Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

 

TO:

David L. Corliss, City Manager

FROM:

Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager

DATE:

January 15, 2015

CC:

Casey Toomay, Assistant City Manager

RE:

9th Street Corridor Project update

 

Please place the following item for a future City Commission Meeting Agenda:

 

Receive update regarding discussions with the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association representatives and receive briefing from Josh Shelton of el dorado, inc. regarding the preliminary design scope and fee proposal for the 9th Street Corridor (Art Place) project. 

 

Background/Discussion:

At its meeting on December 9, 2014, the City Commission received a recommendation from the committee charged with evaluation the responses to the City’s Request for Qualifications for design services on the 9th Street corridor project. The City Commission authorized staff to begin negotiations with el dorado, inc. on a scope and fee for design services for the 9th Street Corridor (Art Place) project. 

 

ELNA Letter:

At its meeting on December 16, 2014, the City Commission received and discussed a document provided by the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association (ELNA) regarding full partnership and statement of values for the E. 9th Street Corridor project.  Staff has been discussing the project with ELNA representatives and will provide a report on those discussions at the January 20 meeting.

 

el dorado, inc. Preliminary Proposal:

On January 14, 2015, the City received a letter and preliminary proposal on design scope and fee from el dorado, inc.  At the January 20 meeting, Josh Shelton from el dorado, inc. will be on hand to summarize the proposal that was submitted and have some discussion with the City Commission.  The design team’s proposal envisions that Phase 1 of the project include the following elements:

·    1A:  Create Work Plan

·    1B: Stakeholder and Artist Participation

·    1C: Data Collection and Organization

·    1D: Complete Street Plan Document

·    1E: Design Development Documentation

 

Phase 1 would achieve a document including the conceptual design after stakeholder input and weighing various alternatives, a phasing plan and cost estimates.  The design team has provided a fee estimate of $289,524 plus travel estimated at $5100-$21,100 to complete Phase 1. 

 

In order to provide the City Commission and community with an idea of what such a document would look like, el dorado, inc. provided the City with a few examples of similar documents provided on other projects they worked on: 20th Street Streetscape and West Pennway Streetscape.   Again, this is to just provide a general example of the format of the anticipated deliverable on this project and it should be emphasized that both of these projects have a different scope, different team and other differences from this project.  Josh Shelton further noted the following related to the above noted projects: 

As I looked at these more closely, they far more closely represent the deliverable identified in the 9th Street Proposal as 1D, 9th Street Complete Street Plan Document.

 

It is important to note that, in both sample projects included, the completion of Bridging Documents were the next step for the project progressing forward.  9th Street was proposed differently due to the specific nature of art-intergrated infrastructure.  Thus, we proposed an integrated multi-disciplinary team from start to finish, and a Design Development deliverable as part of Phase 1 (including Outline Specifications) to account for scope and fee accuracy as it pertains to integrated artwork opportunities associated with the project.

 

As mentioned in the el dorado, inc proposal, Phase 2, which would further the Phase 1 process by creating biddable construction drawings (required for bidding and construction of the project) is not included in this scope and fee estimate.  This is a unique project in that numerous elements of the project’s final design are unknown at this point, making it very difficult to estimate what construction drawing documents could cost.  However, el dorado, inc. has generally estimated possible cost for this phase at $275,000 to $375,000, depending on project scope, design and phasing.

 

Budget: 

It is important to understand the identified budget for this project.  Below is a summary of known budget sources for this project: 

 

$300,000    Arts Center for Art Components of the Project

$50,000      Arts Center toward design

$200,000    2015 Capital Improvements Program- City of Lawrence- toward design

$2.75 M      2016 Capital Improvements Program- City of Lawrence- toward construction

 

Total:  $3.3 M     for design, art components, and construction

 

The total rough consulting cost estimate for Phase 1 and Phase 2 would be in the area of approximately $575,000-$675,000 based on el dorado, inc’s estimates.  This would leave approximately $2.625 M to $2.725M available for construction, of which $300,000 would be art components as required by the ArtPlace grant.  Depending upon the ultimate parameters of the project and City Commission determination, additional grant or other sources of funding could be sought to increase the construction budget, or perhaps additional elements could be phased in over time as funding is identified.  However, the availability of such future resources is not known.  So, one of the issues that may be helpful for the City Commission to discuss is whether Phase 1 should be viewed as more of a master plan, setting forth the most desired elements of the project, allowing for the project to be phased with initial elements based on the known funding and possible future elements that may or may not be added in future phases, or whether the known funding parameters should drive the design. 

 

Requested Action:

The City Commission should receive these updates and provide any direction on this project as desired.