

Um, so we are very excited about this project and it we're happy the bridges are being fabricated and we're on track for the fall.

Uh gas header replacement project.

Uh this one again uh didn't have much effect on the public, but uh this is behind our maintenance building.

Uh they are uh public works team installed a new straight gas header.

Uh the previous one had a bunch of U-turns and all sorts of weird stuff in it, and so they straightened it out for better gas flow.

This goes directly to the flare station.

Um, and so uh it required a lot of staff coordination and they did a great job with it.

Um, but I just figured I'd highlight it.

But hopefully the public has no idea it's there and never smells anything.

I guess so they wouldn't, but yeah.

And then volunteer projects.

Um, so the Guardian project is uh a nonprofit that does the major vast majority of our work in the nine-acre site.

That is our area, right?

Uh is my mouse gonna pop back up.

So it's uh in our Boroughing Owl Preserve.

So they're they are uh they've been with the city for uh years and they really work on enhancing the foraging habitat to support the owl population.

So the nine-acre site is our uh primary burrow and owl preserve, and then that whole area on the map, that upper uh corner is the northeast meadowlands, which is fenced off.

That's where the majority of our borrowing owls are located at shoreline.

Um, and so they're a great group.

We have a bunch of long-term volunteers with them.

They also get corporate groups out.

Um the picture on the right is of a little couple greenhouses we have with them, so they help us propagate our own uh uh our own plants and help us with seeds, and so uh they're a great group that we we volunteer with ongoing or volunteers with us ongoing.

Um, grassroots ecology.

We currently have two projects going on with them.

One is funded by Valley Water, uh, it's a habitat restoration project of the upland around the Mountain View Tidal Marsh.

Uh, and then the next one is the coastal conservancy grant funded uh habitat restoration where we're gonna be working on the north side of the tidal marsh, and then they're also gonna help us with our habitat two.

Uh so that blue uh blob down on the uh left side of the photo there.

That is that was formerly an irrigation pond that was drained for grassland habitat for when uh the shoreline athletic fields went in.

And so we're going to be just putting a lot of love into that to uh help with uh that area.

And so um we're really excited about this.

Grassroots has been great to work with.

Um they're the leads on the grant, and so that's very nice for the city staff to not have to do all the tracking payment invoicing and all of that.

So we're very thankful to them.

Um, but then we provide uh support services like making sure they have irrigation and that sort of stuff.

And then we have the shoreline athletic complex adjacent site.

So if you drive up to the parking lot uh at the shoreline athletic fields on your right at the side of the parking lot that there's a fence.

Um that was a uh former uh restoration site that we put a lot of time in with the youth core group um out at Shoreline, and uh we staff didn't have time, we didn't have the youth core program anymore, and so it kind of became overgrown.

It became very overgrown.

And so uh we're now using that for uh as a volunteer site for various groups.

It's actually a great site for uh larger groups because they can park in the Shoreline Athletic Field parking lot and there's a gate to get right in.

And it's also not as sensitive a habitat, so we can take our more inexperienced groups or maybe groups with younger kids and such out into this area, and they can help us with plantings and weeding and irrigation and whatever, depending on the size of the group and the capabilities of them.

And then we have our trail projects.

So uh we have a monthly work day on the trail that we started with volunteers that our trail maintenance worker leads.

Um they uh depending on the size of the group and what we have uh going on, it may just be trash pickup, it could be plantings, it could be weed eating.

Um, and then we have the sleeper avenue trailhead pollinator planting.

So we spent a good amount of time at the Sleeper Avenue Trailhead.

Uh, we made it a Monarch uh way station.

Um we had an Eagle Scout do a project out there.

We've had a number of other groups go out there and do plantings and uh weeding and such.

Um, and then we also, before I move to the last one, we also have started working with the uh Humane Society of Silicon Valley.

Uh they uh have are starting to become a regular volunteer group, and they're kind of fun because they want to pull weeds that affect dogs.

And so they, whenever we need something specifically pulled along the trail, they come out and they get a group together and they'll they'll take them out for us.

And so um, and then the last one is one that we're very excited about.

We are currently putting together an adopt a trail program with the Friends of Stevens Creek Trail.

Uh so they will be leading the program.

We will be supporting it.

Um, but uh that way they can uh coordinate with different nonprofits.

They have a little bit more wiggle room than the city does for being able to get uh folks to be able to adopt the trail.

Um, and so we're kind of excited to see how that program goes.

And we're working on that in an agreement with them right now, and we have a good framework, so I'm not gonna spoil it quite yet, but we're excited to get that program underway.

Can I ask you, Brady?

Yes.

Um, like Friends of Stevens Creek Trail is an established group.

Um grassroots ecology is an established group, but when you say various groups, um, how do people connect with the city or is there a list of projects that you then go down the list and say you can do this project?

What does like the format of this?

Great question.

Um so the city uses a platform called service, uh, which is how we get some of our requests.

Um other requests are just emailed to us through our trails email.

Um, and then usually uh Matt Silva, the Shoreline supervisor, kind of picks the uh site and the activity based on what the group's looking for and what their capabilities are.

And so if he has, you know, uh uh God, what do we just have out there?

An honor society.

So a bunch of very energetic high school kids, and we found some a little bit more laborist activities for them to do because we knew they'd be up and going for it.

But if we have a group that's more uh into like gardening and just wants to plant, then we may find either an area on the trail, or if we have plants for the nine-acre site, we would find a way to do it.

And so it's it's matchmaking once we know what the group is looking for.

Um, the best way to find them is either through service through our volunteer webpage on the community services website or emailing uh the trails website.

We've also gotten them through Ask MV.

We'll get a random Ask MV that'll be like, hey, I have a group that wants to volunteer.

Is there anything out there?

Um, some people email the city manager and then it gets forwarded to us.

So we we don't have like a set way that's like if you want to volunteer, come here.

Um, but on the shoreline pages under our amenities page, we have uh Matt's email to reach out for volunteer projects, and then on the volunteer page, it has our service and and service.

You can uh search for different volunteer projects.

So if I wanted to volunteer, I would look at it.

I would look at service and defined that.

Yes, as an individual.

Um I can send you the link, but it's on the city's, it's on the community service web pages volunteer page.

Okay.

But as an individual, sorry, I was mostly talking groups.

As an individual, you would go there, uh, it asks you to create an account.

We really like it because when you create the account, you sign our waiver, and then we don't have to worry about it when you come out.

Um, and so, and then through there, it has a list of volunteer opportunities.

And so if you just click environmental or trails, it'll, and then you'll get notifications when we post stuff if you click it too.

Volunteer would be for individuals, but if it was a group, they would then they would probably email the trails uh email or email ask or go through ask MV, and we would get it that way.

Right, great.

Yes.

Or email Matt directly.

I'm pretty sure his email is still on the volunteers webpage, but we updated it recently, so that's why I don't want to confirm that.

But yeah.

And then this is my fun project map.

So this is a blob of everything we have completed in design, uh under construction and volunteering.

And then this is my my data dump slide.

So this is the um our interagency and north bayshore project.

So uh as I mentioned earlier, we finished pond A2W.

We are now working on pond A1.

Pond A1 is gonna be a little bit more extensive due to the sea level rise portion that the city needs.

And then it's also looking at the levee between Charleston Slough and the water body to the or the marsh habitat to the west.

Um, and then uh also performing the other stuff that was done on Pond A2W.

Um, and so and I also believe it's a larger perimeter than Pond A2W.

So this is going to be an ongoing one.

Uh, they are currently bringing in dirt down San Antonio Road and down terminal, so they won't be coming in the main gates or going through there.

But you if you've been out to shoreline and walked on the west side of the lake, you may have seen some fences up or possibly dirt trucks driving there.

So that is going to be ongoing for a while because we're gonna need a whole lot of dirt to create the uh transition zones.

Probably the transition zones is also the existing trail uh from the backside of the sailing lake to the terminal avenue side.

That's gonna be built up significantly compared to what it is right now.

We're talking what eight feet more, yeah, 12.

Yeah, yeah, it's a significant um increase.

So just that alone.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

If you remember if you've been out there and you're going along uh north shore, and then it kind of comes down to the lake.

That whole area has to be to the backside of the lake.

That whole area has to be raised to where the top of that going down is.

So it's gonna be it's gonna be an extensive project, it's gonna be a multi-year project.

Um, but it'll be great for the habitat transition zone when it's done, and it'll be great for our sea level rise, and hopefully we'll get some new trails out of it.

Same place, but nicer.

And yeah, and flood protection.

And so it'll be it's it's a big undertaking, but it's gonna be a really great project.

Um shoreline water control structures we talked about with the island, safe parking expansion we talked about, uh bunker renovation.

Um, so one of the things we're looking at doing is doing a full renovation of all the front nine bunkers.

Um, they have a lot of them have shifted and adjusted due to landfill settlement and a number of them have gotten contaminated from the squirrels.

So we're gonna be doing redoing uh squirrels love to dig down and then dig out, and then it's no longer sand, it's dirt.

And so we have to figure out a way to uh get those back up to par so that they're uh shaped well and have new sand.

And um, we're gonna put a liner on the bottom to help uh preserve the sand with the shifting and the settlement.

Um in North Bay Shore, we have a stormwater pump system realignments.

Um, I'm not gonna go too deep into this one, but uh essentially we have a stormwater pump station in the amphitheater.

We have one at the end of the Charleston retention basin, we have one at the end of E Lot, and we have one on the corner of Vista Slope and Amphitheater Parkway, and we have one in the high level ditch, and we are looking to improve the connections between all of those.

And so without getting too deep into the technical of it, but it's a going to be a large undertaking.

Some of it is due to stormwater requirements from the state, um, but others of it are uh us being just doing our due diligence and get in front of future problems and making a better stormwater system.

Um project home key, uh, this is technically Palo Alto's, but it's right on San Antonio Road and it required coordination with the city on San Antonio Road and utilities and stuff.

Um, and so uh it's very close to terminal and the uh terminal Coast Casey Rushrooms that are out there.

And so um we just highlighted because we're anxious on when people start showing up there.

Um and then trails.

We have the Stevens Creek Trail, Wisband Trailhead Erosion Project.

Yeah.

Um, and so that's gonna be one that we're hoping to start in July.

Um but essentially the bridge from uh Wisbond Park to Stevens Creek Trail, the what's is it the German schools still um over there is going to uh the trail and bridge should not be affected.

Um, but uh they're gonna be doing a bunch of erosion work on the uh creek itself.

And so this has been in coordination with the school district, with Valley Water, with the regional water board and a bunch of organizations.

Um and then Lower Stevens Creek Levee improvements.

This one's also, I believe, a little ways off.

Um, but we have to make a bunch of improvements to right where the Stevens Creek Trail and the Bay Trail connect.

We need to improve the levy there for the uh stormwater and flow.

And so we may have a slightly different trail configuration once that's complete, depending on what they have to do for the stormwater.

And so where the Bay Trail and Civus Creek Trail connect may have to shift and we may have to readjust those trails.

That's it.

Further questions.

So I need to ask to see if there's any public comment on this.

No, not mine.

No.

All right, warm them all down for you.

Yeah, thank you very much.

Sorry, thank you very much for the report.

Maybe next time we can even do a tour or some move.

If you would like a tour, we're happy to provide those.

Uh usually it takes an hour to two hours, depending on how long winded I am.

But we do take people out in our gator and we'll go drive around and look at different projects that are going on.

So yeah, if that's something you guys would be interested in.

I can't fit everybody at once, so we'll it'll have to be individually.

But yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll have to figure out how to do it.

I mean, with county parks, they do an annual tour, and it's actually agendized and stuff like that.

So anyway, I would say shoreline is um a jewel amount.

It's one of the greatest assets in the city.

And so thanks for all the stewardship and maintaining and moving it.

Yeah, it's a great asset.

Yeah, we have a we have a great team out there.

Takes a lot of coordination, a lot of different groups, you know, a lot of people don't realize having a uh wildlife and recreation area over five different utilities systems with three different uh operators of recreational activities, and now we've added in safe parking, and you know, it's it takes a it takes a village, and we're we're fortunate for the folks we have working on it.

Thank you very much for that update.

Thanks for coordinating it.

It was a good idea for us to have.

All right, uh turning to item six, uh mission staff announcements.

Uh Director Marchant, do you have anything?

I will be brief.

Uh our spring swim lessons have started and they started this Tuesday.

We had uh 862 participants enrolled, and I don't know if we've we've shared this well, but every spring we have increased the number of available spots, especially with the new pool.

Um so this is certainly uh a new um a new high of participation for us.

Um the spring volunteer, speaking of volunteers, the spring volunteer fair will be taking place on Saturday, April 18th from 10 a.m.

to 12 noon.

Um that's taking place here.

And so for folks that are interested to learn more about how to get involved in in city and other uh volunteer opportunities, it's a great place to go.

Um and then we're bringing back the multicultural festival on Saturday, May 2nd from 11 a.m.

to 3 p.m.

Civic Center Plaza, um, very similar to the the events that we've held previously.

And then um staff from a number of uh departments are currently working on a way to activate downtown and other areas of the city uh for the World Cup that's taking place this summer, um, ways to, as I said, activate downtown, get the businesses involved, uh, but then also working with our own youth sports organizations to create some community opportunities to learn sports, uh specifically soccer um at different areas and trying to engage the community in a different way.

Um, and so we're looking forward to um finalizing those plans.

Um, and so more to come on that.

Do you have anything?

A couple things.

Um we are working with public works on uh the second community meeting for the Monoloma Park Improvements projects, Mauna Playground Improvement, whatever the name of that project is, and also for the Thompson Park that will be built.

So uh more to come on that, but we're we're talking with them about those things.

And then also, this isn't super exciting, but for us it's exciting, but um, we've been talking about getting a new software or getting a software system for all of our work orders for parks, forestry for public works.

We have been working with paper since I've been here since forever.

Um we have an agreement in place.

We've issued a purchase order, which is a big deal.

So we're now starting to talk about implementation and um how this will affect the public is we're hoping to be able to put more information, whether it's GIS so we can have interactive maps and things online.

So this is just starting right now.

Um we're gonna have to work with training our crews, we're getting some um iPad and equipments where they can have that in the field, be able to take pictures of problems, we can address them much quicker, um, have a tracking system, but also have a better interface with our with our public on um providing that information and making it more accessible to them.

So yeah, I'm really excited.

Huge kudos to Tim and Brenda, they are the ones that really spurred bringing this forward.

Uh and then once we were ready to launch, or at we were at a critical point in that process when the public works and some other departments said, What are you that sounds amazing?

Can we jump on board too?

So that was actually a great collaboration to kind of take a pause, but then it was their facilities hopped on board, their streets, their utilities.

So it's been a very collaborative project, which means it just took a little bit longer.

But um, we found a system that both of our departments can utilize, and now we're figuring out the implementation, which is gonna be in phases.

So yeah, this is something I started with in like the first like four months.

I was like, what?

We're on paper.

So I'm really excited about this.

And and again, making some of these maps and information available to the public will be really cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you have a um can you give us a little bit of a flavor of our upcoming uh agenda items?

Yes, and I assume that July and August are off meetings.

So for next month, we'll be uh coming back with and Allison, tell me if I'm wrong here.

Um we will be bringing back the public safety building, tree mitigation.

We will be talking about budget um and parkland and CIP commitments, and part of the budget is CIP commitments, yes.

And are you adding are you still planning to add a meeting?

So we are looking to add a meeting, but not in April.

Um we were able to add that public safety project item to the existing May meeting, but we are probably going to have to add another meeting in May or June.

So we had some recent heritage tree.

Uh yeah, so we have two deals come through.

Two more pending appeal tree appeals.

So um we're gonna pull staff and then pull you for potential available dates.

So if you know some dates that you're not going to be available in May or June, send them my way.

Um, if you're going out of town or anything like that.

I mean, just amongst the commission, is there any preference to having an extra meeting versus going a little bit longer on one of the what do we have in June?

We have the our our extra potential meeting is gonna have three items.

So I think it would be difficult over us.

But it would be it would be two new tree appeals and then the work plan.

Um next week's current June meeting already has two appeals and a uh presentation from Canopy and then the uh recent park design evaluation item that the new one.

So we're we're pretty much for tree appeals and yeah.

All right, Joe, you can be a committee of once and be and be here really late.

Just wanted to ask um okay.

Uh any uh commissioner at the end of the day.

I'd like to make an announcement.

This is my anniversary tonight.

Um I'm spending it here, and my wife, who's the president of the Friends of Deer Love Farm Board is hosting the major donor event, or they hosted it out at Deer Hollow Farm.

And during the event, Poppy During the event.

Oh my god, I have a picture.

That's awesome.

Can't ask for a better anniversary than that.

Right.

I agree.

I have something.

Go ahead.

Alison, can you share the PowerPoint presentation that I I sent you?

I was driving along Quest uh Drive some time ago and remember we had the heritage tree field.

Yeah.

Uh which we which we denied.

There was a and I drove by uh I drove by and I saw the new house and the heritage tree still there.

They redid, I mean they they they they were able to although we were told that it was one or the other.

Um it was both.

So here is the house and here's the tree.

Oh wow.

The positioning is a little strange of the front door and the house, but it's a bit still there.

Yeah.

That's the modular home builder.

They built one across the street from me.

It's actually when it goes up in a day.

Yeah, they did one just off of Ringsdorf, and it's incredible how fast they go up.

Yeah.

What kind of trick is that up?

I I think it was a liquid operator or something.

They're actually building these, there's two of them being built in my neighborhood right now.

Yeah.

But anyway, I thought I'd show them.

Thank you.

Thanks, Money.

Yeah, that's great.

Thanks for seeing the introduced.

Any other announcements?

All right.

Uh we will adjourn, and our next regular meeting is Wednesday, May 11th at six o'clock.