Honorable Mayor and Members of the Hermosa Beach City Council Regular Meeting of March 10, 2020
Title
APPROVAL OF A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU)
BETWEEN THE CITY OF TORRANCE, THE CITY OF HERMOSA
BEACH, THE CITY OF MANHATTAN BEACH, AND THE CITY OF
REDONDO BEACH FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BEACH
CITIES GREEN STREETS PROJECT FOR THE BEACH
CITIES WATERSHED MANAGEMENT GROUP
(Environmental Programs Manager Douglas Krauss)
Body
Recommended Action:
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt a Resolution approving the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City of Torrance, the City of Hermosa Beach, the City of Manhattan Beach, and the City of Redondo Beach for Implementation of the Beach Cities Green Streets Project for the Beach Cities Watershed Management Group.
Body
Executive Summary:
The City of Torrance successfully applied for a Proposition 12 Santa Monica Bay Restoration Grant to fund a Beach Cities Green Street Project. This grant would help fund a number of green street projects in Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach. This grant would help fund the Hermosa Avenue Green Street Project, as identified in the Beach Cities Enhanced Watershed Management Plan. The Hermosa Avenue Green Street Project would improve Hermosa Avenue between Herondo Street and 4th Street to include a number of green street elements that would help reduce pollution from storm water runoff, as well as beautify this section of Hermosa Avenue. Adopting this Resolution and approving the Memorandum of Understanding for implementation of this Beach Cities Green Street Project would allow Hermosa Beach to utilize these grant funds to help construct this important project. The City of Torrance would act as lead on the project.
Background:
The cities of Hermosa Beach, Torrance, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, and the Los Angeles County Flood Control District formed the Beach Cities Group to develop an Enhanced Watershed Management Program (EWMP) to comply with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board's (Regional Board) 2012 NPDES Permit, the Santa Monica Bay Beaches Bacteria (SMBBB) Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and Santa Monica Bay Toxics TMDL. The Beach Cities EWMP was submitted to the Regional Board on February 9, 2016 and was approved by the Executive Officer of the Regional Board via a letter dated April 18, 2016. The Beach Cities Group was directed by the Executive Officer of the Regional Board to begin implementation of the EWMP immediately, including construction of identified capital projects.
Complementary to regional storm water structural projects, green infrastructure projects and programs are critical to achieve water quality compliance, as detailed in the Beach Cities EWMP. Green Streets are typically smaller local control measures in available rights-of-way and augment regional structural projects to achieve water quality objectives. The Hermosa Avenue Green Street Project was identified in the 2016 Beach Cities EWMP as a distributed structural project to receive and treat dry-weather and some stormwater runoff from an approximately 47-acre drainage area (Attachment 1).
In 2018, the City of Hermosa Beach applied for a Proposition 1 grant through the Ocean Protection Council to fund a Hermosa Avenue Green Street Project (Attachment 2). That grant application was unsuccessful and this new joint effort with the EWMP group to utilize Prop 12 funding for a Beach Cities Green Street Project is another chance to help fund this important project.
Analysis:
The City of Torrance, in partnership with the other cities in the EWMP group, applied for and was successful in receiving a Proposition 12 Santa Monica Bay Restoration Grant from the Coastal Conservancy (Attachment 3). This grant would help fund the Beach Cities Green Street Project, which includes the Hermosa Avenue Green Street Project as well as green street projects identified for two sites in Manhattan Beach, five sites in Redondo Beach, and five sites in Torrance (Attachment 4). These distributed green street projects were proposed in the EWMP as essential complements to larger regional structural projects to help achieve water quality goals.
The portion of the project in Hermosa, the Hermosa Avenue Green Street Project, is an important project for reducing bacteria water quality exceedances from Hermosa Beach and the Herondo Drain. The Herondo Drain is the largest storm drain system within the Beach Cities EWMP that discharges directly to Santa Monica Bay. Located at the southern border of the City of Hermosa Beach, it drains over 3000 acres of area throughout Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance and Manhattan Beach, and is a source of elevated bacteria levels directly off-shore. This drainage area includes 287 acres of Hermosa Beach and this project would capture runoff from 47 of these acres.
Hermosa Beach, and its EWMP partners, are actively seeking alternate projects to achieve storm water diversion and pollutant reductions equivalent to what would have been achieved by the abandoned Hermosa Greenbelt Infiltration Project (Greenbelt Project). This search for alternative projects involves reanalyzing existing concepts and exploring new projects throughout the region with the possibility of combining multiple smaller projects to achieve compliance goals. This effort also includes discussions with the Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) as the EWMP group’s deadline for compliance approaches. Updates on the alternatives for the Greenbelt Project would come before the City Council on a future council agenda.
The Hermosa Avenue Green Street project may incorporate a variety of green street elements such as: dry wells, trash capture devices, trees and plants in medians and parkways, permeable pavement, and bioretention. These elements would all serve to improve storm drainage, reduce pollutants, and simultaneously help beautify this southern end of Hermosa Avenue. In addition, the project would improve pedestrian and ADA accessibility and improve pavement conditions on this section of Hermosa Avenue, between Herondo Street and 4th Street. This area, including the southern end of Beach Drive, is historically prone to flooding. This project would also help alleviate flooding in the area resulting from storm events.
The City of Torrance would be the lead agency on the entire Beach Cities Green Streets Project and, by approving this Resolution and entering into this MOU, the parties to agree to:
• Share equally the costs for Preliminary Engineering and Final Design
• Work cooperatively to fund design and construction costs of projects
• Pay the City of Torrance, as lead agency, a 10% Administration Fee
Each participating city is targeting approval of a Resolution and MOU by its respective Council soon to expedite the issuance of a Request for Proposals for the project (Attachments 5 and 6). The term of the MOU is three years. The cost for engineering and design of the entire project would be split evenly by the partner cities to ensure cost efficiency and timeliness of plan completion. The total cost for engineering and design is estimated to be $1,100,000, with $550,000 funded by the grant and the other $550,000 funded by the respective cities as match funding. Each city’s share of this cost would be $137,500. By separating design and construction phases of the project funding, the Beach Cities group would be better prepared for the possible application for other sources of funding for construction costs. In addition, the City of Torrance has already submitted an application for funding from the Safe, Clean Water Program (Measure W) for the Beach Cities Green Street Project for next year’s funding cycle.
The grant of $2,000,000 is for design and construction of the identified green street projects throughout the EWMP cities. Per the grant agreement, this work must be completed by February 2022. The estimated total project cost is $5,145,000 and the balance of costs must be funded by local or other non-State matching funds provided by the agencies in amounts proportional to each agency’s share of the work. The Hermosa Avenue Green Street Project itself is estimated to have a total construction cost of approximately $980,000; the total estimate would be better known upon completion of the preliminary engineering and design phases.
While entering into this type of MOU for cost sharing is common practice for watershed-based stormwater efforts, this proposed MOU has some notable provisions that are worth mentioning. First, the MOU states that if a party withdraws or terminates the MOU in a manner that renders Torrance in violation of its grant agreement, the party(s) that terminate or withdraw are responsible for any interest and penalties and repayment of any grant funds forfeited. This is a standard term in state grant agreements and is reflected in the proposed MOU as applying to all the partner cities. Additionally, this MOU states that if a party breaches the terms of the MOU, it shall be responsible for the payment of fines, penalties and costs incurred by the other parties as a result of non-performance of the EWMP implementation. Typically, parties are responsible for their own penalties for failure to meet their EWMP and stormwater obligations; however, this MOU would potentially shift that liability to a party that unilaterally breaches the MOU. Under the MOU, defaulting parties would be given 60 days to cure a default before any punitive provision would be triggered.
Approving this MOU and completing this project with the help of the approved grant would accomplish many important goals for the City of Hermosa Beach. The Hermosa Avenue Green Street Project would accomplish significant water quality improvements, demonstrating to the Water Board the City’s continued commitment to meeting its pollution reduction mandates. The project would also provide an opportunity for the City to work with its neighboring agencies in the Beach Cities EWMP group and set a precedent for future cooperation that would be necessary for the group to accomplish the larger joint projects necessary to meet all of its water quality goals. Lastly, this project would serve the dual benefit of rehabilitating and enhancing an important gateway to the City and creating an impactful statement of our commitment to sustainability for residents and visitors alike.
Past Council Actions
General Plan Consistency:
This report and associated recommendations have been evaluated for their consistency with the City’s General Plan. Relevant Policies are listed below:
Infrastructure
Goal 5. The stormwater management system is safe, sanitary, and environmentally and fiscally sustainable.
Policies:
• 5.1 Integration of stormwater best practices. Integrate stormwater infiltration best practices when initiating streetscape redevelopment or public facility improvement projects.
• 5.8 Low impact development. Require new development and redevelopment projects to incorporate low impact development (LID) techniques in project designs, including but not limited to on-site drainage improvements using native vegetation to capture and clean stormwater runoff and minimize impervious surfaces.
Fiscal Impact:
The City of Hermosa Beach would be responsible for its share of the matching funds required for preliminary engineering and final design, including an administrative fee for Torrance. This cost would be $137,500.
The City allocated $250,000 to CIP 164 Hermosa Ave Green Street in its 2019-2020 Adopted Budget and Capital Improvement Plan. This allocation would pay for the City’s initial shared costs for the preliminary engineering and final design. Additional funding would be required to manage the project throughout preliminary engineering, design and construction. Future costs associated with construction of the project would be determined after design and engineering are completed and may be approved separately via a future amendment to this MOU. The final design is estimated to be completed in summer 2020 and additional funds for construction would be requested in the 2020-21 Budget.
Attachments:
1. Location of Hermosa Avenue Green Street Project
2. Resolution 18-7117
3. City of Torrance Grant Agreement
4. Location of Beach Cities Green Street Projects
5. Draft MOU
6. Resolution 20-7222
Respectfully Submitted by: Douglas Krauss, Environmental Program Manager
Concur: Marnell Gibson, Public Works Director
Noted for Fiscal Impact: Viki Copeland, Finance Director
Approved: Suja Lowenthal, City Manager