Agenda Item Wording:
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Lisendra Heights Landscape and Lighting District - Authorize the City Manager to appropriate funding and award a landscape enhancement project to Brightview Landscape for an amount not to exceed of $125,309.
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Deadline for Action: 5/20/2024
Submitting Department: Community Services
Contact Name and Phone Number: Zach Huff, Urban Forestry Supervisor 713-4295; zach.huff@visalia.city <mailto:zach.huff@visalia.city> Alvin Dias, Parks and Facilities Manager 713-4564; alvin.dias@visalia.city <mailto:alvin.dias@visalia.city> John Lollis, Assistant City Manager 713-4323; john.lollis@visalia.city <mailto:john.lollis@visalia.city>
Department Recommendation:
Staff recommends that the City Council authorize the appropriation of $125,309 and award a landscape enhancement project for the installation of new irrigation and drought tolerant plant material at the 93-02 Lisendra Heights Landscape and Lighting District to Brightview Landscape Services of Fresno, CA, in the amount of and not to exceed $125,309, per the attached specifications.
Background Discussion:
The Urban Forestry Division manages the landscape maintenance for the City’s Landscape and Lighting Districts, the Northeast District, Open Space District, City Facilities, and City-owned parking lots, trails, and medians. Within the Landscape and Lighting Districts, staff has identified districts with sufficient funding to perform landscape enhancement projects. Many of these enhancement projects have been on a smaller scale, such as entryway landscape replacement, tree replacement, and low voltage landscape lighting restoration.
One of the Landscape and Lighting Districts where staff have received several calls from concerned residents is the Lisendra Heights District. The Lisendra Heights District is approximately thirty (30) years old and was built over seven phases of construction. Much of the landscape and irrigation has reached its expected life cycle. The landscape, predominately the trees and larger shrubs were especially affected by the several years of drought conditions and State-imposed water restrictions. Many of the trees have been removed over the years and staff have been slowly replacing them with more drought tolerant varieties over the last few months.
Over the last year, Urban Forestry staff have explored options on how best to complete an enhancement project for the Lisendra Heights District. Staff reached out to the maintenance contractor that is currently maintaining the District and requested a cost for installation of new shrubs. These costs were extremely high and did not include any irrigation improvements. Staff then reached out to the Urban Tree Foundation to assist designing an irrigation rehabilitation and landscape replacement plan. This plan will restore irrigation function and install drought tolerant shrubs and trees, while keeping the landscape attractive for residents.
On February 12, 2024, staff solicited bids from three landscape contractors, Quality Landscape Construction Inc., of Visalia, CA, Brightview Landscape Services, of Fresno, CA, and Clean Cut Landscape Management, of Clovis, CA.
On Wednesday, February 21, 2024, a mandatory onsite pre-bid meeting was held at the Lisendra Heights Landscape District. Contractors that did not attend the meeting were ineligible to submit bids for this project.
During the pre-bid meeting, staff reviewed the bid specifications, reviewed the mandatory requirements imposed by the State of California Department of Industrial Relations and answered questions.
Staff received several questions from contractors where staff carefully reviewed and answered them in a separate addendum.
On Thursday, March 14, 2024, the City received bids from two contractors: Quality Landscape Construction Inc. and Brightview Landscape Services. After careful review of the bid results and the Lisendra Heights fund balance, it was determined the enhancement project was over the District’s available funding and the scope of work would need to be reduced to complete the project.
On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, a second addendum was sent out to the two submitting contractors with a reduced scope of work, eliminating the turf removal and relandscaping of the parkway. Staff was hopeful that by reducing the scope of the project, a phase of the landscape enhancement project could be completed. On Thursday, April 11, 2024, staff received revised bids from the two contractors. After reviewing the submitted bids, Brightview Landscape Services, of Fresno, CA was the qualified low bidder. The bid amounts were also within the Lisendra Heights available funding to complete the first phase of the landscape enhancement project.
Original Bid Reduced Scope Bid
• Brightview Landscape Services, Fresno, CA $237,401.54 $125,308.57
• Quality Landscape Construction Inc, Visalia, CA $240,000.00 $146,500.00
The complete Lisendra Heights landscape enhancement project will need to be completed in phases as funding is available within the District’s cash balance. This may take several years to complete due to funding limitations, but Urban Forestry Staff does not want to draw the District’s fund balance down to zero or a deficit balance.
Fiscal Impact:
The fiscal impact for the Lisendra Heights Landscape Enhancement Project will be funded by the 93-02 Lisendra Heights Landscape and Lighting Districts cash balance Fund 273, of which there are sufficient funds for the project.
Prior Council Action: None
Other: None
Alternatives: Reject staff’s recommendation and not complete the landscape enhancement project.
Recommended Motion (and Alternative Motions if expected):
recommendation
I move to appropriate $125,309 from the 93-02 Lisendra Heights Landscape and Lighting District fund balance and award a contract for the 93-02 Lisendra Heights Phase 1 Landscape Enhancement Project, to Brightview Landscape Services, for a not to exceed amount of $128,309.
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Environmental Assessment Status: N/A
CEQA Review: N/A
Attachments: Original Scope of Work, Site Map, Addendum 1, Addendum 2, Scope of Work with Parkway Removed, Landscape Plans, Brightview Landscape Services Cost Sheet.