TO: HONORABLE MAYOR
AND CITY COUNCIL
FROM: Chris Burton
SUBJECT: See Below DATE: September 15, 2025
Approved
Date:
9/22/2025
COUNCIL DISTRICT: Citywide
SUBJECT: Master Service Agreements to Provide Consulting Services for Citywide Planning Activities
RECOMMENDATION
Adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager, or her designee, to:
(a) Negotiate and execute Master Agreements for Consultant Services related to land use planning and urban design, circulation improvements, community engagement, environmental review analysis, traffic impact analysis, public finance and economic feasibility, for an initial five-year term;
(b) Execute up to three one-year options to extend the term of the master agreements; and
(c) Negotiate and execute amendments to increase or decrease the maximum compensation of each agreement, not to exceed the aggregate compensation amount of $4,000,000 annually for all agreements and $1,000,000 annually for any one consultant, subject to the appropriation of funds.
SUMMARY AND OUTCOME
The Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for Consulting Services for Citywide Planning establishes a new consultant shortlist which will replace the previous Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement Department (PBCE) consultant shortlist that will expire on November 30, 2025. This will allow the City of San José (City) to continue using on-call consultant services for PBCE and other City department projects on an as-required basis.
A total of 50 consultants were selected as part of the RFQ process. Firms were allowed to apply for one or multiple technical areas and were selected based on qualifications.
COUNCIL AGENDA: 10/7/25
FILE: 25-1067
ITEM: 3.4
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 15, 2025
Subject: Master Service Agreements to Provide Consulting Services for Citywide Activities
To optimize resources and increase efficiency, staff consolidated all the technical areas into one RFQ instead of conducting six separate procurements to create a pool of consultants in a variety of disciplines to provide service on an as-needed basis.
The technical areas included in the RFQ were specifically identified to not only provide the services needed for urban village planning and other PBCE work, but also projects from other City department partners, such as the Public Works Department, the Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services Department, the Transportation Department, the Housing Department, and the City Manager’s Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs to the extent that the needs fall within the six technical areas evaluated by the RFQ process.
With the proposed master agreements for each consultant in place, City staff would have the ability to promptly execute service orders for needed consultants and would not have to conduct lengthy Request for Proposal (RFP) processes individually for each project or task initiated by staff or City Council.
BACKGROUND
In 2015, PBCE published a RFQ in anticipation of consultant services needed to complete upcoming planning work. The result was a master list of consultants with which to hire from for tasks associated with urban village work under a $1.4 million Priority Development Area grant that the City was awarded. The RFQ was also established to hire consultants for future planning work, including the North San José Area Development Policy update and Environmental Impact Report, the Diridon Station Implementation Plan, and the Berryessa BART Station and North First Street Urban Village Plans, in addition to other City department projects. The consultant contracts included an initial five-year term ending in November 2020, which were extended through one-year options to November 30, 2025.
On November 9, 2024, PBCE published a RFQ to establish a new consultant shortlist for City departments to procure consultants for services needed within six technical areas: 1) Land Use Planning and Urban Design; 2) Circulation Improvements; 3) Community Engagement; 4) Environmental Review Analysis; 5) Traffic Impact Analysis; and 6) Public Finance and Economic Feasibility.
PBCE anticipates utilizing the consultant shortlist for future work, including the following upcoming efforts:
• General Plan Four-Year Review;
• Downtown Residential Ministerial Ordinance;
• Urban Village Planning Work;
• Miscellaneous Ordinance and Policy Updates; and
• Technical Support for Environmental Review.
In addition, other departments within the City, such as the Transportation Department, anticipate using consultant services for high-priority transportation planning, conceptual
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 15, 2025
Subject: Master Service Agreements to Provide Consulting Services for Citywide Activities
design, community engagement, and program efforts. The City Manager’s Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs anticipates conducting fiscal impact analysis for proposed developments, economic studies to inform policy and plan development, and economic research and analysis to inform implementation strategies.
Funding used to pay for consultant services under the master agreements will be authorized through future annual and mid-year budgeting processes for each individual project as policy needs are identified and prioritized. The five-year length of the initial terms of the master agreements and the three option years are acknowledgements of both the ongoing nature of the planning policy work that the agreements will support, as well as the need to identify additional funding for that work. The City currently does not have the budget to fund the full amount of these master agreements.
ANALYSIS
The RFQ for Consulting Services for Citywide Projects was published November 9, 2024, through the City’s e-procurement system, Biddingo. A total of 1,680 registered users were informed of the procurement when the RFQ was posted, and a total of 53 proposals were received by the City by its closing date of December 19, 2024.
The 50 selected consultants are expected to assist the City with project efforts in six technical areas: 1) Land Use Planning and Urban Design; 2) Circulation Improvements; 3) Community Engagement; 4) Environmental Review Analysis; 5) Traffic Impact Analysis; and 6) Public Finance and Economic Feasibility.
Firms were selected for one or multiple technical areas based on qualifications. Listed below are the number of qualifying consultants for each technical area.
Technical Area Number of Qualifying Consultants
Land Use Planning and Urban Design 23
Circulation Improvements 10
Community Engagement 18
Environmental Review Analysis 18
Traffic Impact Analysis 7
Public Finance and Economic Feasibility 6
To optimize resources and increase efficiency, staff consolidated all the technical areas into one RFQ instead of conducting six separate procurements to create a pool of consultants in a variety of disciplines to provide service on an as-needed basis.
Proposal Evaluation Team: The proposals were evaluated by three-member teams for each technical area, with representatives from the City Manager’s Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs, Housing Department, the Departments of Planning,
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 15, 2025
Subject: Master Service Agreements to Provide Consulting Services for Citywide Activities
Building, and Code Enforcement, Public Works, and Transportation. Each team member independently evaluated and scored the proposals. All consultants scoring above 60 out of 100 points are considered qualifying consultants of which are listed below.
Consulting Firm Areas of Technical Expertise
AECOM Technical Services, Inc. Land Use Planning and Urban Design, Circulation Improvements,
Community Engagement,
Environmental Review Analysis,
Traffic Impact Analysis
Ascent Environmental, Inc. Land Use Planning and Urban Design, Environmental Review Analysis
BAE Urban Economics, Inc. Public Finance
Baird + Driskell Community Planning Land Use Planning and Urban Design, Community Engagement
Century Urban, LLC Public Finance
CHS Consulting Inc., dba CHS
Consulting Group
Circulation Improvements,
Traffic Impact Analysis
Circlepoint Environmental Review Analysis,
Community Engagement
Dahlin Group, Inc. Land Use Planning and Urban Design
David J Powers & Associates, Inc. Environmental Review Analysis Denise Duffy & Associates, Inc. Environmental Review Analysis Dyett & Bhatia, Urban and Regional
Planners
Land Use Planning and Urban Design,
Community Engagement,
Environmental Review Analysis
ELS Land Use Planning and Urban Design
EMC Planning Group Environmental Review Analysis
Environmental Science Associates Environmental Science Analysis Fehr & Peers Circulation Improvements,
Traffic Impact Analysis
FirstCarbon Solutions Environmental Science Analysis
Forward City Labs Land Use Planning and Urban Design,
Circulation Improvements,
Community Engagement
Gensler Land Use Planning and Urban Design,
Community Engagement
Good City Company Land Use Planning and Urban Design,
Community Engagement
Harris & Associates, Inc. Environmental Review Analysis
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 15, 2025
Subject: Master Service Agreements to Provide Consulting Services for Citywide Activities
Consulting Firm Areas of Technical Expertise
Hellmuth Obata Kassabaum Land Use Planning and Urban Design HR&A Advisors, Inc. Public Finance
ICF Jones & Stokes, Inc. Environmental Review Analysis
Interwest Consulting Group Land Use Planning and Urban Design, Environmental Review Analysis
Keyser Marston Associates, Inc. Public Finance
Kimley Horn & Associates, Inc. Circulation Improvements, Environmental Review Analysis,
Traffic Impact Analysis
Kosmont & Associates, Inc. Public Finance
Metropolitan Planning Group (M-Group) Land Use Planning and Urban Design, Community Engagement,
Environmental Review Analysis
Michael Baker International Land Use Planning and Urban Design, Environmental Review Analysis,
Traffic Impact Analysis
Moore Iacofano Goltsman (MIG) Land Use Planning and Urban Design, Community Engagement,
Environmental Review Analysis
Mithun, Inc. Land Use Planning and Urban Design
Mott MacDonald Group, Inc. Circulation Improvements,
Traffic Impact Analysis
Perkins Eastman Land Use Planning and Urban Design
Perkins & Will Land Use Planning and Urban Design
PlaceWorks Land Use Planning and Urban Design,
Community Engagement,
Environmental Review Analysis
PLAN to PLACE Community Engagement
Pyatok Architects Community Engagement
Raimi + Associates Land Use Planning and Urban Design,
Community Engagement
RC Design Collaborative LLC Land Use Planning and Urban Design, Community Engagement
Rincon Consultants, Inc. Environmental Review Analysis
SERA Architects, Inc. Land Use Planning and Urban Design Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP Land Use Planning and Urban Design Social Good Fund (Catalyze SV) Community Engagement
Strategic Economics Public Finance
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 15, 2025
Subject: Master Service Agreements to Provide Consulting Services for Citywide Activities
Consulting Firm Areas of Technical Expertise
SWA Group Circulation Improvements,
Community Engagement
T J K M Circulation Improvements,
Traffic Impact Analysis
The Street Plans Collaborative, Inc. Circulation Improvements Toole Design Group, LLC Circulation Improvements
Winter Consulting Community Engagement
WRT, LLC Land Use Planning and Urban Design,
Community Engagement
Protest: The City’s RFQ process included a 10-day protest period that commenced on May 23, 2025, when consultants received the City's Notice of Intended Award. No protests were received.
Award Recommendation: The number of selected consultants is required to ensure that PBCE staff has adequate expertise and flexibility to address all the activities, size, scope, and workload for each of the six technical areas, particularly in the Land Use Planning/Urban Design and Environmental Review technical areas. In particular, having 23 Land Use Planning/Urban Design qualified consultants provides the City access to a wide portfolio of this expertise from which staff can select the firm that best meets identified needs. Also, during ramp-up for implementation, several projects may be initiated concurrently and necessitate using multiple consultants at the same time.
Summary of Agreements: Following City Council approval, staff will initiate a master agreement with each of the 50 qualifying consultants. The selected consultant(s) will designate one or more consultant coordinators who will be the point of contact for the services for which their firm is selected. The City will designate a service coordinator for each consulting service who will work directly with the consultant coordinator(s) regarding all items relating to the service orders under the agreement resulting from this RFQ.
To initiate a service order, the City’s service coordinators will create a Service Order Request detailing the specific project duties, tasks, and deliverables and a desired timeframe for completion. Service Order Requests will be emailed to one or more consultant coordinators who will confirm their ability to complete the assignment in the requested timeframe, the proposed approach, and costs associated with their proposed approach based on the staff rates included in their contract, and their expertise and experience in completing similar work.
The City’s service coordinator(s) may select a consultant directly from the responses returned for a given service order or may request an interview with one or more of the consultants. Consultants will be selected based on a firm’s ability to complete the work within a requested timeframe, a firm’s expertise and experience in conducting assignments like the requested scope of work, a firm’s proposed approach, and cost.
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 15, 2025
Subject: Master Service Agreements to Provide Consulting Services for Citywide Activities
Once the consultant has been selected, the service coordinator will confirm the selection of the consultant and the start date to the consultant coordinator through issuance of a service order detailing the scope of work. There is no guarantee that any or a minimum number of service orders will be issued to any consultant.
There may be certain projects or work assignments that include the use of federal funds. For work involving the use of federal funds, the shortlisted consultants shall participate in a federally compliant RFP process, through which work will be assigned.
There may be instances where a consultant qualifies to be on the shortlist; however, may not meet the requirements to participate in the separate federally compliant RFP process. Those who do not meet the federal requirements will still be able to participate in City funded projects.
The initial term of the agreements is for five years with options to extend the agreements for three additional one-year terms to provide ongoing consultant services, if required. Adjustments to the compensation rates for the option years, after the initial five-year term, will be considered by the City and shall be based on a Consumer Price Index adjustment that may be up to but not exceeding the increase in the Consumer Price Index based on a calculation formula included in the agreement.
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program: In cases where specific projects under these agreements will be funded by federal grants, consultants shall be subject to the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program requirements. A Disadvantaged Business Enterprise goal percentage will be established for each technical area and consultants will be contractually required to make good faith efforts to meet the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise goal set by the City for sub consulting opportunities. Mini-RFPs with specific project scopes will be conducted within the selected consultants to award any federal grant-funded project.
Use of Services: It is not anticipated that the City would contract the full maximum aggregate compensation of $20,000,000 over the next five years. The maximum compensations proposed for each firm would allow the City to potentially contract with the same firm for multiple assignments. The purpose of executing master agreements with 50 firms in six technical areas is to provide the City with flexibility to hire the firm with the right experience and expertise to meet the identified needs of a given project or study, when this process or study is funded and initiated. Additionally, as appropriate, this list of consultants may be used to provide services for other City projects through various departments.
EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
Upon adoption of this resolution, staff will negotiate and execute master agreements with the 50 selected firms and will execute amendments to increase or decrease the maximum compensation of each agreement, not to exceed the aggregate compensation
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 15, 2025
Subject: Master Service Agreements to Provide Consulting Services for Citywide Activities
amount of $4,000,000 annually for all the agreements, and $1,000,000 annually for any one organization, subject to the appropriation of funds.
Having master agreements in place will provide staff with an array of consultants with diverse technical backgrounds and increase procurement efficiency by promptly executing service orders for needed consultants rather than conducting lengthy RFP processes individually for each project initiated by staff.
COST SUMMARY/IMPLICATIONS
PBCE anticipates utilizing the consultant shortlist for City Council directed work in FY 2025-2026, which is anticipated to be in the amount of $1.1 million. This work includes the General Plan Four-Year Review with $850,000 allocated for planning work and for a program-level Environmental Impact Report, while the downtown residential ministerial ordinance has an allocation of $250,000 for California Environmental Quality Act analysis. In addition, the City Manager’s Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs, the Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services Department, and the Transportation Department, anticipate work in FY 2025-2026. The Transportation Department has work related to circulation improvements, community engagement, and public finance and economic feasibility. The Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services Department anticipates environmental work on the Park and Recreation Master Plan and future park fee nexus study. The City Manager’s Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs has potential work related to fiscal impact analysis for proposed developments, economic studies to inform policy and plan development, and economic research and analysis to inform implementation strategies. Therefore, a total of $2.6 million is anticipated for FY 2025-2026 across these departments, not including any other departments that may procure from the shortlist for consulting services.
Work under these agreements will be authorized by individual service orders. Execution of the master agreements does not require appropriation of funds; however, appropriation is required for each service order. Funding for anticipated projects in FY 2025-2026 is included in the Adopted Operating and Capital Budgets, with future departmental use subject to appropriation and future budget actions. Establishing a sufficient maximum compensation ensures multiple departments may access these consultant services. This action would create up to 50 master agreements for up to eight years, with a total annual aggregate amount not to exceed $4 million, subject to appropriation and authorization of service orders.
COORDINATION
This memorandum has been coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office and the City Manager’s Budget Office.
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 15, 2025
Subject: Master Service Agreements to Provide Consulting Services for Citywide Activities
PUBLIC OUTREACH
This memorandum will be posted on the City’s Council Agenda website for the October 7, 2025, City Council meeting.
COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION AND INPUT
No commission recommendation or input is associated with this action.
CEQA
Statutorily Exempt, File No. PP17-001, CEQA Guidelines Section 15262, Feasibility and Planning Studies with no commitment to future actions.
PUBLIC SUBSIDY REPORTING
This item does not include a public subsidy as defined in section 53083 or 53083.1 of the California Government Code or the City’s Open Government Resolution.
/s/
CHRIS BURTON
Director, Planning, Building, and Code
Enforcement Department
For questions, please contact Martina Davis, Division Manager, Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement Department at [email protected] or (408) 535-7888.