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Board denies appeal of Public Works tree‑removal order after data‑location dispute
Summary
An appellant alleged a mismatch between street addresses and the Bureau of Urban Forestry's tree‑database coordinates for trees slated for removal; BUFF said it corrected the database and that crews are not dispatched by lat/long. The Board denied the appeal 5–0, finding the Director's order and BUFF follow‑up sufficient.
The San Francisco Board of Appeals voted 5–0 to deny an appeal of Public Works Order No. 204218, which authorized removal of hazardous street trees at 46 Cragmont Avenue and trees tied to addresses on Junipero Serra Boulevard.
Appellant Lance Carnes presented maps and California Public Records Act extracts that he said showed a latent discrepancy between the street addresses and latitude/longitude coordinates in the Department of Public Works tree inventory. Carnes warned the discrepancy could lead a crew to remove the wrong trees and asked that the Director's decision be amended to acknowledge and correct the database location for the trees in question.
Chris Buck of the Bureau of Urban Forestry (BUFF) told the board that the subject trees were hazardous and had been properly posted and noticed. Buck acknowledged data issues in the X/Y fields and said BUFF had been responsive, had exchanged emails with Carnes, and subsequently corrected the coordinates in the database. Buck emphasized that crews are not deployed with X/Y coordinates alone, that the Department uses multiple identifiers (address, sequence numbers and photos), and that tree health and posting were not in question.
Several public commenters and advocates supported Carnes’ call for accurate public data and asked the board to require clearer findings. In deliberations commissioners debated whether the Director’s order already reflected BUFF follow‑up. Commissioner Anne Lazarus moved to deny the appeal on the basis that the Director’s order and staff follow‑up provided sufficient clarity. The motion passed 5–0.
Order number: 204218. Location: 46 Cragmont Avenue and 80 Junipero Serra Boulevard. The board did not reverse the removals but discussed and recorded the concern about database accuracy and Buffalo/DPW follow‑up.
