trees laying on the sidewalk there. >> okay. >> we can hear from anyone else from or berrarber well any public comment? is allowed by anyone who's not represent or part of our family yeah. >> we have been down this road i'm sorry i'm with arber well. okay so here we are again and the work still hadn't happened

i'm waiting for the permit to do the work i'm going along brotherhood and along gonzales and it's an issue of public safety and some are waiting to be removed still. yeah, that's pretty much what i have to say >> could you speak into the microphone. >> all of that. >> nope just the last sentence. >> we need to get the paperwork that's an issue of public safety and we need the trees removed we've waited eight or nine most. >> that's it. >> are you finished sir, do you have a certified flager. >> yes. >> state certified.

>> yes. >> hi, i'm roy and i'm a culminating arber person i own a tree management expert company. but i work directly for park merced and we've produced a plan and file number inspected each and every one of those trees and neil is following our plan. this all started when i worked on a lawsuit as an expert witness in 2002, there was a large pine on the hides it broke off at 20 feet this tree was more than 20 note in dining room it fell on a passing motorist. there was litigation that went

on inform subsequent two years and that's where i first met ramon estrada who's here today he was open the other side of this case we're talking about you public safety that's a 45 degree angle. those are big trees and there are big holes in it because trees have fallen down or been removed. there's fragments and many, many more trees than you see today and the trees that neil needs to be removed threaten public safety. he's not trying to do this work for some superficial reason this is management of critical standards to life and property.

>> how many trees are there. >> we looked at hover 4 thousand trees it on the merced property. >> on this hillside. >> you're talking about the ones that are are laying on the slopes. >> yeah. there's a bunch of logs on the slopes they'll cut the trees adopt and they'll be on the slopes. >> several are still laying and do you know how many trees. >> 93 trees. unnecessary trees involved some are on the ground some standing. they're all private owned trees not regulated in terms of city trees >> is there a planting plan.

>> there's a lot of trees as well as ventilation so we're going to look at this the last thing the park wants to erosion there's a lot of vegetation on the hill. the stumbles of those trees are remaining in place and the root systems extend anti from the stumbles and those provide substantial control map because of the of the sand it's got windup there >> i represent park merced yes. there's a plan to stop e rhodes on the hill we're not going to put in the same type of trees because of the growth of those

trees and the illness but there's plans for more natural and native planned trees to grow in that hill that's the plan. but, of course, we can't continue until we remove the trees that be already on the ground. thank you >> thank you and if you have any questions feel free to ask and a i'd like to talk about the permit that i think is at issue that's the special traffic permit; right? >> isn't that what it's called so the permit the purpose of the permit is for arber well, to remove. >> to be able to remove the trees that need to come down and take a latent print open brotherhood to do that. >> how many lanes. >> two. >> so you're going to have a

flager to let people and vehicles good back and forth. >> we'll guide starting at the top of moore's way. >> what's the length of this part that's going to be impacted. >> about 2 hundred yards. >> what's it equivalent to. >> three-quarters of a block not even a city block. >> right. >> so there's someone who was going to hip with the directing of traffic back and forth. >> correct. >> and what is the length of time that's expected is it a two week time. >> a 3 week period if we're allowed to do the work. >> okay. what habit contemplated in terms of the the public for the closer of that single lane in order to do your

work. >> in terms of what there's not an established sidewalk down there. >> how are you accommodating the public. >> so we'll have to redirect the pedestrian traffic at a higher point across the road and down to lake merced boulevard. >> are there alternative routes to get from one end of the street to the other when you redirect - >> sidewalk is on the other side of the road. >> is there a significant impact. >> in terms of thinking of like someone - >> the traffic i'm like the commissioner, i haven't been to the space. >> the other side has a surface to in terms of -

>> isn't there this an undeveloped area. >> that's correct. >> not commercial traffic pedestrian traffic. >> the bottom of an empty hillside. >> i have a question. >> yes, ma'am. >> we're looking at a special permit it lays out 5 conditions traffic cones and signs and flashing zones and one flager. >> correct. >> in your opinion you've coming come piloted; right? >> yes. >> so nothing has taken place because the permit has been not orientated. >> nothing further. we can hear from the department

now. >> good evening, commissioners norm wong social engineer at the sfmta we also have another clearing. before i respond to the appellants comments i want to provide background about the special permit this is the first time you're aware of this permit issued by our agency we have the authority to create a manual for the public in most cascades contractors to do and conduct work with on city streets within the public right-of-way that's called the recollections for working in the san francisco streets it is called the blue book it outlines certain streets when lanes can be closed and

what's required if a sidewalk is closed and addresses impacts to transit facilities and bicycle facility and pedestrian facilities. if the contractor is not able to comply with all the requirement or if the work is not consistent with the spiefgsdz that are outlined in is a city contract then they're required to hold a special traffic permit. our special traffic permit is like a supplemental or rider permit to a permit required for the contractors example public works tear occupancy so if the contractor is going to put equipment in the road they need

more permits. so it identifies the traffic permits to address what's being asked for. in this case, the applicant was asking for the closures of the curtain lane so we used this it's been issued by the traffic engineers and in guidance the device are consistent with the state and national standards those permits are a temporary permit it could be one day. now to address some of the comments that were raised in the brief and there was no review done of the site of the work area before the permit was issued as part of applying for the permit the mr. president,

has to a 134i9 a drawing on a strooing drawing what's the expected closure and the impacts to the traffic lanes are there impacts to a pedestrians. so we our staff looks at that request we we also use our available records like the drawings and parking record we look at those to determine exactly what is permitted. based on our review of this application we issue a special permit for this site it outlined several conditions such as a roadwork ahead signs and it is specific to how far in advance those signs up need to be placed. right lane closed ahead signs and a flashing board to address

any potential pedestrians we've outlined in the permit there's to be a flager available on site to direct any pedestrians that walk through this work area. we've outlined what days of the week this permit is being done. the second part is the appellants comments regarding the permit there was no investigation we pref issue 3 special traffic permits to this contractor for work on brotherhood way the first one was in august of 2013 and the second september 2013 and the most recent for a week in january 2014. as part of the issuing the special permits we have a street inspector and his responsibility is to visit a majority of those construction sites and to verify

the applicant is following the instructions. your senior inspector visited those sites open 2011 and 2014 and if there was work being done he would have verified all the signage was in place and florida there was any unsafe conditions he could ask the contractor to comply and issue a civilization. we work with public works because we have a him or her he works with the public inspectors

if there is any issues of work place safety if you have any questions, i'll be happy to answer them. thank you >> i have several questions one is one lane is currently koend off by the construction of the housing project there they were pouring a new sidewalk that required the same type of permit that is issued by you folks. >> i believe they did come in and apply for a permit for the complete closer of that sidewalk and i believe our office issued that permit it would have outlined signage to visit pedestrians to use the other side of the street or direct them to the appropriate crossings. i don't have that permit in front of me >> if the contractor is not

there the cones are not placed. >> that's right nothing in the roadway. you used the term majority of the sites are visited did that mean that not every site is monitored by you folks and a our inspector visits as many sites as we think, we issue several thousands of permits a year but i'll add in most cases those are not one time permits as i mentioned for this particular company and this particular location there were 3 permits issued and he came out on two occasion to visit them so he visits almost every single construction site and a do you do any due diligence on the

contractor himself not only the site conditions but the contractor >> we were not aware of any safety issues with the applicant, however, we're aware that there maybe some issues we would as i mentioned have our inspector go out and visit the site and make sure that the work zone is set up safely and properly and conforms to the permit and they work with the public works inspector as well if there's any safety issues or violations observed. you might see the violation but when our preparing the permit would you look to see for example, if the permit had any cal osha issues for example, >> our permit is solely to address setting up the work zone safely and making sure that if

they close a traffic lane that all the warning device and requirement are in place that's not to say that doing the work properly may not be covered under oath permits by other agencies and whether or not they might be following those rules safely. >> i'm bryan with sfmta as well i want to point out first, we don't check the background on every applicant but because someone has a violation didn't mean we can r50u6 a permit there are violations by cal osha and they're still left hand but i can't say you have this osha violation you're not getting a permit but we'll monitor them and not r50u6 them unless their

barred in the city which happens on occasion or if they don't have their license because of the past but they need a license to work on the city streets. >> thank you. thank you both very much. any any public comment on this item?. i believe there is. please step forward. and hand our card to the clerk >> hi, i'm a long time resident of san francisco. that's a crying shame when trees are destroyed in san francisco. i know there's a widespread belief that trees are protected i don't know what the laws are you think it's a crying staim

shame a monterey pine trees are being cut down on brotherhood way and i wish the city wasn't be more cognizant of the value of trees. we have a there's a widespread perception green trees take carbon monoxide out of the air. i'm concerned about the trees being taken out of park merced brotherhood and i wish the city would prevent it from happening. i support the appeal here. thank you. >> any other any public comment? please step forward.

>> good afternoon. i'm stuart flash man, i'm an attorney for the coalition action. we're concerned and i wanted to bring to your attention an issue that wasn't presented in the appeal but related and that has to do with how the trees are getting kit down in the conditions. let me start by showing you a view from google earth. and this is showing the area where the kci terminal is occurring.

oh, sorry this is showing the area where the cutting is occurring there's a crosswalk >> why don't you point that to the overhead. so you can see there's a crosswalk across brotherhood way right here and a sidewalk across brotherhood way here. ross the trees that are being cut do you thing this is from google earthquake. 24 is showing the street view again before they were cut down and they're up in the we were end of the slope. it's hard to imagine from most of those trees even if they fell distributor will i into the street they would fall into traffic. this is showing you can see most the trees have already been kit

down and ironicly the taller ones haven't been cut down. there's a project proposed to park merced it includes taking down a lot of the trees this shows the area we're talking about here and you can see this green area is the slope and that green area t is existing trees to be remained so none of those trees were to be take place down as part of the project and they've been removed this is in violation of the project as it was proposed to the city and the city approved. i know maybe this is outside of your jurisdiction but it is certainly something you should be aware of thank you

>> thank you. next speaker, please. >> contacting less than partner coalition. we feel that this designation of brotherhood way is terrible and i'm sure you're aware of. we feel the trees at the top are cut it will remove 9 remaining roots that are holding the hillside. geologists should be sent out there because in a heavy rainfall there could be erosion. there's no planting plans for that area. in 2003, the pedestrian issue was dealt what and park merced did go through and try to find out and remove the trees that

were dangerous. we have in october of 2013 that written to the department harden letters in november we were told it was at the code enforcement we've in japan written to supervisor yee and we called senator boxer to say we feel there you go a 3w4r59 onto violation and we want the trees that are there and have the hillside replanted. to date we've heard nothing from code enforcement and so we're asking that you uphold the julian permit and it's a narrow issue but the larger one is we feel the eir has been violated. we want to see the planting plan

for replanting. i have a small letter here and i'd like my this to be posted with the minutes so the public will know what our feelings are on this >> you're going to have to read that into the record. >> we on january 1st, we wrote about the blatant ant violation in 2010. our concerns with code enforcement where they have been since november 25th, 2013, to date we've heard nothing from code enforcement the unpermitted lane closer is not an issue but you can't turn our backs on this commissioners it's a travesty to the environment and we ask you

stop the deformation of brotherhood way and have the hillside be replanted we request this letter be posted we want the public to have immediate educates to that >> thank you. next speaker, please can you hand it to mr. pa check please. i come as a student from san francisco state university and also someone who dwells in park merced. i never heard or saw anything posted to let me know this would happen and many of my fingertips

are disappointed by what's going on without our knowledge. we were not forewarned and this is how it effects people like me. the erosion is a progress by the earth getting worn down and generally caused by water. the key to erosion and ice tends to flow from one place to another of the 3 liquid waters it's the common erosion. this must be assaulted it creates dangerous mudslides and causes rock slides long-term. so short-term rock slides. so there are ways to measure the water how fast computer models

can predict damage. i don't see park merced generate models do they really care. those trees held everything in police radios in 2003 they make sure all the dead trees were taken out if you care about park merced i've this is something we should preserve there is one in la beware and you can anchor those trees and protect them and make them a part of our lives those are part of our lives those trees serve as co2 because their hundreds of cars passing by and the noise is blocked by those trees. the polluon