Community Center Skate Track - Award of Design Contract

Recommendation:

It is recommended that City Council:

1. Award the Design Contract for the Community Center Skate Track Project (CIP 97-525) to Lawrence Moss and Associates.
2. Transfer $241,260 from Park and Beach Improvements (CIP 95-506) to the Community Skate Track Project (CIP 97-525)
3. Allocate $18,805 ($17,095 + 10% contingencies) for design fees from the approved funding for this project.

Background:

The City Council at it's regular meeting on November 13, 1997, approved the preliminary conceptual plan for the skate track. This plan recommended relocating the existing Community Center tennis courts #5 and 6 to an undeveloped portion of the Community Center parcel adjacent to court #2. The skate track and additional parking would then be constructed in the vacated area. This location best met staff's and City Council's varied requirements with regards to skate track size, costs, parking issues, noise impacts, safety and other issues. The estimated project cost of $241,260 presented to City Council at that meeting included design fees for both the skate track and tennis court improvements.

Analysis:

Per City Council's direction, Public Works prepared a Request for Proposals for design of the track facility and on January 16, 1998 sent out Notices to Consultants. Communication with a number of municipalities which had recently constructed skate tracks generated important information regarding their design. Staff was particularly surprised that many of the tracks were designed by only a few different design firms. Based upon these references a list of eight firms with experience in this specialized field were sent direct invitation for proposals. The design consultant marketing firm of Hawkins-Marktell, who have access to hundreds of landscape/park designers, were also sent copies of the RFP.

On February 10, 1998 the Department of Public Works received three responses to the Request for Proposals:

Proposal #	Firm	Design Fee *
1.	Lawrence Moss and Associates	$17,095
2.	Wormhoudt Landscape Architecture	$12,320
3.	Purkiss/Rose - RSI	$50,870

* Estimated Fee based upon a $77,000 cost of construction.

All three designers have had previous experience in the design of skate tracks and have shown the expertise necessary to produce plans for this type of facility. The Purkiss - Rose design fee was considered to be out of line with the amount of work requested and was rejected for these reasons.

On March 4, 1998 members of the Skateboard Track Review Committee conducted interviews of other two firms. Both firms showed commitment to design of the project. There is no question that either would represent a fine choice for planning of these facilities.

The two differences in each firms design theory became apparent during the presentations. Lawrence Moss followed the directions as set out in the City's RFP for the project. This called for three meetings to be held with local youth involved in the sport. The first meeting would be a fact-finding gathering and would rely on the participation of a skateboard professional to encourage involvement by the local skaters. The second meeting would implementfull-size wood models of a couple of the design features deemed to be most popular at the first meeting. These models would be moved about within the site and actually run to determine proper placement. Again a skateboard professional would be present to run the course himself to insure the ultimate location of the elements. The final meeting would present the final design to the local participants where final adjustments would be made.

Wormhoudt preferred to keep to it's established method of designing skate tracks. Rather than full-sized models it's proposal relied upon scale clay models. The Wormhoudt proposal failed to provide for a professional skater on it's design team as required by the City's Request for Proposal. The Wormhoudt proposal also fails to provide for civil engineering on the project. Wormhoudt would rely on Hermosa Beach Public Works staff to provide topological survey and civil engineering backup to the project. For these design considerations as well as Wormhoudt's office being somewhat distant from the site it was felt that a more thoughtful and considerate design would be available from Lawrence Moss' firm.

As Lawrence Moss has presented a proposal which meets the City's requirements, for a reasonable price, staff recommends that it be awarded the design contract for the Community Center Skate Track Project.

Fiscal Impact:

Park and Beach Improvements Project (CIP 95-506) currently has a fund balance of $357,572 per adjustments made at the mid-year budget.

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