City of Corona
Staff Report
400 S. Vicentia Ave.
Corona, CA 92882
File #: 22-0327
REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
DATE: 04/20/2022
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Planning and Development Department
SUBJECT:
Professional Services Agreement with Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. in the amount of $199,448 to prepare the City’s Rezoning Program for the 6th Cycle Housing Element and Supplemental Environmental Impact Report to the General Plan Environmental Impact Report (RFP22-051SB).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The City issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking consultant services for the preparation of the City’s General Plan Housing Element Rezoning Program. The rezoning program will identify the properties being rezoned to high density to accommodate the City’s housing sites inventory for low and moderate-income units required by the State’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), establish development standards and architectural design guidelines for the high density, affordable housing sites and prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Report to the General Plan Environmental Impact Report. Pursuant to state Assembly Bill 1398, the City is required to complete its rezoning program by October 15, 2022. Stantec’s proposal met the required elements of the City’s scope of work in the proposal and demonstrated professional experience in preparing community plans, design guidelines, and environmental documents for local agencies.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
That the City Council:
a. Award Request for Proposal 22-051SB (RFP22-051SB) to prepare the City’s Rezoning Program for the 6th Cycle Housing Element and Supplemental Environmental Impact Report to the General Plan Environmental Impact Report.
b. Approve the Professional Services Agreement with Stantec Consulting Services in the amount of $199,448 for the preparation of the Rezoning Program for the 6th Cycle Housing Element and Supplemental Environmental Impact Report to the General Plan Environmental Impact Report.
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File #: 22-0327
c. Authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to execute the Professional Services Agreement with Stantec Consulting Services and to approve necessary change orders up to the amount provided by Corona Municipal Code Section 3.08.070(I).
d. Authorize the City Manager, or his designee, and the City Attorney to negotiate and execute any amendments to this agreement which are non-substantive or are otherwise in compliance with the City Council’s actions hereunder.
e. Authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to issue a purchase order to Stantec Consulting Services in the amount of $199,448 for the preparation of the City’s Rezoning Program for the 6th Cycle Housing Element and Supplemental Environmental Impact Report to the General Plan Environmental Impact Report.
f. Accept $215,000 of Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) grant funding from the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development. g. Appropriate $215,000 to the General Plan/Climate Action Plan Update project in the General Fund and increase revenues by the same amount.
BACKGROUND & HISTORY:
Project Description
The rezoning program is to accommodate the planning of low and moderate-income households.
The City’s General Plan Housing Element Update for Planning Period 2021-2029 was adopted by the City Council on November 3, 2021, which included a rezone program to accommodate the City’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA). The City’s Housing Element Update has been reviewed by the State’s Housing and Community Development (HCD) Department but has not yet received approval of State compliance. The City is currently working on certain revisions to the Housing Element based on the latest comments from HCD to obtain Housing Element compliance.
The Housing Element Update requires the City to plan for 2,792 low-income housing units and 1,096 moderate income housing units pursuant to the State’s RHNA allocation. The City’s total RHNA allocation was 6,088 units with 3,888 allocated to low- and moderate-income housing units. The City’s Housing Element Update includes an inventory of properties that are intended to be rezoned to high density residential or an Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO) zone in order to plan for sites suitable for low and moderate- income units. The AHO zone is a new zone being established by the City to establish by-right development standards for affordable housing projects. The City is proposing to create development standards and architectural design guidelines for the AHO zone.
The AHO zone will cover existing properties that are developed with non-residential land uses. The AHO zone would allow these properties to be redeveloped with residential land uses should a percentage of the housing units include low- and moderate-income housing.
The creation of the AHO zone will also require analysis pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The City’s General Plan was recently updated in 2020 and included the adoption of a Program Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that was certified on June 30, 2020. The City’s RHNA allocation for the Housing Element Update exceeded the City’s housing unit projection for Year City of Corona Page 2 of 5 Printed on 4/13/2022
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File #: 22-0327
RHNA allocation for the Housing Element Update exceeded the City’s housing unit projection for Year 2040 in the General Plan Update. The General Plan EIR anticipated an additional 5,494 housing units. The City’s RHNA allocation exceeds the City’s projected housing growth by 594 units. The additional housing units from the RHNA were not known at the time the General Plan EIR was prepared. Therefore, a supplement to the EIR will need to be prepared to address the potential growth that could occur from the Housing Element rezoning program.
The City did not obtain a state-compliant Housing Element from HCD within 120 days of October 15, 2021. HCD’s comment letter on the city-adopted Housing Element required the City to include more information on the contributing factors to fair housing issues, how identified housing sites further fair housing, and that the City add goals, metrics and milestones to further fair housing practice and add commensurate housing programs. Corona is within the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) region, which includes 197 public jurisdictions. As of April 2022, only seven jurisdictions within SCAG have a state-compliant Housing Element. The City is completing its revisions to the Housing Element based on HCD’s comment letter and will be resubmitting to HCD in May. Therefore, the City is continuing to work with HCD to obtain compliance. Pursuant to Assembly Bill 1398, the City will need to complete its rezoning program by October 15, 2022 since the Housing Element was not approved by HCD within 120 days of October 15, 2021.
Request for Proposal 22-051SB
The RFP was posted on the City’s PlanetBids bidding website on February 8, 2022 and advertised in the Sentinel Weekly on February 9, 2022. A total of 700 prospective consultants expressed interest in the RFP by registering on the City’s website, and two proposals were received by the due date on March 9, 2022. The two proposals were submitted by Interwest Consulting Group and Stantec Consulting Services, Inc.
ANALYSIS:
The evaluation team consisted of three staff members and the two proposals were evaluated using the following criteria.
a) Completeness of Response - Pass or Fail Grade.
b) Qualification of the Firm - 10 Points Maximum (per evaluator) · This includes strength and stability of the firm, technical competence, demonstrated knowledge of the scope of work required and capability of performing specific tasks outlined in the RFP, adequacy of staff to provide required services, and reputation of firm in providing similar services.
c) Qualification of Personnel - 40 Points Maximum (per evaluator) · This includes qualifications, education, technical competence, and experience of staff. d) Work Plan/Project Understanding and Approach- 40 Points Maximum (per evaluator) · This includes depth and thoroughness of consultant’s understanding of the project and the City’s requirements, identification and understanding of project issues and challenges, quality and logic of work plan, logic of project organization, appropriateness of resource estimate, labor distribution among the tasks, adequacy of system or process for managing cost and budget, adequacy of system or process for managing project schedule, and adequacy of system or process for communicating with the City.
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File #: 22-0327
e) Value - 10 Points Maximum (per evaluator)
· This includes appropriate number of hours budgeted for Project tasks, reasonableness of consultant’s hourly rates, labor hours, and fee required to perform the work in relation to the scope of work.
The final ranking of the two proposals from the evaluation team are shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Proposal Rankings
Rank Name of Firm Value
1 Stantec Consulting
Services, Inc.
$199,448
2 Interwest Consulting
Group
$199,749
Staff recommends awarding the contract for RFP 22-051SB to Stantec Consulting Services, Inc in the amount of $199,448. Stantec’s proposal demonstrated the firm has done similar work in other jurisdictions that included rezoning, the creation of development standards and design guidelines and the preparation of environmental documents. Stantec’s experience includes the development of design guidelines for Los Angeles County Transit Oriented District Toolkit and the development of new ordinances to allow for affordable housing in the City of Maywood. Stantec is also the consultant preparing Riverside County’s Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) Strategic Plan, which involves visioning and TOC strategies to promote transit-oriented development at eight transit stations along State Route 91/Riverside and the Perris Valley transit corridors.
The State of California, Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) grants provide funding to local governments for the preparation and adoption of planning documents and process improvements that accelerate housing production and facilitate compliance to implement the 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment. The City of Corona has been approved to receive reimbursement of up to $215,000 for the Housing Element, once the document is approved by HCD as State compliant.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Approval of the recommended actions will appropriate $215,000 to the General Plan/Climate Action Plan Update project in the General Fund, for the LEAP grant. In addition, revenue estimates will be increased by the same amount. The revenue from HCD will be received as a reimbursement, once the Housing Element is approved as State compliant. The recommended budgetary adjustments will provide the funding needed for the Housing Element Rezoning Program.
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File #: 22-0327
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS:
This action is exempt pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the Guidelines for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which states that a project is exempt from CEQA if the activity is covered by the commonsense exemption that CEQA applies only to projects that have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA. This action is simply to approve a professional services agreement for inspection services, and there is no possibility that approving this Amendment will have a significant effect on the environment. Therefore, no environmental analysis is required.
PREPARED BY: JOANNE COLETTA, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Attachments:
1. Exhibit 1 - Draft PSA with Stantec Consulting Services, Inc.
2. Exhibit 2 - 2020 Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) Grants Program Award Letter dated February 4, 2021
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