more canopy for the city. when i see a project of this size and the trees maintain the same, kind of tough. thank you for answering the question. >> thank you. we'll now hear from the department of urban forestry. >> it's been an emotional day. a couple of steps forward in georgia and a few steps back in washington. i want to apologize for the appellant. i feel like it's the bureaus responsibility to protect street trees bottom line. we've not always been able to do that. including one of our own projects this summer. 2020 really packed it in.

i want to thank the public for their advocacy. my colleague carla has been here for 16 years. myself, 15 years. we want to be proud of our work. at times it feels nearly impossible. i appreciate everyone's time this evening. i want to go through and show our work.

this was the tree that was removed without the perm mitt. it's a tall growing vertical tree. the best we could do was issue a fine for the value of the tree which was three hundred eighty nine dollars. they sent this photo to me just yet to protection is ship shape and they are protecting these

two existing trees on mission. i want to go through the subject trees. the three remaining olive trees, this tree is now dead. this is prior to any work occurring by the applicant. the trees were being vandalized. just clearly some very questionable activity on this block that the trees have been subjected too. this fence shows the property line. in the applicants brief, they are pushing back. the applicant is pulling back the foot print to accommodate a

path of travel. the real graphic damage -- these trees were being vandalized quite a bit. this is quite dpraffic. graphic. we've been working closely that the commitments are upheld. we don't want to come back hear that they were not adhered to. it's a matter of department's stepping out of the comfort zone for that passage travel.

that took a lot of departments to get that approved. it's been vetted right up through yesterday to make sure every single department has had their shot at it. this planting plan is holding. to summarize there are three existing olive trees. despite our frustrations of the removal, the fact that the trees can be replanted and were vandalized the director of public works approved it. they are going to have to plant the trees and pour the sidewalk around them. on mission street frontage,

three forty eight box trees. there's two existing threes on steven son there will be three thirty six inch box trees. this was trying to maximize what we believe was possible coming out of our hearing. we don't believe there's much more we can require. that basically concludes our staff presentation. we covered similar cases in the last year. i want to emphasize what we can do to move forward.

we want to celebrate the advocacy of mr. rad cliff. whenever a tree is removed without a permit it under mines the publics willingness to engage because they feel all that work is not going to be worth anything in the end. i appreciate mr. cliff's story. we're optimistic about the direction the bureau is heading with some of these penalties. >> thank you. we have a question. >> in going over the brief it indicates there's a tree missing. in looking at your photo, that's a pretty large tree. it's not like something someone

can vandalize and knockdown. >> the illegal removal occurred on the mission street frontage. there's several missing trees or empty basins. it was missing prior to us even receiving the application. we didn't have reasonably that this applicant was involved with the tree on steven son frontage, you know, being per pet perpetry the -- >> i'm not accusing you -- but how did a tree of that size go missing without anyone knowing

about it. >> that's a great question. there's a lot of activity. that large box tree which was subject of the fine that we issued. >> all right. thank you. >> commissioner. >> mr. buck, i just want to make sure that i understand your recommendation in this case. your recommendation is that we go ahead and approve what was your last slide based on the requirements and do nothing else. is that what you are proposing? >> correct commissioner. the bureau ask that you uphold public works.

>> okay. >> vandalism, mr. cliff talked about it -- in planning you described the trees having been vandalized. what are the department's rules and regulations about putting protection. i know it can be expensive -- is that ever a consideration? >> it's a great question because the images that our staff presented back on october first, i don't believe showed quite the extent of the vandalism.

we denied the removal hoping to work with the trees. the olive trees are substantial just in general. nobody should be systematically day after day chipping away at them. our bureau has been really careful to thread the needle and not point fingers at activities on the street associated with the homeless. there are times where someone homeless or not maybe not in the state of mind wreak havoc on trees. we are requiring more protections on newly acquired

treed. these are still substantial trees that shouldn't be gouged out like that. i will point out it's an alley abutting -- it's a federal building. it's super frustrating. i don't have a lot of answers. there are cameras and we are trying to provide that to the police to try to prevent that activity from occurring. >> thank you. >> okay. >> just for clarification, are -- with regard to your last slide and what you would like to get done. are we not upholding the appeal and approving the permit with

the condition of your last slide? if we went in that direction? >> i'm asking emly that the resulting pub luck works discussion is the best we can do at this point with the code we currently have. it's just upholding the public works order as written. >> okay. thanks. >> okay. we will now move onto public comment. is there anyone here who would like to provide public comment. >> i want to thank everybody here tonight. it's been a long evening and a long difficult day. i appreciate everyone's attention to this matter.

i want to thank the commissioners and mr. cliff with regard to this matter . the department of housing and community development takes this issue extremely seriously. we've been working closely with the developer and contractor every since. i think everything has been pretty well said. i want to add something what that wasn't discussed when talking about street trees. as you know this is an asfault covered parking lot. now it's kind of a construction site. the net add that the trees offer

the city. we're adding a net number of trees within the property site. i wanted to add that to the discussion points. that's it. i thank you very much for your consideration. >> okay. thank you for your comments. is there any additional public comment for this item. please raise your hand. okay. i'm not seeing any further public comept. comment. we will move onto rebuttal. mr. cliff you have three minutes.