HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/7/2020 Item Public Comment and Item 2, Powers
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Will Powers <
To:Advisory Bodies
Subject:Tree Committee Meeting 12.7.20
TC:
I believe that, once again, the city is going to stop me from participating via GoToMeeting in this meeting.
I have followed all the steps and it never works, yet I completely participated in a court case last week via Zoom and
everything was fine.
So, since you're going to lock me out again (last month the message kept saying "you have voluntarily muted yourself",
when I had done no such thing), here are my comments. I'll try to connect by phone so I can hear the meeting and I
expect to have my comments read into the record.
For the public comment time for items NOT on the agenda:
1. This committee continues to be the lapdog for developers in the city; this committee has been defanged ever since
you allowed Matt Horn to hoodwink you into thinking that the Tree Ordinance was just being, quote, "revised" and,
quote, "updated" when, in fact, Horn, acting as his own lapdog for developers, stripped this committee of any
power. Mr. Horn was rewarded for his catering to the rich by being hired as Public Works Director. He should be called
"Public Works for Developers Director".
2. The slaughter of trees that this committee is allowing at the CHP site on California Blvd. is an outrage. You allowed
trees that had NOTHING to do with the new bike path to be slaughtered.
Shame on all of you.
3. Applicants continue to fail to put ribbons around the subject tree or trees, yet you allow them to have their
applications heard. No ribbon, no hearing: that should be the rule.
Comment re Item No. 2, application for removal at 1446 Nipomo Street.
This is an example of the difference between inconvenience and hardship. This tree, which provides shade, oxygen and
habitat shelter should not be removed, based on the presented evidence. The private arborist report talks about
damage to the house foundation from the tree roots. Arborists are not engineers and are not qualified, based on
surface evidence, to testify as to what, if anything, is damaging the house. This item should, at least, be tabled and no
removal allowed until when, and if, the applicant provides an engineer's report stating that the tree is damaging the
house's foundation. Further, damage to the sidewalk is minimal.
Please vote no on this application.
Respectfully submitted,
Will Powers, Ph.D
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