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APPROVE AN AGREEMENT FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES WITH PLACEWORKS, INC. TO ESTABLISH A NEW HOUSING ACTION PLAN AND COMPREHENSIVE UPDATE TO THE CITY OF STOCKTON'S HOUSING ELEMENT
recommended action
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a resolution to:
1. Award a three-year Professional Services Agreement with PlaceWorks, Inc., of Berkeley, CA in the amount of $599,786 for consulting services to establish a new Housing Action Plan and Comprehensive Update to the City's Housing Element; and
2. Approve finding pursuant to Stockton Municipal Code 3.68.070 in support of an exception to the competitive bidding process; and
3. Authorize the City Manager to take necessary and appropriate actions to carry out the purpose and intent of this Resolution.
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Summary
In 2017, the California Legislature declared the lack of housing in the State a crisis and began approving legislation to increase housing production across the State. In addition, the Stockton City Council directed Staff to investigate ways to reduce barriers to affordable housing production. Staff proposes two complementary documents: a Housing Action Plan (HAP) and updating the existing Housing Element by prioritizing planning activities that accelerate housing production. The City adopted its last Housing Affordable Strategy in 2008 and the 2015-2023 Housing Element in 2014. Since the adoption of these documents, there have been many changes to state housing law, the housing market, and funding availability.
Housing Action Plan
The Housing Action Plan (HAP) will be process and resource-oriented. It will not focus on creating additional zoning standards or policies, which are being developed under other Community Development Department efforts. The three main objectives of the HAP include inventory and identifying existing standards and processes for all types of housing, strategic planning by identifying priority housing sites, and providing recommendations on actions that could further housing production. Those recommendations could include code and policy amendments, partnerships, grant funding, and other activities to consider for the City and housing partners.
6th Cycle Housing Element
The Housing Element update is required by state law for the 2023-2031 eight-year housing cycle, which is the sixth Housing Element to be developed. The Housing Element includes updated Stockton demographic and growth trends, a new Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) housing capacity analysis and must be certified by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) after City Council adoption. The Housing Element is policy-oriented, intending to direct Staff and the City Council on making a decision that impacts housing supply for all income groups.
A Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued on September 9, 2021 (PUR 21-016) to solicit proposals for consulting services to prepare a Housing Action Plan (HAP) and a comprehensive Housing Element update. After four weeks, the RFP closed on October 7, 2021, with the City receiving two (2) proposals from PlaceWorks, Inc. and Harris & Associates. A Selection Committee comprised of staff representatives from the Community Development and Economic Development Departments reviewed the proposals and interviewed the consultant teams on November 4, 2021. After a thorough review, the Selection Committee concluded that PlaceWorks, Inc. is qualified for the project.
PlaceWorks, Inc. will work with internal and external stakeholders, the Planning Commission, the Council Legislative/Environmental Committee, industry representatives, and the general public to establish these two documents and complete the entire effort by the end of the 2023 calendar year. Completion by the end of 2023 is needed for Staff to request reimbursement through the accepted Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) housing grant. Staff has received authorization from the grant administrators (HCD) to reimburse the entire $599,786 cost of the HAP and Housing Element.
Staff recommends that Council approve and authorize the City Manager to execute a three-year Professional Service Agreement with PlaceWorks, Inc. for a not-to-exceed contract amount of $599,786.
DISCUSSION
Background
In 2017, the California Legislature declared the lack of housing in the State a crisis and began approving legislation to increase housing production across the State. In addition, the Stockton City Council directed Staff to investigate ways to reduce barriers to affordable housing production. Staff proposes two complementary documents: a Housing Action Plan (HAP) and updating the existing Housing Element by prioritizing planning activities that accelerate housing production. The City adopted its last Housing Affordable Strategy in 2008 and the 2015-2023 Housing Element in 2014. Since the adoption of these documents, there have been many changes to state housing law, the housing market, and funding availability.
While the City has adopted many affordable housing and homelessness efforts, the City has not updated its Housing Strategic Plan since 2008. The adoption of the HAP will address new housing laws and include analysis and discussion of the current housing market and funding availability.
The City relies on the Stockton Housing Element and General Plan policies to dictate housing standards, partnerships, and funding availability. Under Government Code Section 65302, the Housing Element is one of seven mandated elements of a General Plan. The six other required elements include land use, circulation, open space, conservation, safety, and noise. California law mandates that local governments must adequately plan to meet the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of the community (Government Code §65580). Unlike other elements of the General Plan, the Housing Element must be periodically updated and submitted to HCD for review and ultimate certification. This certification ensures a City or County is making incremental progress towards meeting their existing and projected housing needs, including their share of the regional housing need. The City's current 2015-2023 Housing Element will expire in December 2023.
Each Housing Element update process begins with HCD allocating each region's share of the statewide housing need to the appropriate regional Council of Governments based on Department of Finance population projections and regional population forecasts used in preparing regional transportation plans. HCD further breaks down the housing need into four income levels, including very low, low, moderate, and above moderate. This division ensures adequate housing that is affordable for all income levels in the region.
The San Joaquin Council of Governments (SJCOG) receives the housing need allocation from HCD for San Joaquin County. SJCOG then prepares a Regional Housing Need Plan (RHNP) that allocates the region's share of the statewide need to the cities and county. The RHNP is required to promote the following objectives:
• Increase the housing supply and the mix of housing types, tenure, and affordability in all cities and counties within the region in an equitable manner;
• Promote infill development and socioeconomic equity, the protection of environmental and agricultural resources, and the encouragement of efficient development patterns; and
• Promote an improved intraregional relationship between jobs and housing.
The Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) is a minimum projection of additional housing units needed to accommodate projected household growth of all income levels. For the 2014 - 2022 planning period, SJCOG allocated approximately 40,000 new housing units from HCD to plan countywide. Stockton's new housing unit allocation consists of nearly 11,824 new housing units (or 29%) of the total new housing units countywide.
Present Situation
The City intends to use the Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) housing grant to fund this project. This grant will reimburse City costs associated with the HAP and Housing Element update. For the City to be compensated for this project, work must be completed by the end of 2023. To take full advantage of these grant funds, staff recommends initiating HAP preparation and Housing Element update as soon as possible.
The Housing Action Plan (HAP) will be process and resource-oriented. It will not focus on creating additional zoning standards or policies, which are being developed under other Community Development Department efforts. Rather, it will analyze and make recommendations to current housing policy in coordination with the Economic Development Department. The HAP intends to:
• Create a "one-stop-shop" for all housing-related processes, standards, policies, regional partners, and resources (funding).
• Review and highlight existing standards and processes for existing emergency housing (i.e., homeless), supportive and transitional housing, in addition to permanent housing for all income groups, programs and partnerships.
• Conduct land inventories to determine vacant and underutilized land and buildings for new housing.
• Include a displacement analysis for policy consideration.
• Establish catalytic housing "priority" sites for focus partnerships and resources.
• Identify partnerships and funding available for future housing development.
• Further implement Envision 2040 General Plan and Housing Element policies.
• Provide recommendations on policy and standard amendments included in the Development Code Overhaul and the Housing Element Update.
A Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued on September 9, 2021 (PUR 21-016) to solicit proposals for consulting services to prepare a Housing Action Plan (HAP) and a comprehensive Housing Element update. Since many cities are experiencing procurement issues due to consultant staffing shortages caused by state-wide grant-funded efforts, upcoming grant expenditure deadlines, and other pending commitments (such as Housing Element updates), staff conducted a proactive procurement procedure with RFPs sent to over 50 qualified firms. After four weeks, the RFP closed on October 7, 2021, with the City receiving two (2) proposals from PlaceWorks, Inc., and Harris & Associates.
A Selection Committee comprised of staff representatives from the Community Development and Economic Development Departments reviewed the proposals and interviewed the consultant teams on November 4, 2021. The Selection Committee met after concluding the consultant interview and weighted the following factors:
• Relevant project experience
• Understanding of scope and deliverables
• Project staff expertise
• Project work plan and management approach
• Ability to meet schedule and budget commitments; and
The Selection Committee also conducted follow-up meetings with PlaceWorks, Inc. for scope and cost and conducted reference checks (Attachment A). The Selection Committee concluded that PlaceWorks, Inc. is qualified for the project based on the following reasons:
• The consultant firm has a strong history with the City in helping prepare the award-winning 2040 Stockton General Plan and the "Series" map amendments for General Plan consistency.
• The consultant has identified subconsultants with over 100 years combined experience who are familiar with the region and with whom the City has successfully worked previously;
• The consultant was successful in other similar housing endeavors, including Housing Element updates through the state, housing action and code updates, and the monitoring of housing funds;
• The proposed costs are consistent with efforts in other cities, our FY 2021-22 Annual Budget, and the housing grant applications (SB2, LEAP, REAP); and
• Delaying the HAP and Housing Element would lessen the chance of receiving cost reimbursement from the State due to the reimbursement deadline of 2023 proposed by the State.
Based on this information, staff recommends that Council adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a Professional Services Contract with PlaceWorks, Inc. for $599,786 for the Housing Action Plan (HAP) and Housing Element Update. Exhibit 1 of the proposed Resolution describes the Professional Service Contract in detail.
Findings
Pursuant to Stockton Municipal Code (SMC) section 3.68.070, Council may approve findings which support an exception to the competitive bidding process. These findings include:
1. The City does not have staffing available to perform the tasks outlined in the hearing report.
2. Use of the RFP process is appropriate for this Professional Services Contract because it relies on the evaluation of professional qualifications and performance as the basis for selection of a vendor. Use of the criteria helps ensure selection of a vendor that will provide the highest quality professional service which is in the public interest.
3. The City negotiated a contract following solicitation of competitive proposals in accordance with SMC section 3.68.070.A.3.
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
The State of California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has awarded a non-competitive Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) grant to the City in the total reimbursable amount of $750,000. The LEAP grant has provided for a sufficient budget to be available to fully fund this contract in Community Development’s Reimbursable Grant Accounts. The efforts this contract would support are fully eligible for LEAP grant reimbursement.
Attachment A -PlaceWorks, Inc. Proposed Scope of Work