Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: REGULAR AGENDA (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: REVISED SCOPE OF SERVICES FOR THE HIGHWAY 116
AND WEST COTATI AVENUE SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS
PROJECT
Date: August 12, 2025
Written by: Craig Scott, Director of Public Works/City Engineer Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council approve by motion the design agreement amendment with Mark Thomas for the completion of the intersection design on Highway 116 at West Cotati Avenue and authorize the City Manager to excecute said amendment.
Background
The intersection of West Cotati Avenue and Highway 116 has long been a safety concern as it serves the West side of town and is off a busy two-lane highway. The City continues to pursue grant funds to improve the intersection and is included in the City’s Traffic Impact Fee Program.
The intersection was included in the Caltrans Highway 116 Widening Project, for which plans were completed in 2009 as part of the South Sonoma Business Park. However, the Business Park did not get completed in its entirety and only improvements to the Lowes development were completed.
Improving the intersection remains a high priority for the City and the history of stalled developments in this Priority Development Area have made it apparent that the City needs to take the lead on the design to remove the uncertainty around a multi-year Caltrans design approval process.
Additionally in 2021, the City completed its Local Road Safety Plan which identified the intersection improvements as a priority safety project, and, in 2024, the City adopted its Active Transportation Plan which also includes the Project as a high priority. The improvements are envisioned to move ahead in tandem with the recently entitled Cotati Villages 1 and 2 development projects which are to add a total of 303 rental units including 31 affordable units for families in the very low-income bracket. The private developments are dependent upon the proposed Project improvements being constructed and impact fees for those projects are to be applied to the Project.
On October 25, 2022, City Council approved professional services agreements to complete the environmental review and 35 percent design for the Project. Those efforts were completed and the City subsequently issued and Request for Qualification and then awarded a design agreement with the most qualified contractor (Mark Thomas) on September 10, 2024 to complete the construction level design package and all related State and Federal approvals.
Analysis/Discussion
The City and Mark Thomas began design work by doing the needed refinements of the 35% design in preparation for initiating the design review process with Caltrans. As discussed at the design agreement approval meeting, this intersection was proceeding as a conventional signalized intersection. This project is within Caltrans right of way on Highway 116, so the roadway improvements require Caltrans review and approval and will ultimately be operated by Caltrans.
At the outset, the goal has been to qualify the project for a ”streamlined” design review process by getting project design authorized through the Design Engineering Evaluation Report (DEER).
This is a review process used by Caltrans to streamline the development of projects funded by others by reducing steps in the project development process and ultimately to save significant time and money.
To determine if the project would qualify under the DEER process, Mark Thomas had to first develop and submit a variety of technical documents to Caltrans for an Intersection Safety and Operational Assessment Process (ISOAP). Essentially, the ISOAP requires that the designer (Mark Thomas) must evaluate numerous intersection control alternatives before Caltrans would approve the proposed intersection type and allow the City to proceed into design development using the DEER process. In the ISOAP, Caltrans uses a variety of criteria to evaluate the intersection alternatives, but most relevant to this item is that Caltrans evaluates the intersection operations and safety. After screening out various intersection options, the two intersections that met the Caltrans criteria were a signalized intersection and a roundabout.
Following Caltrans review of the ISOAP submittal, they communicated to staff that both intersection types had similar operational characteristics, but that a roundabout in this location was superior from a safety perspective. After numerous meetings with the consultant team, SCTCA and Caltrans staff, it was concluded that there are no safety measures that can be added to the signalized intersection that would improve intersection safety enough to make it equal to or superior to the roundabout alternative. As a matter of statewide policy, Caltrans staff communicated that they would not approve an operationally equivalent intersection design that is inferior in safety. Caltrans indicated that they would allow the roundabout alternative to proceed as the single preferred alternative into the DEER process. Caltrans recognized the impact of the intersection design change to the City and offered to partner with the City on the project, including potentially including the completed intersection design in a planned Caltrans repaving project on Highway 116 in 2028. However, regardless of the type of intersection, the City is still responsible for pulling together the necessary funding to construct the project. If the project is not constructed, Cotati Villages 2 would most likely not proceed, but it will also stymie any future development along the largely undeveloped/underdeveloped Highway 116 Priority Development Area.
Given the need to preserve design funds, the City quickly froze the design work and ultimately engaged in negotiations with the design team on what would be required to move to a roundabout design. Overall cost, timing and impacts to surrounding properties were all discussed in depth. After iterations to streamline and reduce design costs, the final proposed scope of work is attached that will move the project forward with a roundabout design on Highway 116. The developers at Redwood Row and Cotati Villages have indicated a willingness to engage with the City to ensure a cohesive design process, with geometric design expected to be confirmed before the end of 2025, if the design amendment is approved.
Financial Considerations
Following City Council approval, the City entered into a design agreement with Mark Thomas for $1,206,756, with approximately $265K spent to date. The proposed amendment will add an additional $225,114 for a total design fee of $1,431,870. The additional funding is anticipated to come from savings from the budgeted Police Station Roof project, which came in substantially under budget at $30,705. If this design agreement amendment is authorized, it is proposed to be funded by a portion of the remaining Police Station Roof project budget. The adopted Police Station roof budget is $693,000, with an estimated $634,583 remaining if the roofing project proceeds. Therefore, it is recommended that $225,114 be redirected to fund this amendment, with the remaining available budget (approximately $409,469) returned to the unappropriated General Fund.
The most recent planning level estimate for construction of the intersection is approximately $8M. Other costs, including right of way and construction inspection could add another $1.5M, but these costs are preliminary and won’t be known until the project is closer to final design. At this time, the City has secured $2M in construction funding and is currently applying for another $2M in construction grants. Traffic impact fees from the adjacent developments, if used for this project, are expected to add approximately $3M in additional funding. Regardless, once the design becomes ”shovel ready”, funding generally becomes more readily available through redirected regional project savings, other grants, etc. For this reason, it is not uncommon for capital projects to move to final design to be ready to leverage any available funding.
Environmental Issues
The Project implements the General Plan and is consistent with the circulation plans and infrastructure facilities established by the adopted Public Works Development Standards, circulation planning and General Plan policies for which an EIR was certified. The analysis relies upon the program level analysis prepared for the 2015 City of Cotati General Plan and its EIR (SCH No. 2013082037), which was certified in 2015. The project is an infrastructure improvement to ensure the on-going bicycle, pedestrian, and vehicular circulation function safely and appropriately for Cotati residents under the General Plan build out, as analyzed in the General Plan EIR. The project would not result in substantial changes nor does it involve new information that would warrant further environmental review because the level of improvements proposed are primarily the construction of limited new features along an existing roadway, which were planned for and included within the development assumptions analyzed in the program level EIR for the General Plan. Furthermore, the project does not contain elements that are peculiar to the project or project site(s) that would result in new or more severe environmental impacts relative to the General Plan EIR. Lastly, all adopted mitigating General Plan policies and mitigation measures identified in the 2015 General Plan EIR that apply to the Project will be imposed as requirements within the construction contract. With implementation of identified General Plan mitigation measures and uniformly applied development standards, the project would not result in a substantial increase in the severity or significant impacts that were previously identified in the program level EIR, nor would the project introduce any new significant impacts that were not previously identified. There would be no additional environmental impacts beyond those analyzed in the General Plan EIR, and therefore the project is exempt pursuant to California Public Resources Code Section 21083.3 and CEQA Guidelines Section 15183.