Approve awarding contracts to seven consulting firms for as-needed, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Consulting and Land Use and Planning consulting services through June 30, 2028. (No general fund impact) (Cormier/Anderson)

Approve and authorize the Chair of the Board of Supervisors to sign seven agreements for as-needed, CEQA Consulting and Land Use and Planning Consulting services with the following firms through June 30, 2028:

Awarding contracts to the seven requested service agreements will create a pre-qualified pool of five (5) environmental and two (2) land use and planning consulting firms to assist Community Services Planning staff with the processing of development applications, general plan amendments and ordinance updates, and streamline the consultant selection process that would otherwise result in untimely and potentially costly delays. This is especially critical for processing discretionary applications in compliance with state mandates that set specific timeframes for such reviews and updating the General Plan and/or County Code due to required legislative changes. Having a pre-qualified pool of consulting firms will also be advantageous with the ongoing implementation of the Cannabis Land Use Ordinance (CLUO).  Costs for the consultant services would be borne by the applicant for development projects.

The Planning Division has retained a handful of carefully selected, pre-qualified CEQA consultants since 2016. The existing CEQA and Land Use and Planning contracts will expire on June 30, 2025. Planning staff regularly use the on-call CEQA consulting services, particularly for discretionary development applications that require an environmental review, and have identified additional needs for project management and contract staffing for complex projects or ordinance updates. The contracts are also used by other Departments/Divisions in collaboration with Planning staff, such as processing mining permits and reclamation plans for the Natural Resources Division, as well as assisting with required CEQA review for projects undertaken at the Landfill, by Public Works, Parks, CSAs and others.

In order to create a varied pool of consulting firms, proposals were sought from qualified individuals and firms specializing in CEQA consulting services and land use and planning consulting services. A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for consultant services was released on January 23, 2025 (Attachment H).  A review panel comprised of staff from the Department of Community Services reviewed and scored seven bids for CEQA consulting services and three (3) bids for land use and planning consulting services.  Staff is requesting that the Board of Supervisors award five (5) service agreements for on-call CEQA consulting firms and two (2) service agreements for on-call land use and planning consulting firms, as listed above.

Each service agreement would include a term of three years, beginning July 1, 2025, and ending June 30, 2028, at which time the agreements could be extended or new contracts sought through the appropriate approval process in compliance with the County's Administrative Policies and Procedures for procuring such agreements.  Staff expects to utilize the on-call service agreements on a regular basis for processing discretionary development applications and for occasional complex ordinance updates, as well as on an as-needed basis for soliciting additional land use and planning services to augment staff resources when warranted. 

Department of General Services, Procurement
Office of the County Counsel 

Request for Qualifications (RFQ) Service Requested: As-needed, on-call CEQA Consulting Services and Land Use and Planning Consulting Services 

The evaluation process is designed to award the procurement to the Proposer with the best combination of attributes based upon the evaluation criteria. Award(s) will be made to the Proposer(s) offering the most advantageous proposal after consideration of all Evaluation Criteria set forth above. The County has established weight factors that were applied to the criteria depending upon the order of importance.
 

The County reserves the right to make an award without further discussion of any proposal submitted, and to add terms and conditions deemed to be in the best interest of the County. Any such terms and conditions shall be within the scope of the RFQ and shall not affect the basis of proposal evaluations.