Grant Administration Services for Coastal Restoration Project

Location:	California
Posted:	Dec 13, 2024
Due:	Jan 8, 2025
Agency:	City of Santa Cruz
Type of Government:	State & Local
Category:	C - Architect and Engineering Services - Construction R - Professional, Administrative and Management Support Services
Solicitation No:	RFP No. CM-0187
Publication URL:	To access bid details, please log in.

Project ID: RFP No. CM-0187

Title: Grant Administration Services for Coastal Restoration Project

Addenda: 0

Release Date: 12/13/2024

Due Date: 1/8/2025

Post Information

Posted At:Fri, Dec 13, 2024 1:00 PMSealed Bid Process:NoPrivate Bid:No

Overview

Summary

The City of Santa Cruz is seeking proposals from qualified candidate(s) to provide professional grant administrative and management services to the City for two coastal restoration and living shorelines projects. These projects are funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Resilience Regional Challenge Grant (Grant). The City of Santa Cruz intends to contract with one consultant with experience successfully administering state or federal grants for public entities.

Background

The City of Santa Cruz was incorporated in 1866 and formed its current charter in 1948. It is governed under a Council/Manager form of government. A Mayor and six Council members set policy for the City and a City Manager serves as chief administrator of those policies. The City is located on the coast, 75 miles south of San Francisco on the northern edge of the Monterey Bay. It encompasses 15.8 square miles with cultural and ethnic diversity among its population of 62,000. Santa Cruz is part of the National Marine Sanctuary and is a popular tourist destination owing to its beaches, surf culture, and historical landmarks.

The City provides a full range of municipal services and facilities including a recreational wharf, public golf course, over thirteen hundred acres of open space, full beach services, refuse management, law enforcement, fire protection, and water and wastewater utilities. The City is also host to University of California Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz Harbor, and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk amusement park.

In July 2024, the City of Santa Cruz received $8 million in grant funds from NOAA through the Climate Resilience Regional Challenge . This grant is part of a larger $71 million award to the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation to strengthen the resilience of coastal communities in the Monterey Bay region. The funded projects will address challenges posed by extreme weather events and other climate change impacts, such as sea level rise, atmospheric rivers, and drought.

The City will use its portion of the funding to support the planning, design, and construction of resiliency projects at three critical locations: the mouth of the San Lorenzo River on Main Beach, San Lorenzo Park, and Jessie Street Marsh. See project summaries below.

The City intends to select one qualified consultant who can provide grant management and administration services to the City for these two projects. Services include set up of a shared file collaboration site, communication with staff, scheduling review meetings as necessary, collection of progress updates and expenditure reports, preparation of invoicing and backup documentation and preparing all reporting. The consultant will need to have experience managing federal or state grants and will be required to use the tools and templates developed by the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation. The consultant will also benefit from experience with coastal restoration, living shorelines, and environmental permitting and compliance.

The City of Santa Cruz is a subrecipient of the NOAA grant funds where the primary recipient is the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation. All Grant administration tasks will need to be coordinated with the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation (Foundation). This procurement process may also be used by other subrecipients of the Foundation for activities associated with the Coastal Resilience Regional Challenge Grant.

Project Summaries: Grant administration and management will support the following two projects:

1. Main Beach - Living Shorelines Final Design and Implementation

The City of Santa Cruz is conducting a living shorelines and nature-based solutions feasibility study resulting in 30% designs for a number of locations along the Santa Cruz coastline, including a Main Beach/San Lorenzo River living shoreline application. The proposed project would reduce flood risk and beach loss at the Main Beach and San Lorenzo River mouth area by funding: 1) development of designs to 100%; 2) completion of environmental review and permitting, 3) implementation of the Beach/River living shoreline project, and 4) the development of monitoring, operational and maintenance plans and agreements.

The project will also vastly improve safe access at one of the most dangerous coastal access points in the City by providing public and emergency access infrastructure between the levee, frontline neighborhood and the river and beach, through the living shoreline. This project will also improve habitat and biodiversity. Extensive engagement has been conducted with the disadvantaged frontline neighborhood of Beach Flats, and other interested parties. Recent engagement with frontline neighborhood residents indicates that Main Beach was their primary beach for recreation due to proximity. The monitoring for this project, along with triggers and thresholds to modify overall approach (e.g., transitioning to a planned relocation strategy, for instance, of the Boardwalk that sits between Main Beach and the Beach Flats neighborhood), will be integrated into the City’s Coastal Change Monitoring Network engagement and deployment.

2. Santa Cruz City Parks Flood Mitigation and Habitat Enhancement and Restoration

The proposed project includes enhancing and expanding wetland, flood management, trails, and educational and recreational uses at Jessie Street Marsh and San Lorenzo Park which are two City-owned properties located along the San Lorenzo River. For the 3.2-acre Jessie Street Marsh, the project involves the planning, design, permitting, and construction of wetland expansion and enhancement as well as an ADA accessible, interpretive multi-use trail. The trail will connect the severely disadvantaged Lower Ocean neighborhood to parks and a regional multi-use trail network along the river. We will utilize NOAA grant funds to complete the final design, obtain permits, and construct the project. Importantly, a contaminated fill area with low-level concentrations of lead will be removed from the wetland and public access areas, improving habitat value and public safety.

The San Lorenzo Park portion of the project involves the planning, design, environmental review, and permitting to improve flood management, expand and enhance habitat, and provide recreational opportunities. The lower Riverlands area of the park is approximately 6 acres in size and sits adjacent to the river. The Riverlands area performs as an overflow area for flood management of the river, becoming heavily inundated during large storm events. The project intends to improve the flood management capabilities of this section of the river using nature-based solutions. This section of the river is not part of the levee system and remains the only area with tree canopy along the bank of the river between the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to the south and California Highway 1 to the north. It is known locally as a birding hotspot, and future improvements will expand the habitat value and educational opportunities along the river. Additionally, this project will improve recreational areas, such as by adding beach area along the river, trails, a multi-use lawn area overlooking the area, or event space.

Timeline

Release Project Date:

December 13, 2024

RFP Questions and Clarification Due Date:

December 30, 2024, 4:00pm

Proposal Submission Deadline:

January 8, 2025, 4:00pm

Grant Administration Services for Coastal Restoration Project

See also