ceever LY) \HILLS/ Meeting Date: Match 5, 2019 Item Number: E 14 To: From: AGENDA REPORT Honorable Mayor & City Council Shana Epstein, Director of Public Works Josette Descalzo, Environmental Compliance and Sustainability Programs Manager Subject: AUTHORIZE STAFF TO SUBMIT A LETTER OF INTENT TO CULVER CITY FOR THE CULVER MEDIAN STORMWATER REGIONAL PROJECT Attachments: 1. Schematic Diagram For Culver Blvd Median 2. Letter of Intent to Culver City RECOMMENDATION It is recommended that City Council move to authorize staff to submit a Letter of Intent (LOl) to Culver City for the Culver Median Stormwater Regional Project. The LOl allows the cities of Beverly Hills and Culver City to begin formalizing a partnership by Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the Culver Median Stormwater Regional Project. Beverly Hills s project commitment is not to exceed $3.5M. The Public Works Commission and the City Council Liaison (Mayor Gold & Councilmember Wunderlich) reviewed the items at their meeting on January 29, 2019, and supported the project to move to the next steps. INTRODUCTION The City s urban and stormwater runoff contains toxins and pollutants that enter waterways and the ocean. The federal and state Clean Water Acts (CWA) regulates pollutant levels on the waters of the United States. To comply with regulations, cities are required to formulate implementation plans such as Watershed Management Programs (WMP5) and Enhanced Watershed Management Program (EWMP5). WMPs and EWMPs provide compliance pathways through the implementation of Low Impact Development (LID) green streets and regional projects that would capture and treat urban runoff. Page 1 of 6 02/25/2019
Meeting Date: March 5, 2019 The City of Beverly Hills is part of the Ballona Creek Watershed Management Group (BC-WMG) that developed BC-EWMP. The BC-EWMP prescribes that Beverly Hills will need to manage 87 acre-feet of runoff per rain event to meet its CWA obligations. Since 2015, the City has been looking for green streets and regional project opportunities to meet its regulatory obligations. To comply, the City included green streets as part of the Santa Monica Boulevard Project (1 acre-ft.), moving forward with the green streets design for Burton Way Median Phase 1 and Phase 2 (9 acre-ft.) and looking at the feasibility of the regional project at La Cienega Park (21 acre-ft.). These projects have the potential to capture 31 acre-feet of runoff per rain event, but the City will still need to capture 58 acre-feet of runoff per rain event to meet compliance. Last year, Culver City approached the City to gauge interest in cost-sharing to build the Culver Median Regional Project. The interest came after the City of Los Angeles, who was committed and the original project partner, reconsidered its partnership due to lack of funding. The Culver Median Regional Project was identified in the BC-EWMP as a signature regional project for the watershed. The project proposal included regulatory compliance credit, capital cost and estimated Operations & Maintenance (O&M) costs and project and operation management. Currently, staff is proposing a $3.5M costsharing contribution, which will result in 4.4 acre-ft. compliance credit throughout the project lifetime for Beverly Hills. Only Beverly Hills and Culver City would be collaborating in this project. BACKGROUND The Culver Median Project is a signature stormwater regional project in the Ballona Creek Watershed. The City of Culver City is the lead agency and the City of Los Angeles was the initial project partner as their jurisdictions drain to the project site. The City of Los Angeles removed itself from the partnership due to lack of funding after the $7.7M grant monies were awarded for the project. The City of Culver City approached Beverly Hills to inquire if it was interested to be project partners to complete the regional project and preserve the grant money. The City of Beverly Hills was only interested if the Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) would give Beverly Hills compliance credit towards its stormwater permit (MS4) obligations. The Regional Board provided compliance credit to Beverly Hills if it so wishes to partner with Culver City. Staff presented the Culver Median Project to the Public Works Commission on January 10, 2019, seeking support and a recommendation to take advantage of the compliance opportunity to cost-share for the Culver Median Project. The Commission voted 4-1 in support of the project partnership. Commissioner Felsenthal did not support the recommendation as he sees the City has higher priorities over this potential partnership. The Commission agreed with the project benefits, which include the precedent setting compliance credit mechanism that would provide regional flexibility towards stormwater compliance. The project was also presented to the Public Works Liaison on January 29, 2019, for consideration. The Liaison unanimously supported the recommendation to move forward with the compliance opportunity to cost-share for the project and to bring the issue to a future City Council meeting for consideration by the full City Council. Page 2 of 6 02/25/2019
Meeting Date: March 5, 2019 DISCUSSION In managing urban and stormwater runoff, regional projects are the most cost-effective solutions, Regional projects are centralized facilities typically treating 10 s to 100 s acreft. of runoff from large drainage areas rather than green streets, which is a street segment approach. The Culver Median Project is a signature regional project identified in the BC-EWMP. The project is designed to treat 796 acres of drainage areas and capture and treat 19.5 acre-ft. of runoff per rain event. During the design phase, it was determined that Culver City will need 13.1 acre-ft. of capacity to capture and treat its tributary drainage area and leaving 6.4 acre-ft. of excess capacity. The estimated project cost is $15.6M, which equates to $800KIacre-ft. capacity. The project design includes diversion structures, pre-treatment units, underground storage facility and treatment systems and re-use irrigation system for landscape (See Attachment 1). The Culver Median Project was initially a partnership between the cities of Los Angeles and Culver City before Measure W passed (County-wide parcel tax initiative for which revenues will be dedicated to fund multi-benefit stormwater projects). Culver City is the lead agency on the project on which they completed the feasibility study, started the design, submitted grant applications and received grant funding. The project was awarded a total of $7.7M from Prop 1 and Prop 84 grants pending the remaining costs for the project is funded by Culver City and the City of Los Angeles. Culver City approached Beverly Hills for interest in collaborating with this project after the City of Los Angeles de-committed due to lack of funding prior to Measure W. Beverly Hills staff expressed interest as long as Beverly Hills receives compliance credit from the Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board), and the cost would be within range of other Beverly Hills projects. The Regional Board granted compliance credit to Beverly Hills if it so wishes to cost-share for the project. Besides compliance credit, this opportunity is precedent setting that promotes inter-agency collaboration to meet regional stormwater compliance requirements. This would be the first interagency collaboration of which the Regional Board has granted compliance credit to a city that does not drain to a regional project because it sees the water quality benefits to the entire Ballona Creek watershed. PROJECT ANALYSIS AND BENEFITS The overall project cost and funding is listed in Table 1. - Table 1: Project Cost and Funding Project Cost $1 56M Project Funding Source Prop 84 Grant $3.3M Prop 1 Grant $4.4M Culver City $4.4M Beverly Hills $3.5M Fifty percent (50%) of the project cost is grant funded from Prop 84 and Prop 1. Grant monies are guaranteed as long as local funding covers the remaining costs for the project. Page 3 of 6 02/25/2019
Meeting Date: March 5, 2019 As the lead agency and grant recipient, Culver City will be taking 15.1 acre-ft. (4.9M gallons) of compliance credit and full $7.7M of the grant funding. The 15.1 acre-ft. includes the 13.1 acre-ft. of runoff from their drainage area and 2.0 acre-ft. excess that will be used to meet Culver City s obligation to manage 99 acre-ft. of stormwater runoff per rain event. Culver City will be spending $4.4M to cover the remaining costs if Beverly Hills agrees to cost-share in the project. Staff is recommending that the City of Beverly Hills cost-share for $3.5M towards the capital cost of the project. For that amount, the City will be receiving the remaining 4.4 acre-ft. (1.4M gallons) of volume capacity and compliance credit for the lifetime of the project. These types of projects typically have a 30-year life cycle. Most importantly, the compliance credit helps the City meets its stormwater obligations to manage 87 acre-ft. of runoff per rain event. In addition to meeting our stormwater obligations, the 4.4 acre-ft. of compliance credit is equivalent to constructing 2.6 linear miles of green streets towards the City s stormwater obligation. The estimated cost to construct such length will exceed $1OM. The estimate is based on typical green streets dimensions used in stormwater modeling. Besides cost savings comparison, the compliance credit opportunity relieves the City from onsite feasibility work, public outreach, construction disturbances and lifetime maintenance cost of the green streets. The annual O&M cost estimate is $100,000. The cost-sharing responsibility is proportional to compliance credits, which means that Culver City s share is estimated at $77,000 (77%) and Beverly Hills s share is estimated at $23,000 (23%). Beverly Hills s O&M funding will be taken from Measure W revenues. As previously reported to City Council, the City expects an annual revenue of $560K from the ballot initiative. Comparing the Culver Median Project to Beverly Hills stormwater projects, staff used the Burton Way Median Phase 1 and Phase 2 in the analyses because both projects have the same concept and design. As seen in Table 2, the capacity cost ($Iacre-ft.) for the Culver Median Regional Project is less than both Burton Way Median phases. Table 2: Capacity Cost Comparison ($Iacre-ft.) Project Capacity Capacity Cost Capital Cost (acre-fl) $Iacre-ft. Burton Way Median (Phase 1) $3.7M 4.0 $925K Burton Way Median (Phase 1 + $9.8M 9.0 $1.1M Phase 2) Culver Median Project $3.5 M 4.4 $795K ADDITIONAL BENEFITS Besides the cost and grant funding benefits, the Culver Median Project provides the following additional benefits to Beverly Hills: 1. Compliance Credit: The potential collaboration will be setting a compliance precedent in the Los Angeles Stormwater Regulatory Environment. If successful, the Regional Board will be able to grant future compliance credits throughout the Page 4 of 6 02/25/2019
Meeting Date: March 5, 2019 region, which allows for faster construction of signature regional projects and have a bigger water quality impact. The Culver Median project is one of the signature regional projects that will capture large amounts of runoff and have a positive impact in Ballona Creek. 2. Regulatory Considerations: The Regional Board issues notice of violations and monetary fines to agencies that violate permit conditions. Currently, the Regional Board issues violation settlements at a rate of $3,000 per day per violation. The Ballona Creek Watershed is subject to twenty-one (21) water quality standards and can be subjected to a maximum of $63,000 per day per violation if all 21 water quality standards are exceeded. In addition to fines, the Regional Board requires violators to take all actions to cease all discharges and may eventually result to a consent decree. However, the Regional Board provides special consideration to agencies who have invested and built water quality projects. With the potential partnership, the City of Beverly Hills can demonstrate its full faith effort by building and committing to projects that would capture 9.4 acre-ft. (3.1 M gallons) of stormwater runoff since 2016. These projects are: a. Bioswales at Santa Monica Boulevard = 1 acre-ft. b. Burton Way Median Phase 1 = 4.0 acre-ft. c. Culver Median Project = 4.4 acre-ft. Demonstrating such commitment will help the City receive regulatory considerations such as extensions to compliance deadlines. 3. Relief of project management and construction burdens: Green streets projects require years of public outreach to garner support, planning and loss of street parking; Culver City staff will carry out these functions. As mentioned, this compliance opportunity replaces 2.6 miles of green streets, which will cost over $1OM. NEXT STEPS If City Council approves the recommendation, staff will submit the Letter of Intent to the City of Culver City and begin developing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for terms and cost-sharing payment schedule that will begin Fiscal Year 2019/20. FISCAL IMPACT The City of Beverly Hills is proposing to cost share no more than $3.5M for the Culver Median Stormwater Regional Project and project payment is anticipated to start in Fiscal Year 2019/20. All stormwater compliance projects are funded under CIP 0270, Ballona Creek MS4 Compliance. Over a 5-year period (FY22/23), the CIP budget is estimated to reach $46.7M. Currently (FYi 8/1 9), the CIP fund totals $6.7M of which $5.6M is available for this project. After dedicating $3.5M for this project, there will be $2.1M remaining this current year. The remaining amount plus the projected funds of $40M in the next three years would leave the CIP fund with $42.1M. The remaining amount in the CIP can be used to cover future stormwater compliance costs such as the construction costs for Page 5 of 6 02/25/2019
Meeting Date: Match 5, 2019 Burton Way Median and La Cienega Park stormwater projects. In addition to CIP funding, Measure W funds will be used to pay for the annual O&M costs for Culver Median project. Jeffrey S Muir / Approved By 1 / 1 Epst1c Page 6 of 6 02/25/2019
Attachment 1
-j cz1 Schematic Diagram for Culve BIvd Median Figure 1: Schematic Diagram for Culver Blvd Median
Attachment 2
LETTER Of INTENT The City of Culver City and the City of Beverly Hills have regulatory obligations to comply with Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Permit and Enhancement Watershed Management Program (EWMP) Plan. This letter of intent details the agreement between the City of Culver City and the City of Beverly Hills to jointly develop the Culver Boulevard Stormwater filtration/retention Regional Project (hereafter Project ) to comply with these obligations. This letter of intent describes the Project, the terms under which the Project will be designed, constructed, operated and maintained, and its cost-sharing terms. Project is designed to optimize BMP capacity to reduce sediments, bacteria and metals resulting in the improvement of water quality for the Ballona Creek Watershed. The Project is estimated to capture and treat up to 19.51 acre-feet of stormwater in a 24-hour period from a 796 acre drainage area. This provides 100% of the 85th percentile, 24-hour water quality treatment volume from the City of Culver City s 297 acre drainage area and 67% of the entire 796 acre drainage area. Of the 19.51 acre-feet, 13.05 acre-feet represents the treatment volume required for 297 acres in the City of Culver City. The remaining 6.46 acre-feet is available for Structural BMP Capacity credit trading. The trading Structural BMP Capacity was accepted by Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (LARWQCB) on May 14, 2018. The Project contains the following features to strategically intercept runoff before it discharges to the Ballona Creek channel: Storm Drain Diversions. Two storm drain diversions will be constructed to divert and capture flows from the storm drains. Pre-Treatment Units. Two pre-treatment units will be installed for each storm drain diversion prior to discharge into the subsurface storage structure. Subsurface storage structure. A 10 high, 0.8-acre area, underground stormwater capture vault (8 acre-feet or 2.6 million gallons) will be installed beneath the existing median between Sepulveda Blvd and Harter Ave. The vaults are intended to store urban and stormwater run-off for future irrigation use and as a holding area for excess run-off for filtration. Post-Treatment Discharge Units. To implement the Project, the City of Culver City and Beverly Hills have agreed to the following: 1. Culver City will be responsible for the design, construction, and operation of the Project. 2. The City of Beverly Hills agrees to participate as a financial partner in this Project in the amount not to exceed $3.5 million.
3. Beverly Hills $3.5M contribution equates approximately to 4.4 acre-feet based on a total project cost estimate of$15,557,593, which is approximately 23% of the total run-off volume treated, and Beverly Hills will therefore receive Structural BMP Capacity Credit equivalent approximately 4.4 acre-feet. If the total cost of the project at completion differs from $15,557,593 then Beverly Hills credit will be proportionally increased/decreased based on the following formula: ($15,557,593/actual project cost) x 4.4 acre-feet). The Structural BMP Capacity Credit trading was accepted by the LARWQCB. In an event there are Change Orders that affects the total cost of the project, the City of Culver City will be sending copies of the Change Order to the City of Beverly Hills. 4. The estimated cost of the Project is summarized in Table 1 and under the following categories: design, construction, monitoring and performance and public outreach. These costs are estimates pending final completion of the project. Project costs will be financed by Prop 84 grant funds, Prop 1 grant funds and a 50% local match of $7,778,796, which will be shared by Culver City and Beverly Hills as indicated in Table 2. 5. Payments from Beverly Hills to Culver City shall begin in fiscal Year 20 19/2020 and shall continue annually until the $3,500,000 has been paid to Culver City. Beverly Hills shall deposit payments into a segregated account established by Culver City. Culver City shall be entitled to withdraw from this established Culver Boulevard account to pay for or reimburse itself for project related expenses. 6. Once the Beverly Hills portion of the Project has been fully paid to Culver City and construction of project has been finalized, Beverly Hills will have met MOU capital cost obligations and be provided necessary documentation to receive credits. However, Beverly Hills will be obligated to share all maintenance, inspection and operational costs associated with the Pre-Treatment and Filtration/Retention System (collectively, Operations and Maintenance (O&M) ). O&M obligation will be included in a separate MOU between the cities. 7. Beverly Hills s O&M costs are currently estimated at $23,000 per year which is proportional to capacity that Beverly Hills is purchasing and are subject to change once project is finalized. 8. Culver City and Beverly Hills agree to share Maintenance Costs based on actual Maintenance Costs (which will be determined when project has been finalized), with Culver City paying 77% of the Maintenance Costs and Beverly Hills paying 23% of the Maintenance Costs in accordance with the procedures set forth below, Item #9. 9. Culver City will select a contractor to perform scheduled maintenance of the Pre-Treatment and filtration/retention System as recommended by manufacturer(s) pursuant to a five-year
maintenance agreement. The contractor shall be selected utilizing the City s procurement process. Prior to the expiration of the term of each maintenance agreement, City shall confer with Beverly Hills regarding the selection of a maintenance contractor for any subsequent maintenance agreement. 10. The agreement terms, payment schedule, and cost-sharing of the capital portion of the Project and O&M will be codified in separate Memorandum of Agreement approved by the respective, City Councils as necessary. Table 1. funding Summary Funding Summary Local Match Prop 1 Grant Funds Prop 24 Grant Funds $7,778,797 $4,478,796 $3,300O0O Total Project Funds $15,557,593 Table 2. Estimated cost of Project and sharing by Culver City and City of Beverly Hills Item Cost Local Match 50% of Project $7,772,797 BH share of total cost of Project $3,500,000 Culver City share of total cost of Project $4,278,797 Date: Date: Shana Epstein Director or Public Works City of Beverly Hills Charles D. Herbertson, P.E., L.S. Director of Public Works! City Engineer City of Culver City