December 5, 2024
California Strategic Growth Council
1400 Tenth Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) – STI & TRA Scope Revision Request Entrada Apartments [20-AHSC-14692]
Strategic Growth Council,
Previous Authorizations/Approvals: City Council approved a Resolution at their meeting on February 4, 2020, authorizing the submittal of a joint AHSC application. AHSC funding was awarded on July 20, 2020, and a Standard Agreement was executed on April 11th, 2022.
Background: The City, as Joint Applicant, created and submitted certain scope items as part of the AHSC application in 2020. One of the items, the Solar Walkway, has been estimated to cost far beyond the original proposed budget and requires custom fabrication. Wakeland would like to propose an alternative scope option that still conforms to the AHSC Program requirements, maintains the Green House Gas (GHG) score and provides improvements in a more cost-effective manner.
Original STI & TRA Project Scope:
The AHSC application included the following scope of work, and partnership between Wakeland, the City of Riverside and Riverside Transit Agency (RTA):
• 65 new affordable homes (Entrada), located at the north west corner of Chicago Avenue and 7 th Street – Complete
• Expansion of the RTA Vine Street Mobility Hub to add 2 bus bays to serve Route 22 and Omnitrans Route 215 - Complete
• 0.95 miles of Class IV Bike lanes on Linden Street between Chicago Avenue and Iowa Avenue • 5.8 miles of safe and accessable walkways including 18 high visibility crosswalks , 9 accessible pedestrian signals or flashing beacons;
• Improvements at Bus Stop # 1710, 1757 and 1787 (at the north west and south west corners of Chicago Avenue and University Avenue;
• Installation of a solar walkway and night time art installation at University Avenue and Chicago Avenue and extending northerly, approximately 600 feet to the Entrada affordable housing development (AHD); - Does not work in this location due to right-of-way constraints and the necessity to encroach on private property. Also, none of the preliminary numbers received were within budget.
• Traffic calming on Park Avenue including the addition of three (3) parklets, overhead lighting, and a mural.
A number of groups were contacted in our search for a contractor that could complete the Solar Walkway scope within the allocated budget of $550,031. A majority of the cost is involved in engineering a custom solution, fabrication, and transportation. An interested contractor has not been found to complete this work within the required cost. In fact, the proposed costs exceeded one million dollars from the groups that responded below.
Contractors Contacted to Complete Original AHSC Project Scope:
• Allgire General Contractors – Can help with the installation if we were to find someone to fabricate some sort of structure. We have reached out to a few fabricators, and they are not interested without having it engineered, which is cost prohibitive. • Astera – We have been in contact for a while, and they were provided with all the project specifics and walked the site. They have never provided a proposal and have stopped responding.
• CalSolar – Initially interested and backed out because it outside of their expertise and is too small of a project.
• M Bar C Construction – Worked on this for several months and they backed out based on the size and the price far exceeding what we have budgeted. • Lumos Solar – Initial consultation came back extremely expensive. • Mitchell Metals – Cost of fabrication and shipping from Georgia was very expensive. • Other – We have reached out to an unknown number of contacts in the field without any further leads.
Proposed changes to STI & TRA Project Scope:
• Elimination of solar walkway and night time art installation along Chicago, to be replaced with:
o Class iii bike route on Kansas Ave between 3rd St and Martin Luther King Blvd. o Iowa @ Massachusetts - 4 continental crosswalks, 8 audible push buttons o Ottawa @ Martin Luther king - 3 continental crosswalks, 6 audible push buttons o Kansas @ 3rd - 3 continental crosswalks, 8 audible push buttons o Kansas @ Martin Luther king - 3 continental crosswalks, 8 audible push buttons o Linden @ Chicago - 4 continental crosswalks, 8 audible push buttons o Linden @ Ottawa - 2 continental crosswalks
o 260 ft N/O Bus @University & Chicago - Bus stop amenities such as shelter, bench, trash can
• Updating improvement projects to new locations while maintaining the same scope:
o Expansion of Class II bikeway along Linden Street from Chicago to Iowa Avenues o Engaging an artist for a mural along the alley frontage of the Entrada project o Relocate high visibility crosswalks to 4 legs of Linden Street @ Iowa Avenue o Relocate the diagonal crosswalk to University @ Kansas
o Relocate high visibility crosswalks to 4 legs of 14th Street and Sedgwick o Relocate crosswalks to 4 legs of Mission Inn and Park Avenue o Relocate high visibility crosswalks to one leg of Loma Vista @ Ottawa Avenue and two legs of Linden Street @Ottwa Avenue.
o Install next-generation video sensing equipment at intersection of Iowa Avenue & University Avenue
A detailed list of scope items and project map have been sent with this letter.
The City of Riverside has approved these requested changes, and Wakeland is working with design consultants, and a contractor. Once these changes are approved, we will be able to submit for permits.
The expected timeline would have this project starting construction by July 2025 and complete by July 2026.
Please reach out to John Sugden with any questions at (619)326-6212 or [email protected].
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Regards,
Peter Armstrong
Vice President of Real Estate Development
Wakeland Housing & Development Corporation