Consideration and Approval of Purchase under Maricopa County Contract:  Aerial Photography and Digital Terrain Model (DTM) Acquisition.

Approve the purchase under Maricopa County Contract Aerial Imaging services in the amount of $98,188.30.

The reason for the action is the City's need to replace aerial imagery taken in 2007 with newer, up-to-date, imagery utilized by several City divisions.

• The Division of Information Technology has budgeted $75,000.00 in Fiscal Year 2013 for the purchase of aerial imagery in account number 001-0833-502-2006.
• The Stormwater Section will fund $17,019.00 from savings related to the drainage maintenance program in Fiscal Year 2013 account number 040-3206-601-2105.
• The Utilities Division will fund $2,900.00 from savings related to the ADWR Fees that are not required in Fiscal Year 2013 due to changes in state law in account number 201-4201-700-2811.
• The Landfill Section has budgeted $40,000.00 in Fiscal Year 2013 for the purchase of aerial imagery in account umber 280-4104-790-4104.

Effective governance

None previously.

• Option A: Utilize Maricopa County's contract with Sanborn as the lowest, responsive and responsible bidder for the amount of $98.188.30 for Aerial Photography and Digital Terrain services.
• Option B: Conduct our own formal competitive bid process.
• Option C: Continue to use existing Aerial Photography and Digital Terrain from 2007.

The City has been purchasing aerial photographs for decades to support the efforts of many divisions.  Historically, the City purchased aerials by quarter section tiles, a few quarter sections every year.  At the time, this was more economical, but left the City with a patchwork of photos and Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) from many different years.  One quarter section photo may have been taken in 1995, and the next quarter section may have been from 1988.  Newer roads, subdivisions, and other developments would often disappear when moving from a newer quarter section photo to an older one.  Because of major improvements in computer technology, digital photography and other equipment used in the acquisition of aerial photography, the price has come down considerably while the quality has gone up.  Today we can purchase seamless high resolution color aerial photography (including near infrared) for the entire City plus a two mile buffer area for the same price of a few black and white quarter sections in the 1990's.

• Aerial photographs are used by the GIS section to update and maintain many GIS data layers.
• Aerial photographs and the accompanying DTM update will be used by Storm Water for their master plan and to share with FEMA floodplain mapping.
• The DTM update will be used by Public Works to update landfill usage calculations.
• NIR (Near Infrared) from the photographs could be used to do a forest health study showing the effects of drought on our forests and assist with thinning projects.
• Buying new Citywide images every few years makes it possible to show how the City changes and grows over time.  The last set of aerial photographs were taken in the fall of 2007.  The optimal time of year to take aerial photos for the City's purposes is in the spring just before the trees begin producing leaves.
• The aerial photographs, DTM updates and resulting GIS data are used by the public for a variety of purposes.

The aerial photographs, DTM data and resulting GIS data updates are used by developers, engineers, real estate agents and other businesses for a variety of purposes beneficial to the City.

Inform