Planning Department
2118 Milvia Street
Berkeley, CA 94704

Re: Public Comments for Congregation Beth El Project

Dear Planning Department:

The Beth El Project DEIR notes that a "total of 19 coast live oaks occur in a small stand" and...Specifically, the proposed automobile entrance access road from Oxford Street will potentially encroach within the driplines of seven oaks. Additionally, two oaks may be impacted by construction of the associated parking lot and school building. One oak is proposed to be relocated."

Essentially, of the 19 oaks in this natural stand, one will be directly impacted and nine will be potentially impacted. Mitigation measure MM 4.5-5 alleges that implementation of a series of mitigation measures "would reduce potential impacts to coast live oaks to less than significant."

The California Oak Foundation would like to point out that the DEIR currently has no contingency planning if mitigation measure MM 4.5-5 fails to fully protect onsite coast live oak. The COF suggests that mitigation measure MM 4.5-5 be amended to assure project impacts to coast live oak are in fact reduced to insignificance:

1. A five-year mitigation monitoring period be included in the DEIR to confirm that the project does not impact the health of onsite coast live oak.
2. Should the health of coast live oaks be significantly impacted by the project during the monitoring period, the replacement cost of individuals tree shall be calculated by the applicant and approved by the planning department in accordance with the most current edition of the International Society of Arboriculture's "Guide to Establishing Values for Trees and Shrubs." Replacement cost fees may be used to fund local native tree programs.

Sincerely,

Janet S. Cobb, President

California Oak Foundation
1212 Broadway, Suite 810
Oakland, CA 94612
phone: 510-763-0282
fax: 510-208-4435
e-mail: oakstaff@californiaoaks
http://www.californiaoaks.org