REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: JENNIFER CLARK
Planning and Development Department
BY: SOPHIA PAGOULATOS, Planning Manager
Planning and Development Department
SUBJECT
Title
Actions pertaining to the Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Mitigation Program:
1. Approve second amendment to the consultant services agreement with LSA Associates, Inc. extending contract performance date to December 31, 2024, and authorizing additional compensation in the amount of $151,595, for a total of $450,225.11.
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends City Council approve the second amendment to the consultant services agreement with LSA Associates, Inc. to extend the contract performance period to December 31, 2024 and to increase compensation by $151,595 and to authorize the City Manager or designee to sign the consultant services agreement.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Additional time and appropriations are needed in order to complete an environmental analysis for the City’s VMT Mitigation Program. A scope augment and time extension are proposed to the City’s current contract with LSA Associates, Inc to enable completion of this work. The current contract amount is $269,158 with a contingency of $29,472, which was approved by the City Council on July 29, 2021. The amendment would bring the total contract amount to $450,225.11.
BACKGROUND
Senate Bill 743, which took effect in 2020, required California jurisdictions to adopt vehicle miles traveled as a new transportation metric under the California Environmental Quality Act, replacing the prior metric, level of service. This changed mitigation from congestion relief to reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT), that is, driving of single-occupant vehicles. Reducing VMT requires a multi-faceted approach, including more compact and mixed land use, and more investment in transit, bicycle, and pedestrian facilities to encourage mode shift. Because incentivizing a behavioral shift from vehicles to transit, bicycle and pedestrian travel is new, a large body of data which guarantees the effectiveness of one approach over another is lacking, making it difficult to make absolute conclusions about VMT mitigation measures.
City staff has nearly completed a draft VMT Mitigation Program which includes the following:
1. An urban design calculator that includes design recommendations that may reduce VMT; and
2. A VMT fee program that will fund transit, bicycle and pedestrian incentives and improvements that should reduce VMT.
However, since data is still being collected about the effectiveness of VMT reduction measures, a VMT mitigation program should be analyzed under CEQA. The proposed environmental analysis will be a focused EIR analyzing the City’s proposed VMT Mitigation Program and providing CEQA coverage at the programmatic level, so that individual projects will not be required to do EIR’s to cover potential VMT impacts. This will streamline development of projects that would have VMT impacts.
ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS
This is not a project pursuant to CEQA guidelines Section 15378.
LOCAL PREFERENCE
Local preference was not implemented because this item is an amendment to an existing consultant services agreement.
FISCAL IMPACT
Funding from the current 2023 departmental appropriations will be used. Specifically, the Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) grant from the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development will be used. The purpose of the grant is to streamline and facilitate housing development.
ATTACHMENT:
Exhibit A - Second Amendment to Agreement