TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Mark Danaj, City Manager
FROM:
Anne McIntosh, Community Development Director
Nhung Madrid, Senior Management Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Resolution Approving a Professional Services Agreement for $24,580 with Iteris, Inc. to Complete the Mobility Plan Update (Community Development Director McIntosh).
ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 17-0098
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council approve a professional services agreement for $24,580 with Iteris, Inc. and appropriate $10,433 from the General Plan Maintenance Trust Account to complete the General Plan’s Mobility Plan update. Body
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
The total cost of the contract with Iteris, Inc. is $145,080. To date, $130,933 has been expended, resulting in a project balance of $14,147. As a result of staffing resources dedicated to other Council priorities, the previous agreement with Iteris has since expired. Iteris has provided a new scope of work proposal to complete the remainder of the project, which totals $24,580.
With a remaining balance of $14,147, staff will utilize $10,433 from the General Plan Maintenance Account to complete the Mobility Plan update. A General Plan Maintenance fee is collected on all building permit applications and is equal to three percent of the total cost of the building permit fees. Fees collected are specifically earmarked for General Plan updates and held separately in the General Plan Maintenance trust account until needed. This use of the trust account will not impact General Fund expenditures or fund balance.
BACKGROUND:
In January 2013, the City began working with Iteris, Inc. to prepare an update to its General Plan Circulation Element, which will now be re-labeled as the Mobility Plan. The Mobility Plan will identify goals and policies for a balanced, multi-modal transportation system serving all users, including motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists, persons with disabilities and transit users. The Mobility Plan update represents a change in direction from an auto-oriented focused policy document to a multi-modal approach with a significantly greater emphasis on moving people through active transportation options and improving transit opportunities. Ultimately, the Mobility Plan update and its implementing actions will result in a tailored set of recommendations to fit Manhattan Beach’s unique community.
To date, the project’s community engagement efforts have included the following:
• February 2013 - Public Workshop to introduce to the Community the purpose of the Mobility Plan update, and to solicit feedback on transportation throughout the City.
• June and July 2013 - Small group outreach meetings with representatives from key stakeholder groups which allowed for additional interaction and discussion between staff and representatives on various transportation opportunities.
• August and September 2013 - Two town hall meetings to discuss sharrows, specifically for Pacific Avenue.
• November 2013 - Joint City Council and Parking and Public Improvements Commission (PPIC) Meeting to discuss scoping topics for the Mobility Plan. The City Council also requested that staff return to Council and provide a preview of the pedestrian and bicycle project list.
• March 2014 - Presented draft list of pedestrian and bicycle projects to City Council. The City Council then directed staff to return with an overview on Complete Streets, and the Draft Mobility Plan document for review and discussion before presenting it to the PPIC and Planning Commission.
• September 2014 - The initial draft Mobility Plan (June 2014 version) was presented to City Council; City Council directed staff to continue moving the document forward to the PPIC and Planning Commission to gather input.
• December 2014 - Presented the Draft Plan to the PPIC; the Commission unanimously agreed that staff continue moving forward with the process.
With a change in the Department’s leadership in late 2014, the project was reevaluated to ensure that the updated Mobility Plan was consistent with the overall purpose of the General Plan and keeping it within context of a higher level policy document. As a result, in 2015, staff performed a thorough review of the 2014 draft Plan as previously presented to the public, City Council and PPIC. Given the degree of specificity that was included in the draft Plan, upon further reflection, staff revised the 2014 draft Plan and removed the following sections:
• Pedestrian Project List Phases
• Bicycle Project List Phases Bicycle Parking (types, styles, locations)
• Current Bicycle Activity and Counts
• Transit Upgrade Options (amenities)
• Complete Streets Best Practices Review
• Pedestrian and Bicycle Project List & Crossing Enhancement Policy
• Public Comments
• Public Outreach Summary
Although these sections were removed from the 2014 draft Plan, the information from those sections has not been lost. As an alternative, all those sections were recommended to be brought back separately from the Mobility Plan, and presented as an Active Transportation Implementation Plan. Bifurcating the 2014 draft Plan in this manner and returning with the Active Transportation Implementation Plan would allow for additional engagement with the community on the various improvements and allow for additional community input on the specific bicycle and pedestrian recommendations. The additional community engagement would ensure that the recommendations are tailored to meet the needs and desires of our residents, provide various mobility options for children to and from school, provide safer family-friendly bicycle routes for families, provide east/west bicycle routes for families, and overall walkability in our neighborhoods. With that said, the City Council has requested that staff move forward with prioritizing implementation of the Bicycle Master Plan component of the Plan, which is tentatively scheduled to be brought back to City Council for discussion and direction, in Fall 2017.
The above mentioned revisions resulted in the 2015 draft Mobility Plan, which was then presented to City Council and Planning Commission in a Joint Meeting in November 2015. At that meeting, additional feedback was received for the Plan’s next iteration to reflect the following changes:
• Consolidate and refine goals and policies
• Remove references to specific projects and organizations
• Remove references to plans that have not been adopted by City Council
• Remove and replace various pictures, tables, and figures
• Remove trolley recommendation
• Promote NEVs
• Emphasize safety and enforcement
• Address universal design policy
• Address sidewalks (areas without sidewalks, discontinuous sidewalks, areas where sidewalks are not intended)
The requested revisions from the November 2015 meeting have been incorporated into the most current 2017 draft Mobility Plan, which is currently under review by staff.
DISCUSSION:
As a result of the November 2015 City Council directed revisions to the draft Plan, the proposed Professional Services Agreement Scope of Services reflects the following necessary tasks to complete the Mobility Plan update:
• Revisions to the Administrative Draft Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND) to reflect a new project description as well as responding to the 2016 SACQMD Air Quality Management Plan and current greenhouse gas emissions thresholds.
• Posting the IS/MND for a 30-day public review and comment period.
• Responding to Comments received on the draft IS/MND (as needed).
• Planning Commission Public Hearing to approve IS/MND and recommend adoption of Mobility Plan update for General Plan consistency.
• City Council Public Hearing to approve IS/MND and adopt the Mobility Plan update.
• Required public posting and noticing, County Clerk filing of the IS/MND and Notice of Determination.
• Following City Council adoption, the final plan will be submitted to the California Coastal Commission.
All of these tasks have been included in Scope of Work, as shown in Attachment 1, Exhibit A. At this time, staff is requesting the City Council to approve the Professional Services Agreement with Iteris and appropriate funding to complete the Mobility Plan update. Staff anticipates that the Mobility Plan update will be completed by June 2018.
PUBLIC OUTREACH/INTEREST:
Public outreach has been performed since commencement of the project in January 2013 and is described in detail within the Background section of this report. Additional dialogue related to this project was also recently discussed at the Joint City Council, Planning Commission, Parking and Public Improvements Commission Meeting held on June 21, 2017.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The City has reviewed the proposed project for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and is in the process of preparing the appropriate environmental documents.
LEGAL REVIEW
The City Attorney has reviewed this report and determined that no additional legal analysis is necessary.
Attachments:
1. Professional Services Agreement with Iteris, Inc.
2. Resolution No. 17-0098