september 25th as of that hearing date. and to discuss the five trees that we're seeking permission to remove that will be damaged for the lead impacted soils. there are lead impacted soils across the entire site. due diligence, our due diligence process, we had a phase one and phase two and did repeated soil testing and essentially across the site, there are lead levels that are considered california hazards waste. six of those locations were considered federal hazardous waste and needed to be transported off site. the site mitigation plan basically -- i'm sorry. let me go back. what we've got documented in our brief is that it had been our plan to retain the five trees.

we actually included the original planting plan that showed all five of those trees. so, as a result of the due diligence process that we went through and determined that we had a significant lead soil issue, we worked on trying to come up with a plan essentially for how to mitigate it. we had to submit a plan to the department of public health and there was a lot of work done to try to figure out exactly what we were gonna do. we had to do something. we either had to off haul all the soil or we had to find a way to contain it on site. we were actually given the ability by dph to retain the soil on site. and the difference in pricing for us to either off haul it or to retain it on site is a difference of about $2.68 million was the pricing we got from the contractors. at bid the point that we executed our contract based on what we got documented in the

package to you, that was $1.9 million. that's a pretty significant delta. obviously, westside courts is the second oldest public housing site in the city. it was built in 1943 i believe. and it requires a lot of work and the budget is over $40 million for rehab. clearly there were better uses for those scarce resources to put them into the buildings. so, basically, what i wanted to show you, which is included in your package. i clicked on it. >> president honda: there you go. >> so in the package we actually included the landscape plan.

this is actually the soil management plan that's actually an exhibit to the site mitigation plan approved by dph. this is actually how we plan to implement the program to retain the soils on site. i color coded this just to make it easier, although it's hazey, given the scan. basically, we've got four conditions on site. the yellow locations are locations where we basically can maintain grade. we have to grub the soil to get rid of weeds, but basically that's essentially level. we're not moving any soil in these locations, although the grub material might have to find a place. we've got the orange locations. those are actually locations where the excavation's actually going to a depth of two feet. and the blue locations are locations where we're ebbixcavag to a level of six inches. rain locations are retention locations where basically we're building up curbs in order to

allow us to keep the soil on site. so we're raising the level of the grade in those locations behind newly constructed curbs. and those are happening at ten different locations. and basically the two -- so then the three that are at the bottom, the bottom of the site is actually post street. the south is sutter street. the left is baker street. basically, we've got three large locations on sutter, three large locations on post. two smaller locations at baker and then two additional locations that are also on sutter. so the five trees that are in question are located in these locations. so what i also provided is that

this is the detail from the landscape drawing. why isn't it on? so this is actually the detail for the berm locations. basically we've got a retaining wall on the left. you've got mounded up dirt. and where the blue is representing an existing tree. the bottom of that, the hash, is the existing grade. so that's existing grade for these trees. the dirt that's being mounded, obviously, will create an impact both in terms of circulation of water and air and will damage the trees, as was documented in the exhibit that we attached, which was morris' summary of the impact that was sent, that this particular retention program

would have on these trees. at the bottom is what you can't see because the scroll is actually the ideal installation for new tree. that's having the root ball actually at grade where it can get moisture, sun, just available nutrients as opposed to how what will happen as a result of the retention plan. so there's more, but essentially that's the gist. the gist is we're trying to basically retain the soils on site and the impacts will be deleterious to this waste. >> president honda: thank you. >> mr. buck? >> good evening. happy new year. chris buck, urban foresty.

i'm going to spend most of my time talking about the condition of the trees. the timeline here is that we did a 30 day public notification from june 26 to september 26. and during that 30 day period, our staff put the removal notices on the subject trees. on the posting it did state that the reason for removal was the issue about mitigating the soil. i don't know why the inspector didn't add additional information about the trees being in poor condition as well. we had a public works hearing on september 25th because the matter was protested during the 30 day notification period. at our public works hearing we did establish that the trees also were in poor condition. that was part of our reason for the park approval. based on what, significant trees are trees that are tree like street trees. they are protected to be protected by the street tree. they're on private property, but

within ten feet of a public right of way. if i could go to the lap top now, i'm just gonna go through some photos to demonstrate the conditions of the trees. tree number one on baker is a species that's very sensitive to root disturbances. and to the lay person, when you look at a tree like this, it probably looks somewhat normal. multiple branchs. it's got leaves. the trees themselves are vigorous, so the vigor is not in question. but if you look more closely, these trees, all of the trees were topped at one point and regrew in sort of a witch's broom where they sprout out from the original topping cut. topping cuts are an open path way to insects, disease and decay. and decay, over time, reduces the strength of the wood and causes stems to fail. and so this tree that we were

just looking at has a pocket of decay in the center of the trunk. it's also located at the base of where all the main stems join. that's a weak point within the tree. here's a closeup of some of that decay. tree number two on baker is an eucalyptus. it's not a blue gum eucalyptus. they tend to have better stem strength. they have fewer branch failures. silver doing hrar eucalyptus grow very strongly. we found there's evidence of stem failures and also old topping cuts. that was once the top of the tree where it's circled now. after that dramatic topping cut, stresses the tree, the tree responds by putting out new branchs. and they're literally just weakly attached which can be around that old decay point.

here's another view of tree number two on baker and another large sign of decay there. tree number one on post has an lean. it has a low tolerance of root disturbance. and there is a sidewalk repair that's required out there, so the impact to the root system here would be to really destablize the tree potentially. we used to plant a lot of trees and they just keep dropping on us, even when we don't prune the roots. just wanted to.out the tree protection that's in place. since mr. williams contacted us the day after the hearing, we contacted the contractor immediately and within a few weeks we had all the trees protected. they've been protected well over the last -- since mid october. again, this tree was topped and the structural -- the resulting structure is very poor. it also has an lean.

this is the one with the sidewalk damage. in addition, it's leaning against a guy wire. to some degree is being supported by those lines. on post street, tree number two also has a lot of structural issues. again, it was topped many, many years ago. and the resulting growth has included bark with co-dominant stems. a high likelihood for failure. you can see in these images where the old topping cuts occurred and the new sprouts formed right around them. there's decay right in the center of that. that's where we typically see a lot of branch failures. the last tree t