REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
June 27, 2019
FROM: JENNIFER K. CLARK, AICP, Director
Development and Resource Management Department
THROUGH: DANIEL ZACK, AICP, Assistant Director
Development and Resource Management Department
BY: SOPHIA PAGOULATOS, Planning Manager
Development and Resource Management Department
SUBJECT
Title
Approve an amendment to the contract with LSA Associates, Inc., a California Corporation, in an amount not to exceed $85,110 for consulting services to add Vehicle Miles Travelled Threshold Development to the scope of the General Plan Environmental Impact Report Update and to authorize the Development and Resource Management Department Director or his or her designee to execute documents.
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Approve an amendment to the contract with LSA Associates, Inc., a California Corporation, in an amount not to exceed $85,110 for consulting services to add Vehicle Miles Travelled Threshold Development to the scope of the General Plan Environmental Impact Report and to authorize the Development and Resource Management Department Director or his or her designee to execute documents.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
LSA Associates, Inc. is the consulting firm that was approved by the City Council on November 15, 2018 to complete the General Plan Environmental Impact Report Update consistent with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines for an amount not to exceed $499,844. The amendment is needed in order to streamline future traffic analyses of specific projects that apply for entitlement after the updated EIR is certified. The amendment would bring the total contract cost to an amount not to exceed $584,954.
BACKGROUND
LSA Associates, Inc is currently working with City staff on updating the City’s General Plan Master Environmental Impact Report (MEIR) and converting it to a Program EIR. This update is called for in the CEQA Guidelines Section 15179. The update will also streamline environmental review of future projects, since it will include updated baseline conditions, regulations, and analyses. One particular area of focus is the transportation and traffic analysis of the EIR. New state law calls for transitioning to a new analysis criteria known as Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) by July of 2020. Currently the standard criteria used is Level of Service (LOS). While the initial scope included the new VMT analysis at a citywide general plan level, it did not include development of a project-specific evaluation tool to analyze traffic impacts of new projects proposed after certification of the updated EIR. The amendment would include the development of this new tool, including new VMT thresholds and mitigation measures. It would also include a user manual and staff training for use of the new tool.
Without this contract amendment, applicants proposing new development after July 1, 2020 would need to do their own individual VMT traffic analysis without an approved methodology, which would be more time consuming and costly, and difficult for staff to evaluate. In addition, more projects could be required to do full EIRs absent the development of new thresholds and mitigation measures proposed as part of the amendment.
ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS
By the definition provided in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15378 the amendment of an agreement does not qualify as a “project” for the purposes of CEQA.
LOCAL PREFERENCE
Local preference was not implemented because this item is an amendment to an existing contract.
FISCAL IMPACT
Funding is appropriated in the Fiscal Year 2019 budget.
Attachment:
Exhibit A: Contract Amendment, with Scope and Budget