Recommendation to adopt Plans and Specifications No. R-6914 for construction of the Beach Pedestrian Path project; award the contract to Powell Constructors, Inc., of Fontana, CA, in the amount of $5,519,700, and authorize a 15 percent contingency in the amount of $827,955, for a total contract amount not to exceed $6,347,655; authorize City Manager or designee to execute all documents necessary to enter into a contract, including any necessary amendments thereto; accept Categorical Exemption No. 12-044; and Increase appropriations in the Tidelands Operations Fund (TF 401) in the City Manager Department (CM) by $2,523,428. (Districts 2,3)
Report from City Manager, Financial Management and Parks, Recreation and Marine Recommendation to award the contract to PAL Constructors for construction of the Beach Pedestrian Path Project for a total contract amount not to exceed the $6 million and increase appropriations in the Tidelands Operations Fund by 2,523,428 districts. Two and three. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve? There's been a motion. Any second. Any public comment? Yes, sir. Hello. Honorable City Council. My name is Bill Napier and Mayor. My name is Bill Napier. And. At the California Coastal Commission meeting about a second path on the sand of our beach. They also told you that if anything was to change about the beach here, that you will have to remove the new path. Well, I'm here to remind you that the Army Corps of Engineers of the federal government promised Long Beach, California, a study of the Long Beach breakwater, and I'm sure that they will keep their promise. And so the city must be ready to remove the new path at any time. And also, remember, when you have a beach. That's right. You will meet your surfer girl. Thank you very much. Hey. Thank you, sir. Mr. Goodhue. Very good. You click as the address. This is a very most instructive item in a number of ways. First of all, it is a classic example of one of the biggest problems this city faces, in my view, particularly with Thailand's area. The failure of people to understand this council and other councils and too much of the staff. The failure to understand human use patterns. And common sense. Only a close cousin of a buffoon would could conclude that putting in a second path would any way seriously in any right or reduce any problem. They will migrate back and forth. That's human nature. That's absolute human nature. And this is secondly, a classic example of what I say is one of our biggest problems, which is not a shortfall of money. It's a shortfall of common sense. This is no different than it's a self. City council together stood up on the. Bluff. Unzipped its collective fly and engaged in an activity you'd probably be arrested for. It makes absolutely no sense. But the final point I make, and I think it's I would hope you would take judicial and constructive notice of this is the format of this. The way this is formatted and presented to you today is excellent. Outstanding. It is not a black ops backroom type of presentation. This is the type of format. The issue that I discussed earlier should have been contained in whether it be dealing with a bike path removal, construction of a building. Period. And that should always be if you don't see something like that, you know, you've got some trucks running around. But again, stop and think about it. And it should start with this path. Human use patters, people, you people do what the crow does. They use common sense. And there is no way you're going to stop people from migrating back and forth. This is tantamount like saying, okay, I'm fine avenue, if you want to go north, you can only stay on the east side of the street. And the converse for the west side of the street are the same thing on Broadway. Most people generally are not stupid expecting people not to migrate back and forth. And the solution is, I bet you six months from now, a year from now, somebody's going to come up with an idea of spending a few million dollars putting up a fence, period. The areas, unplanned, uncontrollable, will always be like that. Rethink this. Thank you. There's a motion on the floor. Members, please go ahead and cast your votes. Did you. Did you want to comment? Okay. I thought this was your call. Before we vote, Councilwoman Pryce, and they will go to a vote. You mean it? She made a motion early on. It's taken. I was listening to Mr. Goodhue and lost track of my thoughts. I wanted to, just for a moment, to thank our staff for the countless hours that they've put into this project. Eric Lopez, Tom Modica, I've talked with you. You've briefed me on this project, and I want to thank you and the other members of our staff who have worked on this. I know that there have been several revisions to this path, and at times I'm sure that must have been frustrating, but I think we have a better project for it now. It did have a couple of questions that I want to share with you or ask you. Now, we have received many, many emails in our office in support of the pedestrian path. Many people are looking forward to being able to use this path exclusively for walking and running and view it as a benefit to our city. My question for you is, what is the timeline? Can I just share all the questions with you now, or do you want to go one at a time? Okay. So what is the timeline? There are have been some concerns about since we're taking portions of the beach, whether or not we've given a fair thought to the size of the path, the with the length of the path to make sure that it's minimal intrusion into the beach. So if you could just elaborate for us briefly on what has happened in regards to that and how that conclusion was reached and and whether or not there will be an opportunity at some point down the road for any displays of art along that path. I know that's a discussion that had been brought up in the past. So. Thank you. With that. Mr. West. Tom Modica Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of City Council Councilmember Price. I'll try a brief description of those three questions and then Eric can help out with anything that I might miss in terms of timeline. If this is approved tonight, I will be looking to start construction very shortly before the end of the year with a goal of being complete before summer 2015 so that the path will be open and available during our highest use time, which is the summer. In terms of the size of the path. You're right, it has gone through a number of iterations. The path has actually moved. The original proposal was south and towards the water for the pedestrian path through the the Act of the Coastal Commission and what the Council approved in February. It's now been moved to north of the path. The buffer between the two paths has actually been shrunk. So that's down to six feet. Where previously I believe it was ten. Ten. Correct. And also one thing that we gain out of this project is by realigning the paths, we actually are getting a net gain of water or a beach space that is accessible. And so you actually increase your sandy beach area adjacent to the water by about 300,000 square feet. The pathway itself takes up about 154,000 square feet. And so the net gain is actually 146,000 square feet of actual beach area that can be better utilized. And then as to the question of art, in February, when the council passed this item, they asked us to take a look at the art separate from this item, not as a condition, but separate. One of the things we've done on art is on any major project. Now, moving forward, each one of those projects in the Tidelands is going to have an art component to it. And so as we look at the Belmont Pool, as we look at Cherry Beach, as we look at. Some of the concession stands, there will be art associated. With each one of those projects at the major nodes. And as part of those projects, we can potentially look at some other art up and down on the on the path as well, trying to achieve that balance of keeping a natural area while also providing some artistic elements in the appropriate places. I hope that answers your questions. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Councilmember. Consumer price? No. Oh. Okay, great. Then we have a vote and we have a motion on the floor. Members. Joaquin Castro votes. Ocean carries eight zero. Thank you. Next item.