Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Nicholas J. Calderon, Parks Director
Subject: Amendment to the Agreement with Rincon Consultants for the delivery of on-call professional services to extend the term of the Agreement and to increase the not-to-exceed amount of the Agreement
RECOMMENDATION:
title
Adopt a resolution authorizing an amendment to the agreement with Rincon Consultants for professional on-call services in order to analyze revisions to the Flood Park Landscape Plan and make any necessary changes to the Revised Environmental Impact Report, extending the term through June 30, 2020, and increasing the amount by $50,000 to an amount not to exceed $375,000.
body
BACKGROUND:
On January 26, 2016, your Board adopted Resolution No. 074330, which authorized the execution of an agreement (the “Agreement”) with Rincon Consultants (“Rincon”) for the delivery of professional on-call services for the Parks Department. The Department utilized this Agreement as related to the County’s efforts to overhaul Flood Park, a County-owned and operated recreational park located entirely within the City of Menlo Park, and specifically to evaluate the potential environmental impacts associated with the proposed Flood Park Landscape Plan in accordance with California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) requirements. Consistent therewith, the Flood Park Landscape Plan’s original Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) was prepared between October 2017 and May 2018. Due to concerns expressed by neighbors, in summer 2019, the Department tasked Rincon with revising the EIR to evaluate: 1) a more conservative projection of growth in park usage resulting from the proposed Landscape Plan, and 2) projected noise levels generated on-site from concurrent park events. Moreover, because of changes to the CEQA guidelines, new wildfire and energy chapters were also added. The County circulated the revised EIR for public review and comments in the spring of 2019. As the revisions took longer than expected, the term of the Agreement with Rincon was extended from January 31, 2019 to January 31, 2020, and the not-to-exceed amount was increased by $25,000 to $325,000.
The Final Revised EIR was presented to your Board on November 5, 2019 for consideration. During the meeting, however, the Board directed the Department to reassess the Landscape Plan to determine if there is a way to better satisfy the project objectives while accommodating certain concerns expressed during public testimony.
In order to better understand the impacts that may result from revising the Landscape Plan, the Department needs to amend Rincon’s scope of work. As a result of this amendment, the Department needs to execute a Third Amendment to the Agreement: (i) to extend the term of the Agreement, and (ii) to increase the not-to-exceed amount by $50,000 to a total of $375,000.
DISCUSSION:
Depending on the revisions that may be proposed to the Flood Park Landscape Plan, Rincon may need to reanalyze the Revised EIR to determine if there are any new or significant environmental impacts associated with the changes. Because the existing Agreement expires on January 31, 2020, which is before any revisions would be made to the Landscape Plan, the Department needs to extend the term of the Agreement prior to its expiration. This will allow the Department to minimize delays to the project by eliminating the need to execute a new agreement with Rincon.
The Department proposes to extend the term of the agreement from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020, and to increase the Agreement’s not-to-exceed amount by $50,000 to a new total of $375,000. This increase is based on a proposal submitted by Rincon to complete the anticipated work.
County Counsel has reviewed and approved the resolution as to form.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The total not-to-exceed amount is $375,000. Sufficient appropriations for the Project are included in the Parks Department’s FY 2019-20 Adopted Budget.