Agenda Item Wording:
title
Authorize the City Manager to submit a grant application to the Clean California Local Grant Program.
body
Deadline for Action: 4/28/2023 - Application submission deadline
Submitting Department: Administration - CIP Engineering
Contact Name and Phone Number:
Dolores Verduzco, Financial Analyst, Dolores.Verduzco@Visalia.City, (559) 713-4540
Diego Corvera, Civil Engineer, Diego.Corvera@Visalia.City, (559) 713-4209
Frank Senteno, City Engineer, Frank.Senteno@Visalia.City (559) 713-4331
Nick Mascia, Assistant City Manager, Nick.Mascia@Visalia.City, (559) 713-4323
Department Recommendation:
Staff recommends that the City Council authorize the City Manager to submit a grant application to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) for the Clean California Local Grant Program, Cycle 2 Call for Projects, for the project below.
• North Visalia Beautification Project ($3,000,000.00, Total Cost Estimate)
Background Discussion:
Proposed Project:
To provide the City the best chance and to be competitive in this call for projects, staff recommends submitting a project that focuses on improvements along Court Street and NE 3rd Avenue from State Route 63 (Dinuba Boulevard) to Houston Avenue. The final scope of the project is currently being refined to account for public feedback received on the proposed improvements, but currently the project may include the following:
• Intersection Bulb outs using community supported pavement artwork.
• Landscaped Medians or enhanced parkways to beautify the corridors and reduce the heat island affect.
• Street lighting to enhance the public space.
• Improve aesthetics to help transform NE 3rd and Court Streets as entrance gateways from Houston Avenue to State Route 63 (Dinuba Boulevard).
• Annual clean up events to keep the neighborhoods clean and welcoming.
Based on the grant rating metrics, the most competitive projects need to provide a direct benefit to an underserved community, therefore city staff focused the initial project scoping based on the most disadvantaged census tracts identified within the City, which are located in the north Visalia area. Staff reviewed the adopted ATP plan and City General plan to further refine potential project locations to ensure consistency with City growth and goals and this project best fits the criteria established to meet the below identified goals of Clean California Grant.
Grant Program Criteria:
The Clean California Local Grant Program (CCLGP) announced a Call for Projects in February 2023 for Cycle 2 of the grant program. Applications are due by April 28, 2023.
The CCLGP is a competitive statewide program administered by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and is part of the nearly $1.1 billion Clean California initiative to remove litter and beautify public spaces. The grant program was established in 2021 through approval of Assembly Bill 149.
The intent of the CCLGP is to achieve the following goals:
• Reduce the amount of waste and debris within public rights-of-way, pathways, parks, transit centers, and other public spaces.
• Enhance, rehabilitate, restore, or install measures to beautify and improve public spaces and mitigate the urban heat island effect.
• Enhance public health, cultural connections, and community placemaking by improving public spaces for walking and recreation.
• Advance equity for underserved communities.
For the current round of funding available for Cycle 2, approximately $100M is available for award. Each grant awarded by the CCLGP has a maximum limit of $5M and projects must be completed by June 30, 2026. Applications are due by April 28, 2023, with Caltrans expected to announce the award of funds in August/ September of 2023.
For projects to be considered eligible to submit to the CCLGP, project locations must meet the following conditions: on public property, under the applicant’s jurisdiction, partially or fully located in an underserved community.
In reference to an underserved community, the grant guidelines stipulate that at least 75% of the population surrounding the project site must be underserved. The grant guidelines identify specific online tools to determine if a project site is within an underserved community. This consists of analyzing the census tracts within the project site to determine the area based one of the following methods, average median income, the number of public-school students that are eligible for free or reduced-prime meals, number of environmental impacts per the CalEnviro database or identifying the “health” of the community through the Healthy Places Index online data. The Healthy Places Index and CalEnviro data considers social conditions that drive health such as education, job opportunities, clean air and water, and other indicators that are associated with life expectancy. The average median income metric will be used for our project as it is most representative of the community’s need.
This grant program will not reimburse activities and expenditures that include displacing people experiencing homelessness, acquisition of right-of-way or land, and will not fund purely planning projects.
Public Outreach:
Staff conducted a public outreach meeting on April 11th to gather input from the public on the proposed project. The grant guidelines of the program recommend agencies engage with the local public to better develop a project that reflects community priorities. In addition to hearing the public’s thoughts on the proposed projects, Staff hopes to also gather anecdotal data; helpful to articulate the project direct benefit.
Fiscal Impact:
The maximum amount of funds that may be requested per application is $5M. However, applications requesting $3M or less may be more competitive. The total estimated cost of the North Visalia Beautification Project is $3M.
The CCLGP has a local match requirement and ranges from 0% to 50%. The local match percentage is based on the severity of disadvantage of all the census tracts with a ½ mile radius of the perimeter of the project site. The more disadvantaged the underserved community is, the lower the amount of local match contribution.
For the proposed project, the local match requirement is 0% based on the average median incomes within the surrounding community being less than $55,996 (source: Census Track Level Data from the 2017-2021 American Community Survey 5-year Estimates). No additional points will be awarded for local match contributions that exceed the minimum required match.
Following is a summary cost breakdown for the project. Amounts shown below are estimates since project components are still being developed and cost estimates will be further refined. The grant application will request the total cost of the project be fully funded by the grant program.
|
Clean CA Grant - North Visalia Beautification Project |
|
Funding Source |
|
|
Clean CA Grant |
$3,000,000 |
|
Total Project Funding |
$3,000,000 |
|
North Visalia Beautification Project - Budget |
|
|
Design & Project Management |
$400,000 |
|
Construction |
$2,400,000 |
|
Inspection |
$50,000 |
|
Construction Management |
$100,000 |
|
Materials Testing |
$50,000 |
|
Estimated North Visalia Beautification Project Cost |
$3,000,000 |
Note that the addition of these new infrastructure elements will require future required maintenance, i.e. added landscaping, streetlights, and public art. See below an approximate annual maintenance cost based on a 20-year project life:
|
Clean CA Grant - North Visalia Beautification Project - Annual Maintenance Cost |
|
North Visalia Beautification Project - Maintenance |
|
|
Trees and Landscaping (Approximately 140 Trees, 12,000 Sqft for shrubs) |
$8,400 |
|
Pavement Maintenance Reduction (Removal of 27,000 Sqft of AC) |
($3,480) |
|
Striping, signage and Markings |
$1,000 |
|
Art Work |
$1,000 |
|
Sub Total |
$6,920 |
|
Contingency 20% - Material increase - Unforeseen |
$1,390 |
|
Estimated North Visalia Beautification Project Annual Maintenance Cost |
$8,304 |
Contingent upon grant award, staff will return to Council to request acceptance of the grant and appropriation of grant funds based on the awarded amount.
Prior Council Action:
None.
Alternatives:
Do not submit the North Visalia Beautification project to the Clean California Local Grant Program Call for Projects.
Recommended Motion (and Alternative Motions if expected):
recommendation
I move to authorize the City Manager to submit a grant application to the Clean California Local Grant Program (CCLGP) Call for Projects for the North Visalia Beautification Project in the amount of $3,000,000.
end
Environmental Assessment Status:
To be determined during preliminary engineering phase.
CEQA Review:
To be determined during preliminary engineering phase.
Attachments:
Proposed Project Location Map