15 - Laserfiche WebLink

Zone 7 Water Agency initially took the lead to fund Jones & Stokes, Environmental Consultants, to facilitate meetings and work with the participating agencies to prepare a scope of work, schedule, and budget. Several agencies have committed funds in order to initiate this project. To date, the commitment includes: Zone 7 Water Agency City of Livermore City of Dublin Alameda County ACCMA City of Pleasanton $70,000 $70,000 $30,000 $20,000 $20,000 $15,000 In addition to the above agencies, Alameda County Waste Management Authority has also expressed interest in becoming a funding partner. The City of Pleasanton has signed an initial funding agreement (Attachment 2) committing $15,000 in order to start work on Phasel of the project (data collection and mapping). The City Council is now being asked to commit a further $15,000 to the project for Phases 2 and 3, and to authorize the City Manager to sign funding agreements committing up to a maximum additional $40,000 towards Phases 2 and 3 of the project. Phases 2 and 3 will include developing the conservation goals and conservation priorities map, public review, and adoption of the strategy by the local and environmental permitting agencies. (See Attachment 3, Proposed Process Diagram.) Jones & Stokes has developed a detailed Phase I scope of work which consists of: mapping land cover and focal species; compiling land use and open space data; conducting conservation gap and corridor analysis; developing conservation goals and priorities; and preparing a draft and final conservation strategy report and maps. A detailed scope of work for Phase 1 is included as Attachment 3 to this report. The entire project will take approximately 18 months to complete, at a cost of $400,000, not including an optional fourth phase which would include a pilot project and project monitoring. At the same time the scope of work was being prepared, the Alameda County Resource Conservation District, one of the participating agencies in the EACCS effort, was successful in its application for a State of California Department of Water Resources Watershed Program (CALFED) grant to develop an Alameda Creek Watershed Conservation Strategy, which has many of the same elements as the EACCS effort. Negotiations are currently underway with CALFED to determine how much of the grant funding can be used for consultant services. Currently it is estimated that approximately $80,000 of the grant could be used for consultant services on the EACCS projects which would reduce the needed contribution from each funding agency Page 3 of 5