To: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
From: GREG KAPOVICH, WATERFRONT & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
TITLE
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DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION REGARDING APPROVAL OF THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) FOR THE SOLICITATION OF DESIGN FIRMS FOR THE RENOVATION AND REHABILITATION OF THE SEASIDE LAGOON
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In May 2021, the Mayor and City Council worked with State Legislators to obtain funding for the reconstruction of Seaside Lagoon. In July 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the state’s budget, which included an appropriation of $10 million for the Seaside Lagoon. On September 7, 2021 the City Council, after considering proposals from two consultants, directed staff to initiate and prepare a Request for Proposals (“RFP”) for an expanded solicitation of aquatic/landscape design firms for the preparation of final design documents and construction plans and specifications for the rehabilitation of Seaside Lagoon.
Staff has prepared the draft RFP and is seeking direction from the City Council to move forward with the RFP process and distribute the RFP to qualified consultants. Once received, responses to the RFP will be evaluated and a recommendation made to the City Council for design contract approval.
BACKGROUND
The City Council has made revitalization of the Redondo Beach waterfront a strategic priority for many years. The Council adopted an Asset Management Plan for the Waterfront in 2007, and a Harbor Enterprise Business Plan in 2010. In addition, the City of Redondo Beach is currently working on a planning effort to establish a framework to improve and enhance various public amenities within the City’s waterfront, commonly referred to as King Harbor. Key to the revitalization effort is the need to upgrade or replace many of the public amenities within the Waterfront. These public amenities serve as the footprint around which other revitalization activities occur, including the attraction of private investment to the waterfront to improve the commercial offerings available to residents and visitors.
Seaside Lagoon is one component of the waterfront. It is a one-of-a-kind, multi-purpose regional serving aquatics and special events facility located on state owned land in Redondo’s King Harbor. The Lagoon serves hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, approximately 80% of which are from communities outside Redondo Beach, the vast majority coming from inland Los Angeles communities such as Hawthorne, Gardena, Inglewood, and other cities that do not have access to coastal recreational amenities.
The Seaside Lagoon’s infrastructure is wholly unique and is fed by ocean water that is piped through the AES powerplant to cool its turbines, chlorinated before entering the lagoon to meet County public health requirements and then de-chlorinated before being discharged into the Harbor in order to meet strict State and Federal standards related to water quality. Though this method of bringing water to the Lagoon was innovative at the time of its construction, the City now faces challenges maintaining antiquated and obsolete infrastructure in order to meet County Department of Health standards and the increasingly strict ocean discharge requirements. The Seaside Lagoon’s inadequate infrastructure limits the operation of the Seaside Lagoon to only four months per year.
The proposed Seaside Lagoon project is expected to rehabilitate the over 60-year old facility; reduce environmental impacts by eliminating water discharge into the ocean and thereby eliminating the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s Waste Discharge Requirements & Permit; enhance the facility’s recreation aquatic amenities; and reconfigure the property to allow for significantly increased year-round use and special events. The overall cost of the effort is estimated to be between $25 to $30 million, inclusive of design, environmental review, permitting, public outreach and construction.
The draft RFP requests consultant services to develop two (2) designs for the Seaside Lagoon, inclusive of all pre- and final-design work, environmental review, permitting, public outreach and construction. One of the designs is intended to focus on a complete reconstruction of the Lagoon, allowing for a total transformation and modernization of the facility based on community feedback. The second design would focus on a rehabilitation project that remodels the existing Lagoon to enhance and modernize the facility’s existing features. Upon closure of the RFP application submittal period, staff will review all of the consultant proposals and return to City Council with a recommended contract for consideration of approval.
The selected contractor will be required to closely monitor the planning efforts regarding the current King Harbor Public Amenities Master Plan. Specific to the Seaside Lagoon, this Public Amenities Plan is focused on determining the overall size and positioning of the Lagoon including adjacent uses and related constraints. This plan is scheduled to be completed in September 2022. The outcome of the Public Amenities Plan visioning effort would serve to identify the community’s preferred uses, anticipated public demand, and the site’s technical constraints and should provide a starting point for the consultant’s design work.
The selected consultant will perform public outreach and attend public hearings to refine and adjust the two design concepts based on feedback received from Redondo Beach citizens and elected officials. Once City Council identifies a preferred design option, the Contractor shall prepare final design drawings, construction plans, and construction specifications, as well as assist with environmental review, permitting, and construction oversight.
The draft RFP sets forth a scope of work that includes the following primary tasks:
• A review of existing conditions and data, including planning documents, technical studies, and design work conducted to date for various waterfront public amenities.
• Establish and collaborate with a working committee that includes representation from the Harbor Commission, the boating community, leaseholders, and City staff. The goal of the Working Committee is to streamline the initial phases of planning and to develop early plans that can be shared with the community through a series of community workshops.
• Develop a Community Participation Plan that includes a strategy to facilitate public participation throughout the entire process, and takes into consideration the community engagement efforts completed to date;
• The project involves the preparation of two (2) designs by each prospective consultant that includes a reconstruction of the Lagoon, allowing a for complete redesign that would transform the facility’s key features based on community feedback and a second design that focus’ on rehabilitating the current facility to upgrade/repair existing equipment and systems. Both design concepts should:
o Incorporate necessary equipment that allows the facility to operate efficiently and within Los Angeles County Health Care water quality standards;
o Incorporate the vision of Seaside Lagoon as reviewed per the Public Amenities Plan, inclusive of future preferred uses, design, and the lay-out of Seaside Lagoon, including its use as a public event space year-round;
o Eliminate the facility’s existing water discharge to the Harbor and convert the Lagoon to a “closed-loop water recirculation system”;
o Incorporate community feedback and input on key facility elements and attractions in the designs;
o Include a cost estimate for each option, inclusive of site preparation work, design, environmental review, permitting, public outreach, and construction.
• Craft an Implementation Strategy for the design that assists the City in identifying potential funding sources for the improvements including prospective grants and loans.
• Preparation of final design drawings and construction plans and specifications, and assistance with environmental review, permitting, public outreach, and construction oversight.
Next Steps
Once the RFP is authorized for release by City Council, staff will directly solicit to known national and international aquatic/landscape design firms. Additionally, the RFP will be published on website databases that specialize in notifying architect and engineering firms worldwide of upcoming public agency projects. These sites include the American Society of Landscape Architects and Integrated Marketing Systems (IMS).
Once the proposals are received by the City, staff will evaluate the firms and make a contract recommendation for the firm that has proposed the best combination of qualifications and experience, technical competence, methodology, references, and cost. The design effort is anticipated to take approximately nine months from contract execution to complete, with the final three months dedicated to public meetings with the Harbor Commission and City Council.
COORDINATION
The Waterfront and Economic Development Department Coordinated the preparation of this report with the City Manager’s Office, Community Services Department, and the Public Works Department.
FISCAL IMPACT
In addition to the $10,000,000 of state funding approved for construction of the new Seaside Lagoon, the City Council has appropriated $1,050,000 from the Harbor Tidelands Fund for facility visioning and final project design.
APPROVED BY:
Mike Witzansky, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS
Exhibit A - Draft Request for Proposals for Seaside Lagoon Rehabilitation