Housing Element

You are invited to submit a proposal to update the Los Altos Housing Element.

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
Los Altos seeks proposals from qualified consultants or consultant teams to complete a housing element update, related rezoning and all necessary environmental review as required under State law, in a manner consistent with the Regional Housing Needs Allocation 6 (RHNA 6) planning period (2022-2030).

INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS
The consultant will be required to maintain insurance coverage for Personal Injury and Worker's Compensation, with the City of Los Altos named as "Additional Insured." The City will also require Professional Errors and Omissions insurance acceptable to the City Attorney. Carefully review the insurance requirements listed in Exhibit ‘B’ of the enclosed Professional Services Agreement Sample

PROPOSALS
Please submit an electronic submittal via OneDrive or a dropbox link incorporating all the requirements set forth in this RFP along with a statement of qualifications for undertaking the proposed services. Please define the proposed work and the completion schedule respective to your proposal. Proposals can be submitted to:

Guido F. Persicone,
AICP Planning Services Manager
City of Los Altos, 1 North San Antonio Road, Los Altos, CA 94022
gpersicone@losaltosca.gov/650-947-2633

FEE SCHEDULE
Not to exceed fees should be listed in the Fee Schedule for each task of the project. Payment for work completed will be based on progress to date for each task as described in the Scope of Services. The consultant should include costs for attending meetings, site visits, travel expenses, and all other project related expenses such as delivery services, printing costs, etc. in the fees submitted for each task.

IMPORTANT DATES
The end of the proposal period is January 21, 2021 at 4PM. We will begin our evaluation of the proposals shortly thereafter and provide notification shortly thereafter.

Contract Timeline

For context, Los Altos expects a RHNA of approximately 2,270, compared to 477 in RHNA 5, representing a 375% increase from the last planning cycle. To ensure an adequate inventory of viable sites, we anticipate the element update will necessitate rezoning in targeted areas.

Los Altos last housing element was certified by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and is available here (see footnote below). 1 We have also completed Annual Progress Reports and implemented other housing priorities, including updating the Accessory Dwelling Unit Ordinance which has doubled the number of ADUs approved in the past 18 months; revised the Density Bonus Ordinance to ensure compliance with State law and recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the County of Santa Clara for a 90 unit affordable housing project at 330 Distel Court.

While a number of important housing issues will need to be considered and addressed through the update process, the most significant work effort is expected to be meeting Los Altos’ RHNA numbers in the site inventory. To achieve that, we anticipate pursuing the following approaches: amending the site development standards and densities at key housing opportunity sites, implementing AB 1851, and streamlining the review of proposals for the construction and development of affordable housing projects.

The selected consultant(s) will partner with city staff to explore, analyze and implement these approaches in addition to supporting [or facilitating] community engagement, working with our elected and appointed officials, and key stakeholders to present recommendations and get feedback, and coordinating with HCD to help ensure ultimate certification of the updated element.

Through the Los Altos participation in a countywide collaborative and ABAG’s Regional Housing Technical Assistance Program, we anticipate a reduction in costs for some core update tasks, as detailed below. The collaborative is supported by an approximately half time technical assistance provider, who is expected to start in early 2021 and will produce draft material for some sections of the housing element that are similar throughout the county, as noted below. Respondents should be prepared to use and/or adapt this material as appropriate, and factor that into their proposal. 

SCOPE OF SERVICES
Los Altos is seeking professional consulting services to update the City’s adopted housing element in a manner consistent with current State law, ensuring certification of the final element by HCD by January 2023.

Proposals must address the following tasks, providing a description and timeline of how they would be accomplished. Additional or optional tasks may be included and creative approaches are welcome. The final scope of work will be subject to refinement and mutual agreement following the project’s launch and further discussion.

1. Project Management and Coordination
This task covers communication and coordination between the consultant and jurisdiction staff, including meetings, phone conferences, email exchanges, and other communications to ensure timely delivery and adoption of the City’s updated housing element. Proposal should identify the number of meetings anticipated and expectations for jurisdictional staff. Strategies or practices to ensure clear and timely communication and effective project coordination should be described. Strategies for ensuring coordination with HCD over the course of the project should also be addressed, as needed.

2. Community Outreach and Engagement
Develop a program that effectively reaches, educates and engages the community throughout the Housing Element update. This should include strategies to ensure broad inclusion, particularly of hard to reach groups and special needs populations, with special attention given to communicating information so it is accessible and easy to understand. Outreach is expected to begin early in the process and continue throughout for feedback on important topics such as draft ideas, site options, the draft Housing Element and environmental reviews. Please discuss options for virtual as well as in person meetings, depending on changing safety considerations. Consultant should lead the engagement as well as a summary of the work. At a minimum outreach should consist of:

• Initial presentation to City Council
• One stakeholder focus group
• Online/virtual participation opportunities

Due to the significant amount of public interest in this project, in addition to the minimum community outreach required by Housing Element Law, the consultant should also budget for at least 4-6 community meetings to discuss the RHNA process with the community.

3. Housing and Special Housing Needs
ABAG’s Regional Housing Technical Assistance Program will provide jurisdictionspecific tables, charts and a text summary for all required data, including population, Housing Element Page 4 4 demographic, housing, market conditions and regional comparisons. ABAG/REAP funded County Collaboratives will also provide county-level narratives, which expand on key themes. In some cases, these may capture all the information needed, in other cases, jurisdictions may want to tailor for their specific circumstances. Because these document are not completed yet, respondents should hold some hours as an optional task to tailor the work as needed. For more information about ABAG’s assistance, review this slide deck and webinar recording:

• https://abag.ca.gov/sites/default/files/planning_innovations_regional_data_tools_10.29.20 20_final_cl.pdf
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cS2ZIGTE4g&feature=youtu.be

4. Housing Constraints
Identify potential and actual governmental and nongovernmental constraints for the preservation, protection or production of housing across income levels within the city. ABAG’s Regional Housing Technical Assistance Program is expected to provide all cross-jurisdictional comparisons necessary for this task (e.g., comparison of fees and processing time). It will also provide write ups of typical countywide non-governmental constraints, including community opposition to housing, cost of construction, limited availability of land and other topics.

5. Existing Housing Element
Review the current Housing Element and identify Los Altos success in accomplishing/implementing the identified goals, policies and programs; and provide explanations and updates where goals, policies or programs are in progress, have been abandoned or have not proven effective.

6. Sites Inventory
Prepare the sites inventory section of the Housing Element, demonstrating how Los Altos will satisfy its RHNA in each income category. This includes identifying safe assumptions, evaluating sites and analyzing potential policy strategies to increase site capacity, demonstrating development viability (per State law) and inputting the information into HCD’s electronic form for submittal with the updated element. We anticipate that this will be the most significant area of work for the update process, and will need to start early in order to ensure adequate time for consideration of potential areas for rezoning or other changes to development standards needed to achieve the RHNA.

7. Goals, Policies, Programs and Quantified Objectives
Identify goals, policies, programs and quantified objectives to include in the Housing Element to ensure compliance with State law and effective response to the housing needs, constraints and key priorities identified through the update process. This task includes ensuring responsiveness to priorities articulated through the community engagement process as well as ensuring internal consistency with other elements of the General Plan. This task will include identification of other General Plan policy updates or revisions needed to ensure consistency.

8. Rezoning
Based on the sites analyses, work with jurisdiction staff to identify potential areas for rezoning, if necessary. This must include consideration of the State requirement for maintaining an adequate housing sites inventory throughout the eight-year planning period.

9. Draft Housing Element and Public Hearings
Prepare and submit an administrative draft Housing Element for jurisdictional staff review. Staff will provide a comprehensive set of desired changes. Once edits are complete, prepare a draft Housing Element that is made available to the public and presented to both the Planning Commission and City Council at public hearings. Based on Commission and Council input, prepare a HCD review draft and submit to HCD for the mandated review.

• Administrative draft and draft housing element (Microsoft Word)
• PowerPoint
• Six (6) public hearings

10. Final Draft Hearings, Final Adoption and Certification
The consultant will work closely with HCD and jurisdiction staff to respond to any comments, and produce a final draft housing element for adoption. Present to the Planning Commission and City Council at public hearings. Prepare the final Housing Element, including any changes from the public hearings, and submit to HCD for final certification as well as the water/sewer district and the California Office of Planning and Research.

• Draft final and final housing element (Microsoft Word and PDF)
• PowerPoint
• Six (6) public hearings

11. CEQA Documentation
Prepare all required documents for California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review and submittal, including the Initial Study, Mitigated Negative Declaration or Environmental Impact Report and CEQA Determination. This should include public posting and noticing for comment. For budget purposes, consultant may list different prices depending on the level of analysis that may ultimately be needed.

12. Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing and the Housing Element
Starting in January 2021, California law requires that Housing Elements include an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH). This applies to all jurisdictions. Housing Elements must factor the AFH into the housing sites inventory and include goals, policies and/or programs to combat discrimination, overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities.

13. Additional Task
a. AB 1851 is a unique way to build infill affordable housing and partner with the faith-based community. The City of Los Altos would like the selected consultant to identify large parcels within the City that could potentially be utilized to implement this new legislation effective January 1, 2021 and to create policies by which this state law can be implemented in the near term.
b. The El Camino Real Corridor is a unique area in Los Altos that provides services and access to transit that makes it ripe for California Tax Credit Allocation Committee financing. The City of Los Altos would like the selected consultant to prepare GIS maps and documentation to identify the properties that are most suitable for TCAC funding in the next three to five years along the El Camino Real.
c. Creation of an Affordable Housing Overlay Zone is one regulatory mechanism some local agencies have adopted to increase the production of affordable housing. The City would like the selected consultant to prepare policies within the Housing Element and provide specific examples of successful Affordable Housing Overlay Zones that can be replicated in Los Altos.
d. The chosen consultant will partner with a economic firm to prepare a Housing In Lieu Fee study that measures the true gap financing that is needed to actually build affordable units in Los Altos (see footnote below for a sample report).

OTHER INFORMATION
The City will evaluate each of the consultant’s qualifications and may conduct interviews with the consultants that demonstrate the best qualifications for the proposed services. From this evaluation and possible interviews, the City will select a consultant and negotiate a fee for the services delineated in this RFP. The consultant must be ready to execute a standard Agreement for Consultant Services (draft version is attached) within thirty (30) days of award of the project. The proposal submitted in response to this RFP will be included as part of the Agreement with the selected consultant. If you need assistance or have questions, please call the Guido F. Persicone, Planning Services Manager, at (650) 947-2633 or email at gpersicone@losaltosca.gov. Sincerely, Guido F. Persicone, AICP City of Los Altos, Planning Services Manager-