City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends the City Council adopt a resolution authorizing staff to submit a
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Policies for Livable Active
Communities and Environments (PLACE) Program Grant application for preparation
of a Citywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan and related City code and policy
amendments and approve the proposed partnership with Alta Planning + Design for
PLACE Grant application and professional services related to implementation of the
Grant.
BACKGROUND:
In August, 2005, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, recognizing that
chronic disease prevention is a crucial element in protecting the public’s health,
created a new Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention within the
Department of Public Health. At that time, funding was allocated for a new planning
and policy development program within the Division, resulting in the creation of the
“Policies for Livable Active Communities and Environments” (PLACE) Program in
November, 2006. The PLACE Program recognizes that a community’s environment
affects public health. The design of cities, communities, neighborhoods, work sites,
schools and streets can impact how much physical activity people get and how we
choose to design or improve various aspects of those communities plays an
important role in preventing chronic health conditions.
Meeting Date: 10/22/07 Item Number: A-4
AGENDA ITEM: Resolution Authorizing Staff to Submit a Los Angeles County
Department of Public Health Policies for Livable Active Communities and
Environments (PLACE) Program Grant Application for Preparation of a Citywide
Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan and Related City Code and Policy
Amendments and Approve the Proposed Partnership with Alta Planning + Design
for PLACE Grant Application Preparation and Professional Services Related To
Implementation Of The Grant.
Contact Person/Dept.: John Rivera,
Senior Management Analyst
Phone Number:
(310) 253-5616
Fiscal Impact: Yes [x] No [] General Fund: Yes [X] No []
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [X] Attachments: [X]
Public Notification:
Mia Birk and Matt Benjamin, Alta Planning + Design and Jennifer Klausner Los Angeles
County Bicycle Coalition by e-mail on October 17, 2007. Master Notification List on
October 17, 2007.
Department Approval:
Charles D. Herbertson 10/11/07
City Attorney Approval:
Carol A. Schwab 10/16/07
Fiscal Impact Review:
Marlee Chang (by M. Noller) (10/17/07)
City Manager Approval:
Jerry B. Fulwood (10/17/07) City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
In August, 2007, the PLACE Program released a Request For Initiatives, to address
the influence of land use and community design on health. The Grant Program calls
for submittal of proposals that promote active environments through policy change
and accompanying physical projects to improve the built environment. The PLACE
Grant is a competitive grant intended to fund up to five grantees over a period of
three years and four months, beginning around March 1, 2008. Organizations
receiving grant awards would be eligible for three one-year renewals at the sole
discretion of the Director of the Department of Public Health (DPH) and based on
demonstrated performance, continued availability of funds, and approval by DPH
and the County Board of Supervisors. The funds available for each grantee are up
to $345,000 over the term of the grant. It is anticipated that no more than one
applicant will be funded in any one of the eight Los Angeles County Service
Planning Areas, with a maximum of five grants awarded Countywide.
DISCUSSION:
The City’s 1996 Circulation Element of the General Plan calls for the preparation of a
Citywide Bikeway Master Plan and adoption of pedestrian access standards
(Implementation Measures 5. and 6.). In 1999, the City initiated the Community
Visioning and Strategic Planning Process. The Visioning process identified the
community’s strong desire to become sustainable. During various community
meetings on projects ranging from the Exposition Light Rail Transit Project,
Washington National Specific Plan and Downtown improvements, the community
has expressed interest in developing and improving the City’s bicycle and pedestrian
facilities.
Overview of Proposed Initiative
The grant proposal would be to prepare the City’s first ever Citywide Bicycle and
Pedestrian Master Plan (BPMP) and implement the BPMP through initiating grant
funded programs, review and updating of the City’s related plans, codes, policies
and standards, and the installation of physical bikeway improvements. The following
is a basic listing of anticipated activities for each grant identified funding Term:
Term 1 – 4 MONTHS 3/1/08 – 6/30/08 –Funding Amount $35,000
• Begin preparation of a citywide BPMP.
• Staff training.
Term 2 – 1 year 7/1/08 – 6/30/09 –Funding Amount $105,000
• Continue BPMP process. City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
• Begin reviewing City plans, codes, policies and standards and determining which
need revising to implement the BPMP.
• Initiate design and planning of priority bikeway physical improvements.
• Participate in City’s General Plan update process.
• Staff training.
Term 3 – 1 year 7/1/09 – 6/30/10 –Funding Amount $105,000
• Continue process amending City plans, codes, policies and standards to
implement the BPMP.
• Complete design and planning of priority bikeway physical improvements - EXPO
to Downtown Bikeway- Explore possibility of Bike Route along Wesley Street,
Higuera Street, Lucerne Avenue and connection to various side streets to
Downtown (Depending on funding, explore the possibility of continuing this
bikeway to the schools via Duquesne and Farragut and modifying the
Jackson/Jasmine pedestrian walkway).
• Participate in review of proposed private-sector discretionary development
project to educate City engineering and planning staffs on implementation of the
BPMP.
• Participate in General Plan Process.
• Prepare grant applications to implement other BPMP identified programs and
physical improvements (as budget allows).
• Staff training.
Term 4 – 1 year 7/1/10 – 6/30/11 –Funding Amount $100,000
• Perform review of BPMP and resulting plans, codes, policies and standards to
implement the BPMP to determine if they are achieving stated goals, and if
needed, identify and process amendments to those that are in need of revision.
• Prepare grant applications to implement other BPMP identified programs and
physical improvements (as budget allows).
• Staff training.
Staffing and Partnering
The grant program requires the designation of an “Initiative Coordinator” who will
lead the initiative efforts and regularly work with DPH on initiative and grant program
implementation, which would be provided in-kind, as follows:
Public Work’s Director/City Engineer Charles Herbertson will designate John Rivera
(Senior Management Analyst, Culver City Public Works Department) as the
“initiative Coordinator”. Mr. Rivera’s primary role will be to supervise the grant
implementation and work with Alta Planning + Design, which will be responsible for
the day-to-day implementation of the grant, along with Los Angeles County Bicycle City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
Coalition designated representatives who will provide outreach capabilities,
knowledge and experience of cycling in the City and region, and educational
capabilities.
As stated above, Alta Planning + Design is proposed to be primarily responsible for
implementing the grant program under the supervision of the Initiative Coordinator.
Alta would conduct the public outreach process, prepare the BPMP and the update
process of related plans, codes, policies and standards, schedule meetings, and
prepare all grant related notices, minutes, reports, and correspondence. City staff is
proposing to enter into a sole-source contract with Alta for these services. Please
refer to the following sub-section for more details.
City staff proposes partnering in this initiative with the Los Angeles County Bicycle
Coalition (LACBC) as its required non-profit community based organization.
Founded in 1998, LACBC is a membership-based, non-profit bicycle advocacy
organization. LACBC activities are directed to help people of all ages, abilities, and
cultures to travel as cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists safely and simultaneously.
LACBC’s members have experience in cycling and interaction with street and
bikeway infrastructure which will be invaluable for this initiative. LACBC also has
the ability to promote community involvement and to provide educational
resources. These are the roles we envision for their participation in the Initiative.
LACBC members and board members have participated in various City planning
projects from 2000 into 2007.
Partnering with Alta Planning + Design
Typically when beginning the preparation of a planning or design plan such as the
proposed Citywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, the City would issue a
Request for Proposal (RFP) from consulting firms. The RFP could be
sent/advertised for broad distribution or sent to a specific set of identified
consultants. The RFP process would allow these firms to submit competitive
proposals for providing the desired professional services. In the case of the
PLACE Program Grant, staff is recommending another approach. That alternative
approach would result in the City pre-selecting Alta Planning + Design to provide
the required professional services without requiring them to submit a proposal.
That approach is allowed by Culver City Municipal Code Section No. 3.07.070 A.
and C. 1. Personal and Professional Services Excluded (see Attachment No. 3).
Section No. 3.07.070 A. and C. 1. allows the City to award a contract in any
amount for professional services without competitive bidding; provided that
competitive quotations whenever practical, as determined by the City Manager,
are obtained from not less than three (3) vendors. For the following reasons City
staff believes it would be in the best interests of the City to determine that the City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
PLACE Program Grant qualifies for such an exemption to requirements for
competitive bidding and competitive quotations:
1. The grant criteria were released on August 17, 2007, and the grant submittal
deadline is November 13, 2007. The Bidders Conference, the only time
answers or clarifications to the questions about the grant were given, was held
on September 11, 2007. This means that applicants have approximately 2
months to develop a proposal, identify and create an eligible partnership and
prepare a very detailed grant application. This shortened period did not allow
enough time to identify a list of firms from which to solicit proposals and then
consider any proposals for a partnering effort.
2. In considering and developing the basic grant proposal, staff concluded that if
the City were successful in obtaining the grant someone would have to be
contracted with to perform the day-to-day function of the grant implementation,
due to staff’s anticipated workload. This would necessitate the expenditure of
time and staff costs to prepare a detailed scope of work, advertising the
contract position, interviewing candidates and preparing a contract. The
contract planner (Associate level or above) would then have to repeat a similar
process to contract for a firm to prepare the proposed Plan. Another option
would be to contract with a firm to provide both the day-to-day function and the
plan preparation. This would still necessitate the expenditure of time and staff
costs to prepare a detail scope of work, advertising the RFP, interviewing
candidates and preparing a contract. Based on recent design projects, staff
developed an estimate for the minimum anticipated time and cost of preparing
and completing an RFP process. This estimate only includes tasks that would
potentially be eliminated if the City were to pre-select Alta, and not the
complete process, some of which we would still need to complete. Staff-time
required would be a minimum of approximately 98 hours at an approximate
cost of $5,800 (including Senior Management Analyst - 45 hours, Public Works
Director/City Engineer – 12 hours, Consulting Traffic Engineer – 20 hours,
Community Development staff – 15 hours, and Public Works Department
support staff – 6 hours, time for preparation and distribution of RFP, reviewing
proposals, interviewing candidates and checking references). The above
estimate is based on hiring a single firm to provide all services. If a contract
planner and separate planning firms are needed, then these costs would
increase by more than fifty (50) percent. By partnering with Alta at the outset of
the project, the City would save these staff hours and costs which could be
dedicated to other projects.
3. Due to current staff’s workload, a contractor was needed to prepare the
required grant Letter of Intent (LOI) and application. Alta agreed to prepare the
LOI overview of the initiative and grant application for a fee not to exceed City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
$5,000. If the Council approves the proposed sole-sourcing, then Alta will
waive that fee saving the City that $5,000. Ultimately, if we receive the grant,
then Alta would benefit because they would not have the cost of preparing a
proposal in response to an RFP. However, if the City is not successful in
obtaining the grant, then Alta would absorb their costs for the LOI and grant
application work.
4. As noted previously, the grant criteria states that successful applicants and
their partners will have a high level of readiness to begin implementing their
initiative. This will include a well-reasoned plan for developing and
implementing policy change and plans for related physical project(s) that will
increase physical activities in their city/community. In addition, successful
applicants will already have secured community, city and required partner
support regarding their initiative. Should the City partner with LACBC and Alta
as staff proposes, the City would be able to begin the project immediately after
signing the contract. This would make our applications more compelling to
DPH due to this time and cost efficiency.
5. Alta Planning + Design is a leading nationwide firm specializing in progressive
transportation planning, design, and implementation. They prepared the June
2006 Metro Bicycle Transportation Strategic Plan for the Los Angeles County
Metropolitan Transportation Authority and are currently working with the City of
Los Angeles on updating its bicycle plan. In the past, Alta has also done work
for the Cities of Santa Monica and West Hollywood. Their knowledge of the
region and neighboring facilities would be invaluable to the City in preparation
of the proposed grant initiative.
Alta’s focus is on multi-modal solutions, particularly bicycle, pedestrian, and trail
corridors and systems planning and design. Alta staff is active in the
Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, Institute of Transportation
Engineers, Transportation Research Board, Women in Transportation Seminar,
and is conducting national studies for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Alta also conducts pedestrian and bicycle trainings nationwide, and have been
involved in award-winning plans and projects.
Alta offers a full range of design services, from site analysis and design to bid
documents and contract administration. As alternative transportation
specialists, Alta is able to meet the technical requirements of projects while
simultaneously providing a high level of design creativity.
Alta has experience working in all size communities, from a few hundred to
millions of residents, from towns and cities to counties, regions, and states, and City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
suburban and urbanized areas. Alta staff has designed and implemented over
3,500 miles of bikeways, walkways, and trails.
Alta has prepared approximately 210 non-motorized plans, feasibility
studies and design documents in California, including more than 88 Bicycle
Transportation Act (BTA) compliant bicycle master plans covering over 150
jurisdictions. BTA compliance allows an agency to qualify for construction
grants.
They have 20 active bicycle/pedestrian plans in CA communities.
Caltrans uses Alta bicycle plans as examples of BTA compliant documents
on their website.
Environmental Review
Pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), no environmental
action is needed at this time. The adoption of policy documents and the construction
of the physical project are anticipated to require adoption of a Negative Declaration
or Mitigated Negative Declaration. The adoption of the CEQA action will occur as
part of the approval process of the Citywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan.
Project Timeline
The grant awards are anticipated to occur in February, 2008. Should the grant
application be approved by the County, staff anticipates starting implementation of
the grant in March, 2008. The following table includes the currently anticipated
timeline for the project:
Task Time Frame
City Council Authorizes PLACE Grant
proposal submission
October 22, 2007
PLACE Grant application submission November 13, 2007
Anticipated Grant Award February 2008
Potential Term of PLACE Grant 3 years and
4 months (Subject to progress and renewal)
March 1, 2008 to
June 30, 2011
FISCAL ANALYSIS:
As stated previously, successful applicants receiving grant awards would be eligible
for three one-year renewals at the sole discretion of the Director of DPH and based
on the demonstrated performance, continued availability of funds, and approval by
DPH and the County Board of Supervisors. The funds available for each grantee
are up to $345,000 over the term of the grant. The grant funds would primarily be
used to fund all the cost of Alta’s professional services and LACBC outreach and City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
initial educational efforts. No City matching funds are required. However, it is
anticipated that in addition to Public Works Department staff, staff support from the
following City departments will be needed to implement the grant: Police, Fire,
Community Development and Parks, Recreation & Community Services. Their role
would be to provide comments and guidance on the master plan and any programs
as they are developed.
Any ongoing programs resulting from this effort are anticipated to be funded through
future grant opportunities that would be available to the City once the proposed
Citywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan were adopted. We anticipate that if a
program has been initiated and grant funding is no longer available, then the
program would be halted until alternative grant funding is obtained.
Because the PLACE Program is a reimbursable grant, the City will be required to
provide the initial funding for each of the four Terms.
Term: Time Period: Maximum Funding Amount:
1 3/1/08 – 6/30/08 $35,000
2 7/1/08 – 6/30/09 $105,000
3 7/1/09 – 6/30/10 $105,000
4 7/1/10 – 6/30/11 $100,000
The grant program allows for funding to be allocated for conferences and training to
support professional development related to the initiative. The funding may be
allocated at a rate of $2,000 in Term 1 and $5,000 in the following 3 Terms. The
proposed grant initiative will include training funding for City and LACBC staff
training.
As noted above, due to staff’s workload, a contractor was needed to prepare the
required grant Letter of Intent (LOI) and application. Alta agreed to prepare the LOI
overview of the initiative and grant application for a fee not to exceed $5,000. The
Public Works Department proposed to fund these services through salary savings
from existing vacant positions in the Environmental Programs and Operations
Division. If the Council approves the proposed sole-sourcing, then Alta will waive
that fee. If the Council rejects the partnering proposal, then the City will pay Alta up
to $5,000 for the application related work by transferring funding from salary savings,
as noted above.
If the City Council approves the partnering with Alta Planning + Design, then the City
would save at a minimum 98 staff hours and $10,800 of staff time.
City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Draft Resolution
2. October 5, 2007, PLACE Grant Program Letter of Intent
3. Culver City Municipal Code Section No. 3.07.070 Personal and Professional
Services Excluded
MOTIONS:
That the City Council:
1. Adopt Resolution No. 2007-_____ authorizing staff to submit a Los Angeles
County Department of Public Health Policies for Livable Active Communities and
Environments (PLACE) Program Grant application for preparation of a Citywide
Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan and related City code and policies
amendments;
2. Authorize the City Manager to sign on behalf of the City all documents required
for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Policies for Livable
Active Communities and Environments (PLACE) Program Grant application for
preparation of a Citywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan and related City
code and policy amendments;
3. Approve a sole-source professional services agreement with Alta Planning +
Design for PLACE Grant application and professional services related to
implementation of the Grant for a Citywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan
and related City code and policy amendments in the amount provided for
pursuant to the approved grant budget, if the grant is awarded to the City; and,
4. Authorize the City Attorney to review/prepare the necessary documents for the
Alta Planning + Design contract, and authorize the City Manager to execute
those documents on behalf of the City