Agenda Report
Fullerton City Council
MEETING DATE: DECEMBER 20, 2022
TO: CITY COUNCIL / SUCCESSOR AGENCY
SUBMITTED BY: SUNAYANA THOMAS, INTERIM DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PREPARED BY: CHRIS SCHAEFER, PLANNING MANAGER
TAYLOR SAMUELSON, ADMINISTRATIVE ANALYST II
SUBJECT: CONTRACT WITH RINCON CONSULTANTS FOR PROFESSIONAL PLANNING SERVICES RELATED TO CITY OF FULLERTON HOUSING ELEMENT ______________________________________________________________________
SUMMARY
City Council consideration of a Professional Services Agreement (PSA) with Rincon Consultants for the City’s sixth cycle Housing Element.
RECOMMENDATION
Approve a Professional Services Agreement for Rincon Consultants for services related to the City’s sixth cycle Housing Element in an amount not to exceed $315,784.00 with contract terms and implementation timelines as agreed to by the City Manager.
Authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute and administer agreements and amendments, in a form approved by the City Attorney.
CITY MANAGER REMARKS
The City had its previous Planning consultant leave after the first draft was sent to HCD. Due to the demand for this special area of consultants and due to change over of senior staff in Community Development between January and July 2022, the City had difficulty finding a qualified consultant. We were able to identify and work with Rincon this Fall to take over the Housing Element analysis. They have to coordinate with our other consultant who Dudek due to complexities.
I believe we are in a position to aggressively successfully complete the Housing Element. Unfortunately due to the complexity and need for additional site data there have been difficulties placed on Rincon and current senior Community Development staff.
PRIORITY POLICY STATEMENT
This item matches the following Priority Policy Statement:
Fiscal and Organizational Stability.
FISCAL IMPACT
The City has funding available through the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) SB2 grants, commonly known as the “Local Early Planning Program” or LEAP grants. The City received a $500,000 grant under Grant No. 20-LEAP-15251.
Upon reporting of existing expenditures to the grant, the grant has a remaining $355,909.52 balance available in Grant Fund (Fund 32) which encompasses the costs associated with professional services with Rincon Consultants to bring the City’s Housing Element into compliance.
This item has no anticipated impact to the City’s General Fund.
DISCUSSION
California’s HCD Division of Housing Policy Development provided the City a Housing Element Assessment Memorandum (Attachment 3) on January 27, 2022 indicating that the City’s draft sixth cycle housing element addresses many statutory requirements but remained deficient as it relates to the Government Code Article 10.6 or the State Housing Element Law. HCD enclosed appendices with descriptions of the necessary revisions to adequately comply with the law. The Community and Economic Development Department experienced significant staff turnover and transition in the subsequent months following this letter, resulting in implementation delays.
The City’s Planning Division is addressing an emergent need to bring the City’s Housing Element into compliance with California statute which requires that all local governments adequately plan to meet housing needs of everyone within the community through the adoption of adequate housing elements. Staff identified various consultants to address the immediate and emergent needs through an informal bid process and reviewed timelines for implementation alongside operational cost considerations., Rincon Consultants presented themselves through this informal review process as the most competitive and effective consultant to provide professional planning services to bring the City into compliance with the Housing Element law.
Staff received a proposal from Rincon Consultants on November 22, 2022 to provide professional planning services to support the Sixth Cycle Housing Element Update. The team holds subject matter expertise and can triage the process to bring about a transparent and substantially compliant Housing Element. The scope of work undertaken by Rincon Consultants includes updates to the Housing Element per recommendations outlined in the Assessment Memorandum, work on preparation of environmental documents, project management, weekly check-ins, working sessions, communications with Planning Commission and City Council, augmentations to the City’s safety element and environmental justice policies to comply with recent legislative updates.
Rincon Consultants, Inc. have shown subject matter expertise and relevant experience, along with the most competitive implementation timeline, to bring the City into compliance with relevant state statutes. The team at Rincon Consultants will undertake a robust process to ensure the City complies across a myriad of legislative items with consideration and communication between staff, community, Commissioners, City Council and various stakeholders within the City.
The following matrix includes the various deliverables and tasks presented by Rincon Consultants in their scope of work (Attachment 2) related to implementing a compliant housing element.
The consultant is revising its existing timeline for implementation provides in their proposal. The Planning Division, along with the City Manager’s office, has provided the consultant direction to condense the implementation timeline to ensure compliance in a feasible manner and in line with expectations of HCD. The City will finalize the term of the agreement after receiving a revised timeline from the consultant, subject to approval by the City Manager.
Staff continues to pursue the most advantageous avenues to bring the City’s Housing Element into compliance while completing all necessary due diligence and actively engaging with the community throughout the entirety of this process.
Attachments:
Attachment 1 – Rincon Consultants, Inc. Proposal
Attachment 2 – Housing and Community Development Memorandum Jan. 27, 2022 Attachment 3 – Draft Professional Services Agreement
cc: City Manager Eric J. Levitt
Contract Award for Housing Element Professional Services December 20, 2022 - Page PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 2