February 6, 2024
Public Works
DATE: February 6, 2024
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Daniel Chavarria, Director of Public Works
Tawfic Halaby, Deputy Director of Public Works –
Operations & Maintenance
Subject:
Citywide Installation of Street Sweeping Signs
FINANCIAL IMPACT: Staff proposes to utilize $550,000 as a transfer out from General Fund (Account String: 01917090-400901) into
General Capital Fund as a transfer-in (Account String:
20136031-391993-23048) with expenditure appropriation
in the Account String 20136031-400645-23048.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
On January 23, 2024, City Council passed an Agenda
Item on Consent entitled, “Request for Update from Staff Regarding the Date that Parking Enforcement for Street
Sweeping will Resume.”
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
The City desires to resume enforcing street sweeping
parking restrictions in an equitable matter and citywide.
The purpose is to facilitate removal of debris from City gutters during street sweeping operations, and meet
City’s legal requirement to prevent pollutants from
entering the storm drain system.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
APPROPRIATE $550,000 from the General Fund
(Fund0001) to the General Capital Fund (Fund2001) for
the effort to install street sweeping signs equitably
throughout all City neighborhoods – Public Works
Department (Daniel Chavarria/Tawfic Halaby 510-620-
5482).
AGENDA
REPORT
February 6, 2024
DISCUSSION:
On March 19. 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Newsom issued Executive Order N-33-20, known as the “shelter-in-place order.” As a result of this order, many Richmond residents stayed home during normal workday working hours, and consequently, they did not move their vehicles for street sweeping activities. City Council directed staff to temporarily cease enforcing street sweeping parking restrictions.
Street sweeping activities have continued unabated since before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, parking enforcement due to street sweeping activities, is not currently being implemented. When performing street sweeping activities, street sweeping trucks are currently veering away from gutters and into streets to avoid parked cars, and thus are not properly removing debris from City gutters.
Street sweeping is required as stated in the Contra Costa County Municipal Regional Permit (MRP) Version 3.0, Section C10, Trash Load Reduction. The permit states that permittees, such as the City of Richmond, are to implement practices to “control and reduce non-stormwater and polluted stormwater discharges into storm drains and watercourses.” The permit goes on to state that permittees shall evaluate street sweeping effectiveness and that examples of evaluations include, “effectiveness associated with enhanced street/curb accessibility via proper signage, ticketing, and towing vehicles when appropriate.”
In order to conform to the MRP requirements, the City must remove debris that is accumulating in the gutter. The best way to remove debris from the gutters is to enforce street sweeping parking restrictions. When residents, businesses, and visitors know that street sweeping parking restrictions are enforced, then they are likely to remove their vehicles from restricted areas as posted. Street sweepers can then do their jobs properly and remove debris from the gutters, thus precluding pollutants from entering the storm drain system.
Public Works staff is working on developing a “No Parking” street sweeping sign inventory that documents the locations of all of the existing and missing street sweeping signs throughout the City. Given current staffing levels, this inventory will take months to develop if performed entirely in-house. However, according to recent studies, there are 16 subdivisions or neighborhoods in the City of Richmond that do not have street sweeping signs, namely: Bristlecone, Canyon Oaks, Carriage Hills South, Country Club, Greenridge, Hasford Heights, Hilltop Bayview, Hilltop Green, Lenora, Marina Bay, Metro Richmore, Panhandle Annex, Point Richmond, Quail Hill, Richmond Annex, and Via Verdi (Sobrante Glen).
The City desires to have an equitable street sweeping program wherein:
residents, business owners, and visitors all have a clear understanding of street sweeping parking restrictions;
February 6, 2024
all streets that are swept are properly signed for parking restrictions during programmed street sweeping activities;
the City’s street sweeping program is implemented in a fair, consistent, and predictable manner throughout all of Richmond’s neighborhoods; and street sweeping parking violations will be enforced in a fair and equitable manner throughout all neighborhoods in the City.
To this end, City staff is requesting City Council to adopt the attached resolution, appropriating $550,000 from the General Fund to initiate a street sweeping sign installation project. This allocation represents an initial estimate to install street sweeping signs throughout the City, while the more accurate inventory is developed.
If adopted, staff estimates that the initial project can be planned, bid, constructed, and closed out in eight to nine months. Staff proposes to hire a consultant from the existing on-call engineering or transportation list to assist with developing the citywide street sweeping sign installation project. Inventory services can be included in the consultant’s scope of work to accelerate its development. Staff can then bid the project through the BidsOnline procurement platform to hire a contractor to perform the citywide street sweeping sign installation. After completion of the initial street sign installation project, staff can provide City Council with an update on the initial effort and make any additional recommendations, as appropriate, for funding, maintaining, and improving the program into the future.
Public Works staff will work closely with Parking Enforcement staff to ensure that after the initial street sign installation project is completed, a public outreach effort is initiated alerting residents, businesses, and visitors to publicize the City’s intention to resume enforcement of street sweeping parking restriction violations. A brief grace period will be enacted wherein only parking violation warnings are issued. After the grace period expires, street sweeping parking restriction violators will be ticketed.
SCHEDULE:
City staff will aim to meet the schedule outlined below.
Fabrication and Installation of No-Parking Signs Citywide for the City of Richmond
For the February 6, 2024, City Council meeting, Public Works will confer with Finance to finalize a staff report re: $550k for signs for Citywide Street Sweeping Sign Installation (source of the $550k is general fund) Bid Start: Feb 8, 2024 Bid Opening: Feb 29, 2024
Contract Award/Execution: April 12, 2024
Project Installation: May, June, July 2024
February 6, 2024
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Resolution