City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: CONSENT CALENDAR
Lead Department: Community Services
Meeting Date: September 8, 2025
Report #:2507-5013
TITLE
Approval of Professional Service Contract Number C26195633 with H.T. Harvey & Associates in an Amount Not to Exceed $195,004 for Services to Manage a Wetland Remedial Mitigation Plan for a Period of 2 Years. CEQA Status – Categorically Exempt.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the City Council approve and authorize the City Manager or their designee to execute Professional Service Contract Number C26195633 with H.T. Harvey for Services to Manage a Wetland Remedial Management Plan for a Period of 2 Years, for an Amount Not to Exceed $195,004, including $177,276 for basic services and $17,728 for additional services.
BACKGROUND
The Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course was reconstructed and re-opened as the Baylands Golf Links in 2018. The course redesign impacted existing wetlands on course and required a Mitigation and Monitoring Plan (MMP) of the onsite wetlands as a condition of regulatory permitting for the construction project. The mitigation required 0.2 acres of wetlands to be enhanced, and 4.0 acres be expanded (constructed wetland creation) which were completed and exceeded as part of the course’s reconstruction. The course re-design constructed a greater amount of wetland acreage than required resulting in a total of 8.48 acres of wetlands.
Full compliance with regulatory requirements includes a five-year monitoring and reporting period of wetland habitat conditions, which was not completed.
Staff have been consulting with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board to achieve full compliance with permit requirements. Progress has been made with the submittal of a current conditions report by H.T. Harvey & Associates (2024), and wetland delineation by H.T. Harvey & Associates (2025) with a goal of beginning monitoring in 2026. The wetland delineation process identified areas requiring remedial ecological restoration which need to be implemented starting late Summer and Fall 2025 in order to start the monitoring period in 2026. A Wetland Remedial Mitigation Plan (WRMP) is proposed to be implemented as part of
the City’s efforts towards permit compliance. The WRMP is intended to augment and improve existing wetland habitat prior to annual monitoring to meet the success criteria outlined in the MMP as required in regulatory permits.
ANALYSIS
H.T. Harvey & Associates’ expertise, extensive involvement, and hands-on experience with the wetlands at the Baylands Golf Links make them uniquely qualified to lead implementation of the WRMP. They authored both the current conditions and wetland delineation reports and have conducted multiple site visits involving in-depth field analysis. Their understanding of site- specific factors, including wetland boundaries, plant and soil health, hydrology, drainage, and regulatory success criteria, positions them as the only firm with the depth of institutional and ecological knowledge specific to the wetlands at the golf course that is required of the WRMP.
There is a narrow seasonal window for implementation of the WRMP. Restoration work must occur during late Summer and Fall 2025 to precede the rainy season for plant establishment prior to starting the monitoring period in 2026. Competitive solicitation would delay implementation of the WRMP, delay the overall project timeline, and risk further non- compliance.
As a result, exemption from competitive solicitation pursuant to Palo Alto Municipal Code
2.30.360(b) was approved by the City Manager. Engaging a new ecological services firm unfamiliar with the project would further delay the monitoring period, allow for potential misinterpretation of prior analyses, and/or contribute to ineffective restoration, all of which could jeopardize compliance and require construction of more wetland acreage than currently existing on the golf course.
Establishing native plants in the wetlands to meet success criteria at the golf course has been challenging with factors such as hydrology and having clay-based soil. Initial hydroseeding was not fully successful and necessitated a second round of hydroseeding. Some areas such as the borders of wetlands were not hydroseeded and replaced with live native plant plugs to increase the likelihood of success. Despite these efforts, the wetlands had areas of bare or low concentration of plants. Prior informal remediation of these areas included planting live container plants in low lying areas. The WRMP will further the remediation with a combination of removal of invasive plants, tilling soil, seeding with a wetland seed mix, straw mulching, and planting live plants. All prior and upcoming efforts are towards establishing and improving wetland habitat prior to annual monitoring.
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
Funding for this contract is available in the Fiscal Year 2026 Adopted Capital Budget in the Golf Reconfiguration Project (PG-13003) once combined with reappropriation of funds from Fiscal Year 2025. Reappropriations are anticipated to be brought forward for City Council consideration in October 2025.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Staff will continue to engage with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board on the progress and efforts of the wetlands at the golf course towards meeting success criteria.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This project is categorically exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) under Section 15301 of the CEQA Guidelines as repair, maintenance, and alteration of an existing facility.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: Contract with H.T. Harvey & Associates; C26195633 APPROVED BY:
Kristen O'Kane, Community Services Director