Public notice of any appeal hearing must be made by the posting of a white appeal sign on the property at least 15 days prior to the hearing. If you are not the appellant and want to know more about an appeal hearing, please contact the City's Arborist Division. You can also query the property address on the City's online permitting database to see what has been appealed. (You can search the database by a number of factors, such as the permit number, but the easiest will probably be the street address of the property. Scroll down the search criteria until you see where you can enter the street address, enter the address, and then press the Search button.)
Anyone is welcome to attend the hearing and request to speak in favor or against the appeal. If you wish to speak at a hearing, make sure to fill out a green card which is available at the front of the hearing room declaring your intention to speak. You will not be called on directly to speak (which means you can change your mind about speaking at any time), but you can stand up and say that you want to speak when the Tree Commission asks if there are any comments or rebuttals after the appellant has presented his or her case.
You will have up to five minutes to speak in the rebuttal period, but you should think about keeping your comments as brief and succinct as possible for maximum impact. Once testimony is over and the Tree Commission has gone into their discussion period, no more questions or testimony can be given, so make sure to get your comments in before they begin their discussion of the case.