Title
Amended Interlocal Agreement with County for Environmental Services (B)
Explanation
In April 1999, the City entered into an agreement with the Alachua County Environmental Protection Department to provide environmental review of development projects within the City. The agreement includes a provision to allow the agreement to be automatically renewed for one-year periods until terminated by either party. The annual fee of $31,600 was for half the salary and benefits for a professional position.
The Terms of the agreement provide enhanced environmental review of development applications for an average of 12 sites annually, 9 for contamination and 3 for natural resources. Approximately 75% of these reviews are limited to examination of issues related to possible contamination on the site. The other 25% allow for full review including wetlands and other natural resource type issues. For the past two years the County has provided approximately 6 full reviews each year, which actually exceeded the allowance established by the agreement.
The provisions of the agreement were negotiated based on City and County staffs review of historical development applications and significance of environmental reviews associated with each. After the first year of the contract, we met with Cynthia Moore, Alachua County's Natural Resources Supervisor, to discuss the process by which developments were selected for review. We agreed in the Summer of 2000 that all development plans would be forwarded to county staff for screening. At that time, they would alert us of potential issues and the City could authorize full review. The City operated under the assumption that this process was in place based on a June 23, 2000, letter from Cynthia Moore.
There have been concerns raised by City staff, citizens and DRB members that the contract with the County is not working. Public Works staff has had several meetings with County staff to determine what shortfalls exist in the contract and what the options are for addressing them. During these discussions, it was discovered that the County had not implemented the screening process agreed to by Ms. Moore in the Summer of 2000. Evidently the Department Director had no knowledge of the agreement and felt that this would not be a service that could be provided under the current agreement.
To address this issue, the County has recommended a modification to the Interlocal Agreement that will provide a base level of screening review for all city development applications for a fee of $20,000. An additional flat fee of $1,000 per application would be paid for each full environmental review that covers natural resources as well as contamination issues. These full reviews would include Environmental Protection Department staff's participation in appropriate public meetings. There would also be a provision to allow the City to authorize and compensate the County for special project task assignments on a time and materials basis for special environmental services as specified by City staff. These types of services would generally not be related to a specific development application.
An alternative to continuing our contract with the County could be to retain environmental consultant services under the City's Annual Professional Environmental Engineering Services Agreement. The current Agreement is with Water and Air Research and includes tasks for review of development plans for compliance with relevant regulations, wetlands identification, groundwater impact assessments and other environmental services as needed. Based on their top consultant pay and a conservative estimate on the number of hours that would be required to conduct a full review of 6 development proposals, the cost would be less than $30,000. However, there would not be a screening of all development applications.
The City's Development Review Board has requested the City allocate a full time professional environmental staff person to Development Review services. The drawback to this proposal is that it would be very difficult for one person to have the professional expertise that covers all the diverse issues associated with City development projects that generally requires a multi-disciplinary professional team, including biologists, geologists, engineers, and other environmental experts.
If the City desires to terminate the Interlocal Agreement with Alachua County, we are required to provide a 90-day notice and prorate the payment for services for that period of time.
City staff recommends that the Agreement with Alachua County be amended to provide the screening process and a per application review fee as proposed. City staff recommends retaining the services of Alachua County because of their multi-disciplinary professional staff and their historical knowledge of many newly annexed areas that have pending development applications.
Fiscal Note
The City has paid the County $31,600 for FY 02 services. This should be sufficient to cover the base $20,000 fee as well as the $1,000 fee per application for full review of 11 development applications.
Recommendation
Staff Recommendation: The City Commission authorize the City Manager to execute the Amended Interlocal Agreement with Alachua County Environmental Protection Department for Environmental Services.
Development Review Board Recommendation: The City of Gainesville Planning Department provide an environmental review of all development plans. The environmental review will include a determination of the following: 1) if the developing plan allows for discharge to the environment through air or water; 2) if the development site contains any existing environmental impacts. Is the development site a source of impact? Is the environment at the development site impacted by other sites? Will development of the site impact any existing environmental impacts present on or off the development site; 3) if the development complies with all applicable federal, state and local environmental regulations, rules and laws; and 4) how the development plan will alter the existing environment at and around the site and adjacent area.