Three items related to the waterfront project are on the agenda for Tuesday night’s council meeting — 7pm at city hall — not including a discussion of negotiations in closed session prior. (The two parties met for a full day of exhaustive negotiations on Friday.)

• Extend special consultant Charlie Long’s contract by one month — through the end of February. Cost: $5k.
• Execute an engineering design contract with BKF for completion of the John Muir Parkway extension and other ITC infrastructure. Cost: $299k. (Funds will come from wastewater revenue bonds.)
• And a resolution to support the project (a gesture) as well as submit a revised funding plan to CCTA which asks for an advance of Measure J funds.

With respect to the design contract, it was asked during last Thursday’s task force meeting — alright, I asked — if a design-build contract would be allowed by the regional funding agencies. The City would still have to pay for the design services, but the payment would be deferred until the much larger construction contract was awarded (and therefore funded).

The design is reportedly at the sixty percent level which is ripe for design-build implementation. Comparatively, thirty percent is often too early due to concepts not being fully evaluated and additional exploration and studies outstanding, and ninety percent is too late (bullet list of items, closing comments) to realize the value of design-build — not to mention the time necessary to compile and compete the package.

The bulk of the problem has been overcome however in the commitment of wastewater revenue bonds instead of dwindling general fund dollars.

The agencies are allegedly watching for continued support for the project — from both the council and public — as they themselves are forced to commit funding between several priorities. The items on the agenda do not constitute a milestone (by any measure); the items are an exercise of diligence.