REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
SUBMITTED TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
SUBMITTED BY: Oliver Chi, City Manager
PREPARED BY: Tom Herbel, PE, Acting Director of Public Works
Subject:
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Approve and authorize execution of an Amendment to a Memorandum of Understanding with the Orange County Transportation Authority and the cities of Fountain Valley and Costa Mesa to extend the deadline for completion of street improvements associated with the potential removal of the Garfield/Gisler crossing of the Santa Ana River
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Statement of Issue:
The Cities of Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach entered into a Memorandum of Understand (MOU) in 2006 to pursue certain street improvements and operational goals on our respective local streets that would potentially make the future connection of Garfield Avenue and Gisler Avenue across the Santa Ana River unnecessary and allow for the permanent deletion of the roadway from the Master Plan of Arterial Highways. Due to the extended period of time it took to begin and complete the Interstate 405 Freeway project and to allow for additional time for each agency to pursue completion of individual efforts, an amendment to the agreement is needed to extend the current December 2020 completion deadline.
Financial Impact:
Extension of the agreement does not result in the commitment by the City to pursue any new improvements not previously identified in the current MOU. Additional funding may be needed from various funds to complete potential projects or demonstrate the additional capacity is no longer needed. Appropriation for additional funding requirements will be requested as needed. Funding for improvements is expected to be provided through grant funding, traffic impact fee and other appropriate local roadway funding (e.g. Gas Tax) and identified through the annual Capital Improvement Program process.
Recommended Action:
recommendation
Approve and authorize the Mayor to execute “Amendment No. 1 to Memorandum of Understanding C-6-0834 Among Cities of Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach and Orange County Transportation Authority Regarding Agency Responsibilities for Implementing the Consensus Recommendation for the Garfield-Gisler Bridge Crossing over the Santa Ana River.”
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Alternative Action(s):
Provide recommended changes to the proposed Memorandum of Understanding to pursue with OCTA, Costa Mesa and Fountain Valley.
Analysis:
The cities of Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and Fountain Valley entered into a cooperative Memorandum of Understanding with OCTA in 2006 to address ongoing concerns about the future connection of Garfield Avenue east, across the Santa Ana River to Gisler Avenue in Costa Mesa. This connection has been depicted on the County Master Plan of Arterial Highways (MPAH) for many years and had been used to model projections of long term traffic conditions in the area. In 2006, the Cities of Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach expressed their desire to have the bridge removed from the MPAH due to the anticipated community impacts the connection would have in both cities. Fountain Valley expressed their concern over any deletion from the MPAH because the impacts of not having the bridge in the future would significantly, and disproportionately impact roadways in Fountain Valley. A detailed study was undertaken at the time by OCTA to fully evaluate whether there were suitable, effective roadway network options that could be pursued to offset the need for the Garfield-Gisler Bridge. A group of improvements were identified that were expected to provide sufficient future roadway capacity to offset the loss of the Garfield-Gisler Bridge.
The MOU set goals for completing the various improvements by the different agencies and set a target completion date of the end of the calendar year 2020. It also created an interim designation for the Garfield-Gisler connection called a “right-of-way reserve” status. With this status, all parties agreed to assume that the bridge would not be built during the evaluation of all project traffic impacts and planning of all roadway improvements (future analyses). None of the Cities have fully completed the improvements in their jurisdictions at this time. The Interstate 405 freeway project was also expected to be completed by the end of 2020 back in 2006. Since the project took longer to develop than expected and evolved over time, we will not know the true effects/benefits of the project until the expected completion date in 2023. Therefore, OCTA proposed an extending the deadline for completion of city efforts to 2025. The agreement was developed with input from staff from each agency and agreed to bring the agreement to each City Council for approval.
Staff from each of the agencies are presenting the same version of the Amendment to their respective City Councils for action. Should any City request a modification to the language during the final stage of the process, it is likely that each City will need to reconsider the new version for approval. At the time of this writing, Fountain Valley has already approved the proposed language and Costa Mesa is expected to process the agreement in January or February 2020.
Environmental Status:
Not applicable.
Strategic Plan Goal:
Enhance and maintain infrastructure
Attachment(s):
1. Amendment No. 1 to MOU C-6-0834 (Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach and OCTA) - Garfield-Gisler Bridge Crossing
2. Original 2006 MOU C-6-0834 (Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach and OCTA) - Garfield-Gisler Bridge Crossing