LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Clearlake City Council last week gave the go-ahead to a contract with an engineering firm for design of improvements to Lakeshore Drive.
The city solicited ensign teams to develop the finalized streetscape design earlier this year and selected BKF Engineering.
The contract with BKF Engineering covers two phases of the Lakeshore Drive design and is not to exceed $450,000, plus the authorization of a 10% contingency if necessary.
Finance Director Kelcey Young said the project has been ongoing for several years and is very challenging. That’s because of its location next to the lake, the narrow roadway and being a tourism destination with significant opportunity for increased visitation.
She said they were looking forward to finally getting the project ready to go, and staff had been working on negotiating the agreement for months.
There have been previous plans, including the Lakeshore Drive Downtown Corridor Plan completed in February 2014, which included community engagement, focus groups and design concepts.
Young reported there also were preliminary plan line design documents created in 1997 that include curb, gutter and sidewalks.
BKF Engineering will incorporate those previous plans into its work. Young said that based on the 2014 plan, the team will refine the conceptual design to define the project. That will include complete streets, with pedestrian and bicycle connections, and refining options for intersection configurations, parking, gateway and visual opportunities, and stormwater.
The designers also will come up with conceptual streetscape Alternatives and their costs oh, young reported.
The company also will help find additional grant funding to complete the project, Young said.
Young said the firm will complete the work in stages, which Young said will allow for construction to be completed in stages, as more funding becomes available, if the city decides to pursue that option.
The second stage, corridor preliminary design, will include surveys, design, cost estimates, and public validation and grant support, Young said.
Young said they want the project to look good and be accessible, and to be affordable while not skimping on style.
She said they will update the community as design comes near to completion, and will engage stakeholders regarding murals initiatives and community initiatives.
Young said the city has other initiatives to improve Lakeshore Drive, including the $1,557,158 Clean California Grant the city received, which will be used to clean and beautify the downtown and install wayfinding signage and murals on exterior walls of businesses painted by local artists, as Lake County News has reported.
There also will be an application submitted for road resurfacing through Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery fund and an application submitted for small business support with the United States Department of Agriculture.
City Manager Alan Flora said one of the priorities is not throwing out the work that’s already been done.
He said it could have been done cheaper with a straight engineering firm. However, “This is really our downtown area and it needs to be a little sexier than that,” he said, noting he really likes the company’s team.
Councilman Russ Cremer moved to authorize the contract and Councilman Russ Perdock “wholeheartedly” seconded, with the council voting 5-0 to approve it.
In other business during the July 7 meeting, the council held a public hearing and approved a partial abandonment of Spruce and Armijo avenues north of 18th Avenue, which Flora said was done to give more space and facilitate the development there of a new hotel.
The council also approved a development agreement with Erin McCarrick for a commercial cannabis operation located at 2250 Ogulin Canyon Road, got an update from two water companies on water supply and drought measures, held the first reading of an ordinance relating to traffic and parking regulations, approved nine on-call consulting contracts, not to exceed $200,000 per contract over a five-year period, awarded the 2022 chip seal project contract, adopted updates to the management classification and benefits plan and appointed voting delegates for the League of California Cities annual conference in September.
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