Title
Recommendation to Authorize the City Manager to Execute a Fourth Amendment to the Service Provider Agreement with Cultivate, LLC to Increase Compensation by $75,000, for a Total Aggregate Compensation Not to Exceed $220,500, to Continue Providing Technical Planning Support to the City of Alameda General Plan Update through Plan Adoption. (Planning, Building and Transportation 209)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2019, the City Council approved 2019 Biannual Budget and 2019 Annual Report on the Status of the General Plan, which identified the need for a comprehensive update of the 1991 General Plan. Work began on the update in 2019, with technical support from Cultivate, LLC. In February 2020, the City Council approved a contract amendment for the next phase of work, and in 2020, the City of Alameda (City) received a $310,000 State Grant to partially fund the General Plan update and project Environmental Impact Report (EIR).
In August, the staff/consultant team completed all chapters for a complete draft General Plan 2040 for public review, launched the project website to allow the public to review and comment on the entire draft General Plan, and sent a postcard to all Alameda households informing them of the update process. Access to the draft General Plan and information about the forums and opportunities to comment on the work completed to date are available at <https://www.alameda2040.org/> or at <https://www.alamedaca.gov/Home> (scroll down to General Plan 2040).
The next, and final phase of the General Plan process is expected to take approximately 8 to 10 months and will include public forums to review, comment, and revise General Plan policies, Planning Board public hearings, and City Council public hearings to consider adoption of the final General Plan. To fund the consultant assistance needed to complete this work, staff is recommending a $75,000 increase to the contract amount, which staff and the consultant team believe will be sufficient to complete the General Plan public review and revision process through final City Council adoption, which staff anticipates occurring in the summer of 2021. The necessary funds are available and budgeted for this purpose in the Planning & Building Department Biannual Budget.
BACKGROUND
The General Plan must be an “integrated, internally consistent and compatible statement of policies for the adopting agency.” (Government Code section 65300.5.) The General Plan establishes the local development and conservation policies necessary to guide physical development and protect the general health, safety and welfare of the community and the environment. The last comprehensive update of the current General Plan occurred almost 30 years ago in 1991. As described in the introduction of the General Plan, the 1991 Plan was designed to serve the City for 20 years or until 2010.
Work on the current General Plan update, which is designed to address the period from 2020 to 2040, began in 2019 with a number of Planning Board workshops and study sessions to scope out the overall organization of a new plan, review and comment on updated land use classifications, and comment on the initial draft of the Land Use Diagram. Over the spring and summer of 2020, the Transportation Commission and the Recreation and Parks Commission reviewed and commented on the progress to date on the General Plan drafts.
In August, the staff/consultant team completed all chapters for a complete draft General Plan 2040 for public review. The team also launched the project website to allow the public to review and comment on the entire draft General Plan for the period 2020 through 2040, and sent a postcard to all Alameda households informing the public of the update process. Access to the draft General Plan and information about the forums and opportunities to comment on the work completed to date are available at <https://www.alameda2040.org/>. As described on the website, a series of Planning Board public forums are planned over the next 4 months.
Now that the draft General Plan is available for public review, the community, the Planning Board and the City Council have an opportunity to review and comment on the draft Plan. These comments will be considered and appropriate revisions or additions will be made to the Plan before the Planning Board makes a final recommendation and the City Council. Staff is expecting this process to take 8 to 10 months. Staff would like to complete the Planning Board’s review of the draft General Plan and EIR in the spring of 2021, which would allow the City Council to hold final public hearings and make a decision on the final draft of the General Plan and EIR in the summer of 2021. Staff would like to complete the General Plan update in 2021 so that the community and staff can begin work on the next Housing Element update for the period 2023-2030. Per State law, the City Council must adopt the next Housing Element by the end of 2022.
DISCUSSION
Cultivate is a qualified planning and design consulting firm, with a long history of work in the Bay Area and for the City over the last 10 years. The firm specializes in planning, design, and assisting cities with community planning and involvement. The firm successfully assisted the City with the 2013 Alameda Point Planning Vision Plan and the 2017 Main Street Specific Plan. Cultivate is on the City’s on-call list of pre-qualified planning consultants.
Cultivate has been instrumental to the General Plan update process to date. They have provided important technical and graphic support for staff, and the quality of their work has been excellent. Staff believes that their continued support throughout the process until adoption is critical to a successful public process.
ALTERNATIVES
The City Council may:
• Approve the contract amendment as recommended;
• Approve the contract amendment with revisions determined necessary by the City Council; or
• Not approve the contract amendment and direct staff to complete the General Plan update process without assistance from Cultivate.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
The necessary funds are available and budgeted for this use in the Planning & Building Department’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2020-21 Budget. In addition, in 2020, the City received a $310,000 State Grant to partially fund the General Plan update and project EIR. These grant funds are designed to supplement the Community Planning Funds collected over the past 10 years to fund General Plan and Zoning Ordinance updates.
The City Council previously approved the original contract and the contract amendments as presented below:
|
Contract |
Approval Date |
Authorized Amount |
Expended to Date |
|
Original Contract |
11/13/18 |
$10,500 |
$10,500 |
|
1st Amendment |
1/17/19 |
$60,000 |
$60,000 |
|
2nd Amendment |
12/19/19 |
N/A (Term Extension) |
N/A |
|
3rd Amendment |
2/28/20 |
$75,000 |
$71,000 |
|
Total |
|
$145,500 |
$141,500 |
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
The General Plan update will result in an updated long-range planning document that guides physical development, and will include the City’s overarching goals, policies, and implementation actions regarding future development.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
A decision to amend a contract for planning assistance is not a project subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
CLIMATE IMPACTS
The General Plan is the City’s guiding policy document. The update embeds recent policy actions, such as the City’s Climate Action and Resiliency Plan, into the broader policy framework related to topics such as land use, transportation, and recreation. Further, the General Plan update is being completed as an almost “paperless” update, with an emphasis on use of electronic media instead of printed copies of the various drafts of the document.
RECOMMENDATION
Authorize the City Manager to execute a fourth amendment with Cultivate, LLC to increase compensation by $75,000, for a total aggregate compensation not to exceed $220,500, to continue providing Technical Planning Support to the City of Alameda General Plan Update though Plan Adoption.
CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION
The City Manager recommends approval of the fourth amendment.
Respectfully submitted,
Andrew Thomas, Planning, Building and Transportation Director
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Nancy Bronstein, Interim Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. Original Agreement
2. 1st Amendment
3. 2nd Amendment
4. 3rd Amendment
5. 4th Amendment
cc: Eric Levitt, City Manager