City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: CONSENT CALENDAR
Lead Department: Planning and Development Services
Meeting Date: August 11, 2025
Report #:2505-4688
TITLE
Approval of Five (5) On-Call Consulting Contracts to Provide Long Term Planning Policy Development support for the Planning and Development Services over a Five-Year Term, as needed: 1) Aaron Welch Planning, 2) Ascent Environmental, Inc. 3) Lexington Planning LLC, 4) PlaceWorks, Inc., 5) Raimi & Associates Inc. in an amount not to exceed $2,000,000; CEQA Status: Not a Project.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council approve and authorize the City Manager or their designee to execute Contract No. C25193458, C25193458A – C25193458D (Attachments A-E) for consulting services in an amount not to exceed $2,000,000 through June 2030. The firms will provide on-call support associated with long-range planning. The use of the contracts must be consistent with the funding available in the adopted budget(s). The contracts are:
1. C25193458 - Aaron Welch Planning
2. C25193458A - Ascent Environmental, Inc.
3. C25193458B - Lexington Planning LLC
4. C25193458C - PlaceWorks, Inc.
5. C25193458D - Raimi & Associates, Inc.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Planning and Development Services (PDS) Department engages consulting firms to expand technical planning capacity to support the delivery of long-range planning initiatives. Through a competitive request for proposal (RFP) process, five firms have been selected to assist for areas, such as project management, community engagement, policy research, technical analysis, and document preparation. Staff recommends City Council approval of five contracts with a combined not to exceed amount of $2,000,000 over a five-year term. The use of these contracts will be subject to available funding within the annually adopted budget.
Concurrently, the City Manager is leading an interdepartmental initiative to review and improve the City’s practices where needed in the management of consultant contracts. Outcomes from
that effort will be incorporated into the management of these consultant services throughout the term of these contracts.
BACKGROUND
The Planning and Development Services Department relies on the use of on-call service providers for project specific expertise and application processing for development activity. In June 2020, the City Council approved eight planning services on-call contracts for a combined not-to-exceed amount of $1.5 million over a four-year period, through June 30, 2024. Although the original anticipated total not-to-exceed amount was for $5.0 million, staff requested a reduced initial amount of $1.5 million given the financial uncertainty at the time and notified Council of the need to return for additional contract authority before the end of the contract term. In April 2023, the City Council approved Amendment No. 1 which increased the not-to- exceed amount to $3.0 million. In April 2024, the City Council approved Amendment No. 2 which increased the not-to-exceed amount to $3.5 million and extended the term through June 2025.
Solicitation Process
City staff issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) on December 27, 2024, for the provision of planning on-call services.
Table 1: Summary of Request for Proposals
Proposal Description RFP 193458 Planning On-Call Services Proposed Length of Project Four years, with the possibility of two additional one-year extensions.
Request for Proposal Issued December 27, 2024
Number of Vendors Notified 3,349
Total Days to Respond to Proposal 45
Number of RFP Packages Downloaded 85
Pre-Proposal Meeting and Date N/A
Number of Company Attendees at Pre-
Proposal Meeting(s) N/A
Proposal Price Range* $175 – $335 hourly rate
Number of Companies Interviewed N/A
Final Negotiated Contract Price (Basic
Services) N/A
Public Link to Solicitation https://procurement.opengov.com/portal/palo- alto-ca/projects/138159
* For standardization purposes, the hourly billing rates for principals are listed.
The proposals were evaluated, and 32 proposals were determined to be responsive to the criteria identified in the RFP. An evaluation committee consisting of PDS managers convened to evaluate the proposals that met the RFP criteria. Five firms were selected for long-range planning on-call support.
ANALYSIS
The City’s Comprehensive Plan, Housing Element, and related long-range policy initiatives require sustained technical capacity, engagement support, and expertise in urban planning and design. The five firms selected under the long-range planning service area will provide essential project management, community engagement, policy research, technical analysis, and document preparation to support initiatives such as Comprehensive Plan amendments, Zoning Code updates, area plans, and implementation of State housing laws. These firms were selected for their demonstrated experience in leading complex, multi-year planning processes, and their ability to facilitate community workshops and draft technical planning documents. Their qualifications support a wide range of long-range planning tasks, including renter protection policy development, analysis and testing of zoning standards, amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, visual and spatial analysis, and development of policy implementation recommendations in several subject areas based on technical expertise.
The City anticipates using these consultants to help deliver ongoing and new initiatives identified in the Department’s work plan through 2030, including furthering both Council Priorities and State required Housing Element implementation. Examples of project in the pipeline includes but are not limited to: Retail ordinance to expand retail opportunities and promote retail resiliency (Council Priority Objective ED 4) and ordinance to support innovative housing structures (Council Priority Objective IHS 51). If these contracts are not approved, the Department will be challenged in delivering on current and future initiatives as well as fulfilling mandated requirements because internal staff do not possess the full range of technical expertise necessary to support this work.
Process for Selecting On-Call Consultant
To ensure equity in distribution of work while ensuring alignment between project needs and consultant qualifications, an internal process is in place for selecting and assigning consultants specific task orders.
1. Develop Scope of Work (SOW): Staff project manager will develop a SOW that reflects the planning project requirements, including any technical needs and community engagement.
2. Solicit Proposals: Staff will contact all relevant firms via email notifying them of the request for proposals.
3. Comparison and Analysis: Staff will compare submitted proposals using the following, but not limited to, criteria to determine the best firm for the proposed task:
a. Technical Expertise
b. Relevant Experience and Past Performance on Similar Projects c. Project Cost
d. Timeline of Service Delivery
4. Selection of Consultant: After a consultant is selected, the firm will be notified, and a task order will be issued finalizing the scope of work, budget, and schedule for delivery.
These task orders will be issued in accordance with the terms of the master agreement.
Task orders will be reviewed and signed off by the Department Director or designee to ensure an additional check and balance. This internal process will allow the Department to be effective in managing concurrent initiatives while leveraging the capabilities and technical expertise of on-call consultants.
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
Use of consultants for specific assistance is an efficient and effective use of resources, allowing the Department to quickly access needed technical skills and advance complex projects. For the Long-Range Planning program, fees collected from permits for Comprehensive Plan Implementation assist with offsetting a portion of State mandated work, such as the Housing Element. Additionally, staff actively monitor and apply for grants to help offset the cost of this work when available. Other discretionary projects as assigned by Council are funded by the General Fund through the annual budget development process and varies year to year.
The budget for these contracts is included in the PDS Department’s adopted budget. The use of consultants for planning work is contingent on (1) approved contracts with capacity to support the required scope, and (2) availability of funding in the Department’s approved budget. Staff is not requesting a budget increase. No work will be assigned to consultants under these contracts unless there is sufficient operating budget to cover the costs.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Professional planners and managers in the PDS Department participated in the development of this recommendation.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Approval of these contracts is not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); therefore, no environmental review is required.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: C25193458 - Aaron Welch Planning
Attachment B: C25193458A - Ascent Environmental, Inc.
Attachment C: C25193458B - Lexington Planning LLC
Attachment D: C25193458C - PlaceWorks, Inc.
Attachment E: C25193458D - Raimi & Associates, Inc.
APPROVED BY:
Jonathan Lait, Planning and Development Services Director