REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL July 30, 2015 FROM: JENNIFER CLARK, Director Development and Resource Management Department BY: SOPHIA PAGOULATOS, Planning Manager Development and Resource Management Department SUBJECT ..Title Approve the second amendment to the contract with First Carbon Solutions in an amount not to exceed $72,000 for professional environmental consulting services to complete the Downtown Plans and Code Environmental Impact Report and authorize the City Manager or his or her designee to execute documents. ..Body RECOMMENDATION Approve the second amendment to the contract with First Carbon Solutions in an amount not to exceed $72,000 for professional environmental consulting services for the Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan, Fulton Corridor Specific Plan, the Downtown Development Code (hereinafter Downtown Plans) and the related Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and authorize the City Manager or his or her designee to execute documents. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY First Carbon Solutions is the environmental consulting firm contracted in November 2012 to complete the EIR for the Downtown Plans. The additional funds are needed to complete the work necessary for the environmental analysis and to ensure consistency with the recently adopted General Plan and related Master Environmental Impact Report (MEIR). BACKGROUND In November 2012, City Council approved a contract with First Carbon Solutions for the preparation and technical oversight of the EIR for the Downtown Plans. In 2013, work on the Downtown Plans and related EIR was put on hold when the US Department of Transportation announced the City's $16 million TIGER grant award for the Fulton Mall Reconstruction Project, as staff's time was needed to accommodate the project's environmental clearance. Shortly thereafter, the General Plan update and MEIR became the priority. The Downtown Plans and related EIR are now next in line and are near completion. The additional funds are needed in order to finalize the Downtown Plans environmental analysis and to ensure consistency with the recently adopted General Plan and related MEIR. It is anticipated that the draft EIR for the Downtown Plans should be completed by the end of this year, and should be presented to the City Council for consideration in the spring of 2016. Approval of this second amendment to the contract with First Carbon Solutions does not commit the City Council in any way to actually approve the Downtown Plans or certify the associated EIR. This approval will merely allow City staff to complete the Downtown Plans and associated EIR for future consideration by the City Council at which time the City Council may decide whether to approve or not approve the Downtown Plans and EIR. It should be noted that the First Carbon Solutions contract is the second of two contracts that require amendments to complete the work. The first contract amendment was for completion of the related traffic analysis for Fehr and Peers and was approved by the City Council last month, on June 25th. ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS This is not a "project" for purposes of CEQA, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15378. LOCAL PREFERENCE Local preference was not implemented because this item is an amendment to an existing contract. FISCAL IMPACT This expense was already included in the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget; therefore, no additional General Fund appropriations are required for this contract amendment. Attachments: Second Amendment to the Contract First Carbon Solutions Scope of Work