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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRincon Consultants 2025-02-20; Amendment 3 2026-05-26COU 2425-199-A3 CITY OF UKIAH AMENDMENT NO. 3 TO PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONTRACT 2425-199 BETWEEN RINCON COSULTANTS, INC. and THE CITY OF UKIAH This Amendment No. 3, entered on May 26th, 2026 revises the Agreement for Professional services dated February 20th, 2025 between the City of Ukiah and Rincon Consultants, Inc., for professional consulting services relating to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) environmental analysis, studies, and/or determinations pertaining to the City’s 2025 Annexation Application. This Amendment No. 3 adds additional Scope of Work per Exhibit 1 and adds an additional $86,600. This revises the total, not-to-exceed amount to $194,622. Except as expressly amended by this Amendment, all other terms remain unchanged and in full force and effect. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, THE PARTIES HAVE EXECUTED THIS AMENDMENT ON THE EFFECTIVE DATE: RINCON COSULTANTS, INC. BY: DATE: PRINT NAME: CITY OF UKIAH DATE:BY: SAGE SANGIACOMO, CITY MANAGER ATTEST DATE:BY: KRISTINE LAWLER, CITY CLERK Matt Maddox 5/27/2026 06/10/2026 06/11/2026 Rincon Consultants, Inc. 601 University Avenue, Suite 221 Sacramento, California 95825 916-706-1374 www.rinconcons ultan ts.com May 4, 2026 Project No: 25-17456 Craig Schlatter, AICP Department of Community Development City of Ukiah 300 Seminary Avenue Ukiah, California 95482 Via email: cschlatter@cityofukiah.com Subject: Add Services #3 for the Ukiah Valley Project Dear Mr. Schlatter: This letter is Rincon Consultants, Inc.’s proposal to add services to our authorized scope of work for the Ukiah Valley Project. The additional services requested by the City of Ukiah consist of continued GIS support for the proposed annexation and revisions to the CEQA process, changing from an Addendum document to a Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The additional services will also require continued project management. The scope of work for these additional services will be as follows. Continued GIS Support Services Rincon will continue to provide GIS support services for the proposed annexation consistent with the scope of work described in the executed contract. Generally, this will include: •Supporting staff with GIS data management, organization and spatial analysis. •Creating digital maps for reports and presentations. •Developing, maintaining, and updating interactive web-based GIS tools, dashboards, and data viewers. •Providing GIS training and documentation (as it relates to the Annexation project files) for both technical and non-technical users. Based on the ongoing support by Rincon on the GIS, Rincon requests additional scope and budget to support the ongoing effort by providing GIS layers that are created through the ongoing GIS support work described generally above in the bullet list. These GIS layers would also support the proposed Supplemental EIR. Exhibit 1 City of Ukiah Ukiah Valley Project 2 Change CEQA Process from Addendum to Supplemental EIR Based on discussions with City staff and consulting attorneys, Rincon now proposes a Supplemental EIR instead of an Addendum for the project. The following describes the necessary steps and tasks necessary to change approach from the Addendum (drafted in May 2025) to a Supplemental EIR. Once the City determines the updated project description, Rincon will utilize to the best we can the existing Addendum analysis but move the project to a Supplemental EIR CEQA process as further described in detail below. Supplemental EIR (SEIR) Approach Task 1 Project Initiation and Data Collection Within one week of the Notice to Proceed, the Rincon project management team will organize and attend a kickoff meeting with City staff. This meeting will serve as a forum to review and finalize study objectives, fine tune the overall project schedule, and establish an operational protocol. The final schedule and communication protocols will be established and agreed upon at the kic koff meeting. Roles and responsibilities as well as internal deadlines will be established. We will also use this opportunity to collect any relevant studies and information not already transmitted. In addition, the kickoff meeting will be used to review the scoping and public outreach process that will be used for this project. Rincon will work with City staff to identify data that is currently available and that is anticipated to be available for use in the SEIR. Any additional data anticipated to be needed to complete a thorough SEIR analysis will be identified. Rincon will incorporate data needs into the project schedule and prepare a master schedule to demonstrate appropriate timelines. Rincon will identify critical path items to ensure the City meets its internal deadline. Task 2 Notice of Preparation Rincon will prepare the Notice of Preparation (NOP) for the project. The NOP will include a project description, location map, potential alternatives, and list of environmental issues to be studied in the Draft SEIR. We will submit a draft version of the N OP for City review. After incorporation of City comments, we will provide the final NOP for circulation to concerned agencies and organizations. We assume that City staff will be responsible for circulation of the NOP, though Rincon staff will be available to assist and provide guidance as necessary with this task, including coordination with the State Clearinghouse. As required by CEQA, agencies and organizations will have 30 days from receipt of the NOP to provide an NOP response. After receipt of NOP responses, Rincon will review and assess the responses and provide recommendations on how to address them during the SEIR process. Rincon will advise the City regarding early consultation efforts as required in the CEQA Guidelines. We do not anticipate preparing an Initial Study to accompany the NOP. Because the SEIR will address most of the issues on the CEQA Guidelines environmental checklist, we recommend foregoing the Initial Study to save time and money. Instead, for any issues that will not be covered in detail in the SEIR, we will include a section titled “Issues Found to be Less Than Significant” that will provide a brief explanation of why significant impacts are not anticipated for those issues. Task 3 Public Scoping Meeting Rincon will conduct one in-person public scoping meeting for the SEIR, during the 30-day NOP review period. CEQA requires scoping meetings for regionally significant projects. The scoping meeting would City of Ukiah Ukiah Valley Project 3 involve a brief presentation by Rincon summarizing the project and the CEQA process, followed by an opportunity for public comment on the EIR scope. Similar to the written NOP responses, the comments received at the scoping meeting will be summarized in the Draft SEIR and provided as an appendix. Task 4 Prepare Draft SEIR This task includes identification of data needs in the initial stages of SEIR preparation, completion of impact assessments, and preparation of the Administrative Draft SEIR, and Public Draft SEIR. Task 4.1 Administrative Draft Program SEIR The SEIR will include all of the components required by CEQA. The major subtasks associated with preparation of the Draft SEIR are described below. The Administrative Draft SEIR (ADSEIR) will be prepared in accordance with and include all required sections described in Article 9, Sections 15120- 15132 of the CEQA Guidelines, which set the standards for adequacy of an SEIR. Where possible, Rincon will incorporate information from existing environmental and planning documents, including the City’s 2040 General Plan EIR, the Mendocino County General Plan Update EIR, and the Ukiah Valley Area Plan EIR. As necessary, we will conduct original research to augment existing information. The document will be a Program SEIR that considers the broad policy implications of the proposed project. To that end, it will not consider detailed impacts associated with development of individual project sites, but instead will focus on the macro-level impacts associated with the Ukiah Valley Project and whether and how proposed annexation would result in environmental impacts. The ADSEIR will include the specific components described below. Executive Summary This section will provide a summary of the proposed project and associated environmental consequences. This information will be presented in tabular format to simplify review by decision - makers and the general public. The impact summary table will identify the level of significance of each environmental impact, mitigation measures required, and the residual impact after mitigation. Introduction The ADSEIR will include introductory sections that lay the groundwork for and summarize the substantive analysis to follow. The introduction will describe the purpose and legal authority of the study. It will provide a discussion of lead, responsible and trustee agencies. Project Description Based on the project description provided by City staff, Rincon will prepare a detailed CEQA project description for review by City staff prior to initiating the environmental impact analysis. The project description will detail the project proposal through textual, tabular, and graphic presentation, as necessary, to facilitate a thorough understanding of the proposed project. Environmental Setting and Baseline Conditions The environmental setting will provide a general description of the existing natural and land use characteristics of the region. This section will also contain the list of key pending and approved projects, as well as growth forecasts for the study area. This information will be presented within this section of the ADSEIR and considered in the cumulative analysis. City of Ukiah Ukiah Valley Project 4 Environmental Impacts Each environmental issue addressed in the ADSEIR will incorporate five sub-topics: setting; impact analysis (significance thresholds, methodology, project impacts, cumulative impacts); mitigation measures (including timing and monitoring requirements); level of significance after mitigation; list of individual plan components that may require further project-level study or mitigation. The discussion for each issue area will begin with the setting, which will describe existing conditions relevant to the given issue area based on existing data sources. Existing data sources include the City’s 2040 General Plan EIR, the Mendocino County General Plan Update EIR, and the Ukiah Valley Area Plan EIR . Issue areas to be evaluated will include all issue areas identified in Appendix G of the CEQA guidelines. To streamline the ADSEIR process sections based on analysis in the 2040 General Plan EIR and recent changes, issue areas determined to be less than significant without mitigation in 2020 will be included in a Issues Found to be Less than Significant section. The impact analysis in the ADSEIR will include a discussion of the methodology used to quantify or determine impacts and the criteria for judging significance. Where possible, impacts will be quantified. If existing data does not allow definitive quantification, reasonable assumptions will be used to qualitatively forecast potential impacts. Cumulative impacts will also be discussed within this analysis. Mitigation measures may include design measures and programs proposed by the City and the consultant team if warranted. Rincon will use locally and regionally recognized standard mitigation measures as the basis for the proposed measures. Issues related to mitigation implementation, such as the monitoring frequency and implementation responsibility, will also be discussed. Growth Inducement Drawing on the information provided in the environmental setting and preceding issue discussions, the growth-inducing section will address the potential for the project to directly induce economic growth and remove obstacles to growth in the area. Other Required CEQA Sections The ADSEIR will include all other sections required by the CEQA Guidelines, including a discussion of significant effects that would not be avoided, significant irreversible effects, and effects found not to be significant, of the project. Analysis of cumulative impacts would be provided in each of the issue area impact sections. Alternatives The alternatives selection process will focus on feasible alternatives capable of minimizing or avoiding potential impacts of the proposed project. As required by CEQA, the alternatives will include the “no project” alternative that would be a continuation of existing land use patterns. Other alternatives will be variations of the proposed project focusing on the changes to the annexation area that could reduce or eliminate one or more of the plan’s significant environmental effects. Rincon will work directly with City staff to identify the specifics of all alternatives. Prepare Public Review Draft Program SEIR This subtask involves responding to one round of City staff comments on the ADSEIR and incorporating final edits/revisions into the Draft SEIR (DSEIR). It also includes the production, editorial work, and communication processes to publish the DSEIR for circulation, public and agency review, and comment for a minimum 45-day period. If necessary, we will provide a final screencheck DSEIR for internal review prior to DSEIR publication. Upon approval of the screencheck DSEIR, we will assist City City of Ukiah Ukiah Valley Project 5 staff in circulating the document to concerned agencies; however, we assume that City staff will print, deliver, and pay for newspaper notices, and notices mailed to local, responsible, and state agencies. It is assumed this will be completed in 30 staff hours, with 8 hours reserved for time to produce the document. Task 5 Prepare Responses to Comments and Administrative Final SEIR Following receipt of all public comments on the DSEIR, Rincon will create a list of commenters (including persons, organizations, and agencies), comment letters, responses to comments, and any added or revised text of the DSEIR that may be necessary. It is assumed that public comments received on the DSEIR will be adequately responded to in a maximum of 80 professional staff hours, and that no comment letters will require recirculation of the DSEIR. Rincon will then assemble the Administrative Final SEIR responding to comments and incorporating by reference the DSEIR for City staff review. Task 6 Prepare Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program The Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program (MMRP) will be prepared to ensure the implementation of mitigation measures identified to reduce adverse environmental effects of the project. The MMRP will be provided in a format designed for use by planners, environmental monitors, or code enforcement officers. Essentially, this plan will take the form of a detailed table that describes: persons/agencies responsible for monitoring compliance with each condition; timing when monitoring must occur; frequency of monitoring; criteria to be used to determine compliance with conditions. Task 7 Prepare Final SEIR Following City staff’s review of the Administrative Final SEIR, including the MMRP, Rincon will prepare and deliver the Final SEIR. Rincon will also prepare a PDF of the final report for City staff to post on the City website. Task 8 Prepare Findings and Statement of Overriding Considerations Rincon will prepare CEQA Findings, including any statement of overriding considerations (SOC) for unavoidable significant impacts (if necessary). The findings will comply with Section 15091 and 15093 of the CEQA Guidelines and will be submitted in the City’s preferred format. A draft of the Findings will be prepared for City review, and a final version of the findings that addresses City comments will be provided as part of the Final SEIR under Task 7. Rincon assumes the City would provide information to support the SOC, including any relevant information regarding financial considerations. Task 9 Attendance at Public Hearings In addition to the scoping meeting described under Task 3, the Rincon project management team will attend two (2) City hearings (i.e., Planning Commission or City Council). For scoping purposes, Rincon assumes these meetings will be held in person; however, if virtual attendance is desirable, Rincon can attend virtually as well. City of Ukiah Ukiah Valley Project 6 Continued Project Management Rincon will continue to use email communications and have telephone conversations with City staff, as needed, during the course of the project to ensure clear communication. Rincon will prepare monthly invoices with status reports documenting the progress made each month on completing the project, and review and update the schedule when necessary. Additionally, Rincon will continue to attend ongoing weekly meetings with the City, which this scope of work assumes to be approximately 18 more meetings, and if further engagement is required a new scope can be identified. Schedule In line with the draft schedule for the project, the SEIR milestones and schedule would generally follow as shown below: Notice of Preparation Publish TBD Admin Draft SEIR Internal Review 14 Days TBD CEQA SEIR NOP Scoping Mtg TBD Draft SEIR Publish 45 Days TBD Draft SEIR Comment Period Closes TBD Final SEIR Finalize TBD Notice to Public Agencies of Final SEIR TBD City Council Hearing Certify SEIR TBD Adopt Zoning Ordinance Adopt Reso of Application LAFCo Hearing TBD Cost Estimate The cost for the additional services will be $86,600. This would increase Rincon’s authorized budget from $108,022 to $194,622. ━━━ Thank you for your consideration of this proposal to add services. If you have any questions regarding this proposal, please feel free to contact us. Sincerely, Rincon Consultants, Inc. Matt Maddox, AICP, MESM Principal