Consider Directing Staff to Review and Update the City’s Ordinance to Increase Protection of Historic/Heritage Trees, including Adding Arborist Peer Review.
And it was discussed that other cities have more comprehensive policies than we do. And I know that many of us value our trees. And so my referral was actually just in regards to asking staff to review and update the city's ordinance to increase protection of our historic heritage trees, and possibly including adding our risk peer review as part of the referral. And we have speakers quite a few here. So I'm just going to go ahead and call your names and then you'll each have up to 3 minutes to speak. Dee Keltner. Christopher Buckley. Scott Dawson. Rafael Perez. Perez. Antonia Nicosia. Christian. Bucknell. Eric Chan. Sorry, that's the last one. All right, go ahead. Come on up. And thank you for being so patient of our viewers at home. It's how you proximately, what, 925 now? Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Greetings and good evening, Madam Mayor, and council members and staff. I'm Dee Keltner. I'm a native Alameda. I did send all of you a an email, so I don't need to go over all the things that I said other than my heart is with our city trees. And my one example is my late husband and I started on our block 30 years ago in 1986, the only landscape and lighting district in a single neighborhood nobody else has won. And over those 30 years, we have put out. A great deal of finance for things that the city cannot do or does not do to the tune of over $300,000, which to me at least shows how much we care, how much they mean to us. And so what I am looking at are issues that have come up recently and in the past. Where there is not one single guideline for our planning department. Or for. You. Or for anyone within the city when it comes to a tree, meaning a heritage tree, a landmark tree. Some of our gorgeous trees, like the mail in school. There's nothing private or public property that tells the city. What can we do? What can you do? There is not a guideline, not a code. So what has been created in several of these situations is it becomes the city making up. Not making up, but not relying on any guidelines. Not talking to arborists or not talking to the correct arborists. And I, in a recent situation, we had dueling arborists, which then becomes. Really kind of a. Nasty situation for neighbors and with the city, and it's not right. So my main comment is, would the city please. Look into guidelines that almost every other city in the Bay Area has. We do not need to be a reactionary city any longer, which means that I or someone else has to go. Out and hire an. Arborist to prove my point. Or you have to go out and do some research. Please do your research. Get something that is concrete for you and for those of US citizens who might need that information. At least it gives us a guideline. So thank you for your time. I appreciate it very much. Thank you. Next speaker Christopher Buckley. Christopher Buckley, Alameda resident I sent you a emailed you a letter a couple of days ago, and I'd like to walk you through several points in it. First, I strongly support the mayor's proposal to direct staff to take a look at strengthening the city's tree protection ordinance. And as you know, the mayor know that many other Bay Area commit communities have stronger ordinances and urged that the city council accept this direction and have staff, you know, come back with some recommendations. The and there are some examples of other ordinances that I think would be good models that are listed in the mayor's referral. I think Walnut Creek is a especially good model, but there are others too, including some that are not listed. In the referral. I included several specific recommendations which I would request be looked into as part of investigating an improved ordinance. The first would be to expand the definition of protected trees to all. Trees go beyond the existing coastal. Right now, just coastal live oaks and certain street trees, but include, you know, other species, except those are specifically termed undesirable . And if they're over a certain trunk diameter, Walnut Creek, for example, has a trunk diameter of 28 inches. It could be a higher number. It could be a lower number. And they also identified blue gum, eucalyptus and Monterey Pine as undesirable species. So that might be, you know, an option to clearly define what is removal, what triggers a permit requirement. It could also include cutting routes over a certain quantity. Topping excessive pruning. Other ordinances have definitions of these and also standards that apply to them, particularly International Society for Cultural Standards and for development related tree removals to require consideration of reasonable project alternatives, including alternative siting of the improvements or configuration. Or redesign. That would avoid removal or damage to the trees. And Scott Thorson, who's going to be on, I think, speaking on a few minutes, also included some recommendations. I urge that those be considered as well as part of investigating. A better ordinance. Thank you. Thank you, Scott Dawson. Okay to be last. Even close to the last. We got like another six figures. My name is Scott Dawson and I live at 1143 Bay Street this summer. An application to tear down a two car garage was submitted by my neighbor to the planning. Mr. Dawson, will you be sure you're speaking to the MC? The plans are. To expand to a three car garage and also build an accessory structure as part of this project. Total Square Feet about a thousand. The area needed to build this structure is located around in between. Three coast live oak trees which are part. Of an environmentally. A protected class of trees is mandated. By the state. Of California. The trees are magnificent. And because the proposed building was so close to the trees, I began to. Examine the city of Alameda. Codes and ordinances which provide specific instructions for the care of the trees and their long term well-being during. Design and construction. I found that our city. Codes offer very few guidelines that detail specifically a process at the Planning Department level to evaluate projects for submission in environmentally. Sensitive areas. Especially for smaller projects, not always subject to public review. We have no. Checklist that the Planning Department. Can use as a template. To provide. Consistent and enforceable. Oversight to these types of situations. In short, as a. City, we must rely on private citizens to bring their concerns to the department. Or we are we. Are at the mercy of the applicant developer to provide their assessment or interpretation of the environmental impact of building near protected. Categories or categories of trees. This policy leaves our city open. To developer influence and also puts additional burden on our planning department, which must make the call. On which they may have incomplete or inaccurate information to base a decision on which I in regards to approval or modification of designs submitted for review. As Chris mentioned, I reviewed I researched tree protection codes of nearby. Cities such as. Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Fremont and Concord, and found them to be more comprehensive and defined, basically a guideline for a planning department. The purpose for me being here tonight is I would like to see the city of Alameda. Adopt a more comprehensive ordinance. That establishes policies, regulations and standards. Necessary to ensure that our city will continue to realize the. Benefits of an urban forest. To set forth the jurisdiction of the city council. Over certain groups or classes of trees, and to provide a mechanism. Or trigger by which council will automatically review. Projects which have an and potential environmental impact on these protected classes of trees. I would like to see us establish a tree advisory board or commission to set goals and. Establish policy or a community community forestry. Program. A Program to Relief. Alameda to specify cooperation between city. Departments and agencies. The establishment of a heritage or landmark tree provision and establishing a permit guideline with criteria and standards for approving regulated activities. Such as. Pruning, grading and trenching around protected trees. Thank you. Thank you. Rafael Perez. Antonia. Gotcha. The kosher. Hi. I'm Antonia Nicosia. I'm a native of Alameda. And I'm also a physician in town. 46 years ago, I watched a grove of oak trees burn when the city cleared the land for the construction of island townhomes. So I have a soft spot for tree advocacy, especially as we urbanize. While reviewing the plans and design review for the neighborhood project that Scott was talking about, I realized that the planning board didn't have any template or any guidelines to follow, and not having that template has caused our community a lot of heartache and over the last six months and and basically a fear that a group of folks is about to be decimated. And I really don't want to see that again in my lifetime. So I would like the council to consider establishing as a standard tree tree protection guideline. And as it relates to any projects impacting the health of trees and before we move ahead with this project in our neighborhood, I'd like to see us adopt something. Thank you. Thank you. Kristen Bucknell. Eric. That looks like a stew is churned there in Eric. There are Christian. And we don't have any more speakers since the other speakers on this item. All right. Thank you. Amber Ashcraft. So I. I got the letter delivered to my house, but I also was at a neighborhood party in the neighborhood where this project in question is taking place. And as sometimes happens when there are communications that go out on listservs and my email blasts, there's a little in for me a misinformation because I checked in today with Andrew Thomas, our planning director, about this project. And next week the city council will hear this proposal for the expansion of a garage on Saint Charles. I believe it is the street behind Bay Street, but they are working with arborists. There are no trees that are being cut down or decimated. In fact, if you saw the photographs and I'm sure we'll have the opportunity, there's some pretty amazing engineering design that is going into protecting the trees roots. It's it's very well thought out, which is not to say that we don't need to update. We do have an ordinance, a tree ordinance, but it hasn't been updated in a number of years. And the reason I'm pulling my phone out is that I also wanted to just. Suggest to our council and also to the public that as the city manager noted in her comments on February 17th, it's a Friday from 10 p.m. to 4 p.m. and probably the library across the street. The council is going to hold a priority setting workshop, which is great because we have some of the library director might have been surprised about that, but put it down in your in your calendar, Jane. But the this is a good thing because we hear all the time from the public about things that we would like they would like to have us do, which is great. I tell my constituents all the time, you are my eyes and ears in the community. There's no way that I can know about some of these projects before they come to the the city council. But so I emailed Andrew this morning and said, Gosh, you know, what can you tell me about this? I'm getting lots of emails and hearing from folks in the neighborhood. And Andrew's response was that I have no doubt that our tree ordinance would benefit from an update. It's been probably years since it's been updated, but we do we do have a tree ordinance. And in fact, some of this council has even approved like the trees that are part of the pallet. And Mr. Buckley has we've worked I remember when the army the theater was going in on the choice of trees for the the Park Street area around the theater. But anyway, the point that Mr. Thomas was making is, is the bigger question for for me is where does this fall on the priority list? Because this will come out of the the planning department. It's their jurisdiction. And and that's not to say that trees aren't important and we don't love them. We do. And we will protect them. But here are just some of the requests that the city council and the community through the council have already identified as priorities, and they include the Universal Design Ordinance. And that came to the the Planning Board almost a year ago last February. And the weight or maybe it's coming back to the planning board in February, I'm going to stay away from dates, but these are lists and universal. The design, of course, is to allow people to age in place or if you have disabilities, that's important. The public art ordinance amendments. We had some controversy, you could say, about how those funds would be allocated assisted living ordinance amendments where we can and can't cannot perhaps locate assisted living facilities, amendments to our affordable housing ordinance. I mean, we've heard for months the better maybe, you know, years now how much we need more affordable housing, the mixed ordinance that's mixed use. What can be done in our mixed use zoning districts, the cell tower ordinance amendments that came before us a long time ago. Marijuana cultivation legislation. The voters passed the measure in November, amendments to the state mandated second unit amendment. So my suggestion to our council is. Sure we could direct staff to look into this and let's set about amending the tree ordinance. But if we could wait just a little longer and really just over a month and consider this in the hopper of everything that's coming to that particular department, I think we would do everyone a greater service. One of the things staff told me is that when and not Mr. Thomas, but someone else is that when the council says when we want this kind of that done, they don't always realize. The six requests are all going to X Department. And they're panicking because they've already got deadlines that have to be met. And what is it you set aside to do this? So on. There's no question that we love our trees. They're important. But I'd like to have it folded into the priority setting workshop to see when we could best do it and all the other requests justice. So I think the ask at this point is whether or not we would want to proceed with the referral, which is what a referral is about. And much my understanding that all of the referrals. That we will have that bigger discussion at the priority setting as the priority setting, hearing council meeting. But that that is a separate step then. But the ask is tonight. The ask is tonight is whether or not we want to ask staff to look at this referral of that member matter. I do want staff to to do the revision to. The. Tree ordinance and we can talk about where it sits in the cat in the list of of ordinances that have to be updated on the 17th. I would like to know to consider adding. Some other facets to this. So it's not as prescriptive because these are good examples where there are heritage trees, where there are protected trees. But I think one of the speakers, Mr. Buckley, brought up trees that are not desirable. And anybody who's live by poplar trees knows that they're poor urban forest inhabitants because they go into sewers and liquid ambers. We love them on Gibbons Drive, but they're a huge liability to the city. So I think if we're going to go forward with this, we include principles of principles of historic trees. And how to manage them because historic trees become deceased and often die off during or in drought. How we manage drought. How we manage from injuries. Anybody remember the controversy on Shoreline Drive? They don't even want to talk about parks treatment. Yes, I think we we do need guidelines. And I think the point was that there is no guideline staff does a heroic job every time a tree issue comes up. Dealing with it without the benefit of a guideline. So I'd like to have that broad brush topic be included in what staff considers to bring back to us. We can put it in the priority set. And I just want to clarify real quick. It's my understanding we actually do have a code section that was in my referral unit code section 13 does 21.7 C, however, it's one paragraph and other cities have policies that are ten pages, something like so much more comprehensive than what we currently have. I think our assistant city manager has had to say something. Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. If you go to our public works key documents, we have a city of Alameda based retreat plan that was adopted in 2010. And there's two volumes in each volume is about 135 pages. We definitely have the guidelines and it talks about all the care and maintenance of our trees, from planting to young trees to adult trees, to what do you do with our trees during construction? So I'm I think we need I would just like the council to understand that that we're not starting from scratch. We absolutely have these documents in place. Maybe it's a question we need to go back and make sure that we're following these guidelines. But we have these guidelines. Thank you, Vice Mayor. So I was on the historic advisory board, which whenever there's a removal of a tree excluding coastal evokes and other historic trees. That's the board. And this is mentioned in the mayor's referral that has jurisdiction and does the review and looks over the arborist reports and the planned construction I think and we've often referred to the master master document, it can be quite cumbersome. It is quite large. Allen is very helpful. Allen Tai is the planning board staffer for the Historic Advisory Board. One thing that I do appreciate about the Fremont policy guidelines is that it is very, very direct and easy to follow. And I think one of the things that has consistently come up with the Hab has been that there there seems to kind of be a disconnect in terms of the public's understanding of the process and who they should be going to. And frankly, a lot of the time, I think one of the the issues that comes up is you get a homeowner who's thinking, I'm going to do this or that, and they don't realize I've got to go to the have you get a neighbor dispute that goes on. And a lot of these things, if somebody had the information readily available ahead of time, you know, I think they could plan for it and and make different design and planning decisions ahead of time before it becomes contentious. And in in hearing from a lot of our constituents about this issue, I think that, you know. Frankly, having served on the Hab, we took the decision very seriously and basically did everything we could to try to find a way to mitigate. And unless it was going to cause structural damage to, say, a historic home or something like that, we very, very rarely, if ever, approved for the removal or any sort of construction that would cause, you know, or threatened damage to the tree. So I think. Finding a way and also members of the have have on this issue in terms of whether or not we need to update our policy in the manual on the former chair Dennis Owens worked quite extensively with Alan on just all of the policies related to the Hab. And so rather than starting from scratch, I really do think it's important for us to look at the resources that we have spent a considerable amount of time compiling and perhaps make them more user friendly. And where there are areas that that may be confusing or at issue, find a way to buy them. And Brody. Thank you, Madam Mayor. So. I think we all agree that we love our trees in Alameda and we want to protect them and we want to encourage more of them, especially in some areas that don't have them. But, you know, listening to the vice mayor explain the process that's currently in place and the assistant city manager described the voluminous guidelines that we already have. I mean, I wonder if this is a solution in search of a problem, given that I think we we do have, you know, a significant set of guidelines, a significant process. And I and the emails that I received and this is why I have a little bit of concern about this , you know, seem to be not a general. I mean, do we have a problem in the city? But there is a dispute between the neighbors on Bay Street and the property on on Saint Charles. So, I mean, I wonder if, you know, that's something that, you know, we're trying to circumvent the process, which hasn't really played itself out yet. And we we may, in fact, have an opportunity as a council to weigh in on that, depending on if it's appealed by the neighbors or the landowner or the any member of our council based on our current process. So, you know, I'm not really sure, you know, it's necessary to. You know, do a referral that calls for a brand new a brand new board when we already have a process in place and, you know, have a significant amount of guidelines. And we've done a lot of work on this already, you know, but if we put it on or if we wanted to put it on our queue. My understanding is we have over 40 items on our queue and members, the council members and mayors could put more items on there. We don't need to go through the referral process to do that and eight of them are planning. So, you know, there's a big chunk of stuff that we're going to have to go through and this probably should be one of those. But may I ask a clarifying question? Yes. Ashcraft. And maybe it's the city manager. The city attorney if. So if this council referral were not to be, you know, we're not to get a majority vote. Can this topic still come up at our priority setting workshop? Yes, it can. There'll be an opportunity at the priority setting workshop with the facilitator to say, Is there anything else in addition to everything that's listed? Hopefully there isn't, but there will be an opportunity and things to sort of do. We really want to look at all of these things. So I'd like to clarify, first of all, my referral does not specifically ask for a new board. It is actually more broad than that. And I think that. There are multiple suggestions, including expanding the definition of protected trees to all trees based upon a certain diameter of the trunk. And and I think it is appropriate to do it as a referral. This is not specific to one project. This is in regards to our policy. And I do appreciate that there's a master document. But in regards to the actual policy. I think the. Based upon the I'm going to say the confusion, whether or not we have a policy, it appears it's not necessarily being implemented and it would be appropriate for us as a council to look at policy and and include our our current our community, our current community, so that they can also have input. And I think that this is a very important issue to our meetings. So I swear I have a question for. Assistant city manager. Are currently what we've been referring to as our master plan, that is. Can you can you just repeat where that's available and whether or not it's it's you know, why it's not necessarily referenced in the current city ordinance. That last question. I don't know. Um, and we could. Mhm. But the if, if you go to the public works websites so the City of Alameda Public Works website and you go to Public Works key documents. The first place I looked was under trees and it's not there. Right. It would be the first thing where we would probably want to link it to that. Right. So then I went to public works key documents and it's there and it's the city of Alameda Master Plan and it was approved in 2010, so not that long ago. And there's volume one and volume two. And it is you're right, a voluminous both of them are large documents, but they're very comprehensive. And I think it was maybe councilmember matter you were there. So I think a lot of time and effort went into that. And so, um, but we'll definitely link it to trees. So, Councilmember Modder, I see you since you were there when when this was worked on and you're now, you know, here. And I put a question to it. I'll try to back up here. So, you know, my my question would just be, you know, as part of this referral, what what are you hoping to accomplish? A number one is to look at the intervening seven years because we've had seven years of drought since then. Right. And. Apply what we've learned in the drought to the practical management of trees. Second is that. We. I think with my own experience in the Commercial Owners Condominium Owners Association and a residential condominium owners association, there is not. Broad knowledge of what's what the requirements are. Mhm. And I think that's can be improved. And I also think the user friendliness, it's a great reference. Document that we. We put together. Um. Well, it's there, but how to connect it into implementing day to day. So I don't think actually, I don't think this is a huge. Ask of staff. I think it's a it's a optimization. Of what we have because we have a board that looks at it, the planning board looks at it, planning staff looks at it. But its trees are trees are a hot topic. You know, when something bad happens to it, when a tree is cut down, it draws attention. And I think it's important enough that we publicize and optimize the process that goes to a tree removal, to tree planting, trees, siding and to tree maintenance. Thought it. Member. ASHCROFT So my only concern and maybe someone can assure me that it is addressed, is that. I want my staff to be able to decide. At what point they would be able to give this item. Do you know justice that you can't, you know, just rush through something like this? And I don't know that it rises to the level of putting it ahead of, say, our affordable housing ordinance or also things that have come, you know, have been percolating for the better part of a year. But if we're just saying yes, staff, at some point we would like you to add this to your queue and you , you know, see when that would be. And then and then that way we're not just responding to a particular project that is perhaps making its way through the approval process. But I, I feel that we will get our best work out of staff if we are also respectful of their, their workload and which includes the things that we've asked them to do. So just because it's the most recent ask doesn't mean it should go to the top of the queue. Is that is that a part of. This was my understanding. That's why we're having the priority meeting. But I think yeah. So that's I think this goes back. To the beginning. I think voters say the vote is for the referral priority meeting is a completely different discussion. And, and my, my comments are get it in the queue because if we say at some point we're going to put it in the queue, then at some point it's going to be three years from now and. It might be one year. Right? Well, I if we don't put it in the queue, we can place it wherever the priorities lay. And that's going to be decided on the 17th. Or we could say we're not going to deal with it. And then three or four years down the road, there's going to be some trees cut down. We're going to realize that it wouldn't hit. We should have put a checklist together. And then we're going to be in the having the same discussion again or some other council, someone other than me will be having this discussion again. So I think it's important to get it in the queue and then we can talk about where it sits relative to those very important. And those are all at different stages. Some of them are coming to us soon, some are far back. So we're going to get that full scope of what city management has got on its plate and when it's coming at us. And we can see where this one fits in, but I want it to get it on the list. So if the council ends up agreeing, I mean, the choices tonight are, as the council member letter said, to either say yes to the referral and we'll bring it back as part of the list of the items for the priority setting. Or if the council chooses to say, no, we don't want to focus on this, then the other option is to bring it up during the priority work session or to not deal with it at all. What I suggest that staff do is that when we come back to the priority work session, that will give us time to really sort of define how big of a project this is, because if it's two volumes, it might be too cumbersome to if we want to make it user friendly, we might want to go to a different approach that is more user friendly, or we might want to just tweak it and say, here is the procedure manual or process for it. And that is two totally different time commitments from staff. And so we can look at that member matter. I'd like to move that. We direct staff to do just as the city manager explained with regard to the management of heritage and other trees in the city. Second. All those in favor I. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. And council communications. Remember Ashcroft?