CITY OF PACIFICA
COUNCIL AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT
6/10/2024
1 SUBJECT:
Amendments to Consultant Services Agreements for On-Call Planning Services, Building Division Staff Augmentation, and Related Services Between the City of Pacifica and CSG Consultants, Inc., and Good City Company, as well as Between the City of Pacifica and Dyett & Bhatia for Housing Element Rezoning and EIR.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Move to adopt the following resolutions to approve the following agreement amendments:
1) Adopt the Resolution titled, “A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Pacifica Authorizing the City Manager to Execute a Seventh Amendment of the Consultant Services Agreement With CSG Consultants, Inc. for Building Official, Building Inspection, Plan Review, Current Planning And Related Services” (Attachment A); 2) Adopt the Resolution titled, “A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Pacifica Authorizing the City Manager to Execute a Seventh Amendment to the Consultant Services Agreement with Good City Company for Professional Planning and Related Services” (Attachment B); and,
3) Adopt the Resolution titled, “A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Pacifica Authorizing the City Manager to Execute a First Amendment to the Consultant Services Agreement with Dyett & Bhatia Urban and Regional Planners for Environmental Review and Related Services” (Attachment C).
STAFF CONTACT:
Elizabeth Brooks, Management Analyst II
(650) 501-6025
[email protected]
BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION:
Building Division
CSG Consultants
In October 2015, the City entered into its current contract with CSG Consultants to provide Building Division services, including plan checking, inspection, code enforcement, building official duties, administration, and special project services (Attachment D). The initial three-year contract expired at the end of October 2018, and the City Council subsequently extended the contract with additional one-year terms in 2019, 2020, a two-year term in 2021, and a one-year term in 2023. The annual maximum compensation for the contract is determined during the budget process each fiscal year.
The Planning Department is seeking an extension of the term identified in Section 3.1 (“Effective Date”) of the Agreement to June 30, 2026 (see Attachment E: CSG Seventh Amendment).
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June 10, 2024
Planning Division
The Planning Department is currently handling a large volume of development project applications for City permits, ranging from routine to complex. Additionally, the department is leading various City Council priority initiatives, such as implementing the General Plan update and updating the Housing Element of the General Plan and Local Coastal Land Use Plan, among others. To manage these tasks effectively, the Planning Department engages with various consultants, including Good City Company and Dyett & Bhatia Urban and Regional Planners, currently working on initiatives with the Planning Department as detailed below.
Good City Company
As part of the Agreement for on-call planning services with the City (Attachment F), Good City Company is assisting the Planning Department with the 6th Cycle Housing Element and addressing comments from HCD on the adopted 2023- 2031 Housing Element. The current agreement with Good City will expire on June 30, 2024. Accordingly, the Planning Department is seeking an extension of the completion date identified in Section 3.1 (“Effective Date”) of the Agreement to June 30, 2026 (see Attachment G: Good City Seventh Amendment) to allow sufficient time for the long and complex work related to this Housing Element certification process and subsequent implementation actions.
Dyett & Bhatia Urban and Regional Planners
The process to update the Housing Element of the General Plan is underway, and Dyett & Bhatia Urban and Regional Planners were engaged to complete the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and evaluate potential environmental impacts from the Housing Element Rezoning Program. Dyett & Bhatia’s original contracted scope of work outlined a proposed work program for all phases of this work with a total budget of $218,203.
While underway, the project was paused to account for site changes and revised capacity assumptions resulting from the California Department of Housing and Community Development review of the draft Housing Element. Since then, the City has also been developing objective development standards to streamline housing approval timelines. Given these changes, the scope of work has been expanded from an EIR on Housing Element Rezoning to an EIR on Housing Element Targeted General Plan Amendments, Rezoning, and Objective Development Standards, with a revised list of sites. As such, a new Notice of Preparation was released, and the EIR process renewed.
The costs associated with these changes are projected to exceed the existing cost ceiling. Accordingly, the Planning Department is seeking an increase in the cost ceiling amount identified in Section 2.1 (“Compensation”) of the original Agreement (Attachment H) by $44,459, bringing the total contract amount to $262,662, as well as an extension of the completion date identified in Section 3.1 (“Effective Date”) of the Agreement to June 30, 2026, to allow sufficient time for the long and complex work related to this process for completion and certification of the EIR and Housing Element, followed by subsequent phases of rezoning work (see Attachment I: Dyett & Bhatia First Amendment).
ALTERNATIVE ACTION:
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June 10, 2024
Deny or authorize the proposed amendments to the CSG, Good City Company, and/or Dyett & Bhatia Urban and Regional Planners agreements.
If the Council denies the requested authorization for consultant CSG, the City will need to transition to an alternative consultant to provide Building Division services or would need to recruit and hire in-house staff. Both of these alternatives would have the potential to disrupt ongoing Building Division services in the interim.
Denying an extension to the Good City Company agreement will require Planning Department staff take over responsibilities from the consultants while continuing to perform other staff general responsibilities, including obligations to process building permit applications and other private development project applications, likely leading to significant delays in ongoing Planning Department services.
If the Council denies the requested authorization for Dyett & Bhatia Urban and Regional Planners, Planning Department staff would need to direct time to complete in-house environmental review documents in accordance with CEQA in addition to establishing contracts with various consultants possessing the technical expertise to analyze specific environmental resource topics that are beyond staff’s qualifications. The impact of this increased workload would negatively affect staff’s ability to address other general responsibilities, including the goals and strategies of the City Council’s Strategic Plan.
RELATION TO CITY COUNCIL GOALS AND WORK PLAN:
The tasks being performed by CSG Consultants, Inc. are not directly associated with any of the goals and strategies of the City Council’s Strategic Plan, as the functions of the Building Division are general government responsibilities of the City as a local public agency.
The work of Good City Company and Dyett & Bhatia Urban and Regional Planners advances Goal 3 of Council-adopted 2023-2030 Strategic Plan - Prioritize protection and development of affordable housing, Strategy A - Complete the Housing Element Update, and Strategy C - Prioritize Housing Element program implementation.
Additionally, the benefits and efficiencies of engaging professional planning firms to perform these tasks will indirectly allow in-house staff resources to devote time to the goals and strategies of the City Council’s Strategic Plan including Goal 1 - Enhance organizational and fiscal stability and Goal 3 - Prioritize protection and development of affordable housing.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 is pending adoption at the time this report. As prepared, the proposed amendment to the CSG Agreement would be limited to the amount budgeted for Building Division contractual services. The cost to operate the Building Division is offset by permit fees.
There is no fiscal impact to extending the term of the Good City Company agreement as proposed in the seventh amendment.
The amount of the requested contract budget increases for Dyett & Bhatia Urban and Regional Planners is included in the Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Planning Department budget.
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ORIGINATED BY:
Planning Department
ATTACHMENT LIST:
Attachment A: Resolution to Execute a Seventh Amendment of the Consultant Services Agreement With CSG Consultants, Inc (DOCX)
Attachment B: Resolution to Execute a Seventh Amendment to the Consultant Services Agreement with Good City Company (DOCX)
Attachment C: Resolution to Execute a First Amendment to the Consultant Services Agreement with Dyett & Bhatia Urban and Regional Planners (DOCX)
Attachment D: CSG Agreement to Provide Contractual Building Services (PDF) Attachment E: Amendment 7 to CSG Agreement to Provide Contractual Building Services (PDF)
Attachment F: Good City Company Agreement to Provide On-Call Planning Services (PDF) Attachment G: Amendment 7 to Good City Company Agreement to Provide On-Call Planning Services (PDF)
Attachment H: Dyett & Bhatia Agreement to Provide Environmental Review Services Related to 2023-2031 Housing Element Update (PDF)
Attachment I: Amendment 1 to Dyett & Bhatia Agreement to Provide Environmental Review Services Related to 2023-2031 Housing Element Update (PDF)