IceRink - Rejection of Construction Bids, Next Steps

City Council on Ice Rink
Rejection of Construction Bids, Next Steps
March 10, 2008

Item 5B4 on the City Council Agenda for March 10, 2008

Streaming video of meeting

You can go directly to the ice rink item by choosing "5.B.(4) REJECTION OF ALL BIDS..." from the list underneath the picture. Note that the listing of items is out of order, so 5.B.(4) immediately follows 3.

Staff Report

Asking Council to reject all the construction bids received and opened Dec 28.
Lowest bid is 90% higher then Engineer's Estimate
Expect to take 6 months to rescope project and re-bid project.
Rescoping includes

reevaluating the projected revenue numbers to see if they can raise it to support additional cost
looking into finding some other funding sources
looking into substituting some less expensive materials

hoping construction costs are now falling and might be less by time of re-bid.
hoping financing costs will be lower by then (currently they are higher then were)
Estimating that rescoping and redoing the bids will cost $500,000.
Updated budget and appropriations request will be presented to Council after new bids are received

Finance Committee Meeting

The item had been heard already by the Council's Finance Committee in the afternoon. (Had not realized this beforehand - should have gone to that meeting.)

Council Meeting

Councilman Tyler summarized the results of the Finance Committee meeting:

now expecting to be ready to open new facility sometime in 2010, as early as March or as late as December
PCOC has said this schedule works for them and the ice rink won't be kicked out of Civic Center before the new facility is ready
estimates of expected visit volume and rink utilization are more then 2 years old, so staff is supposed to work with ice rink operator to update them
staff is directed to get revisions done and be back to City Council before 6 months if at all possible
Councilman Holden suggested setting up a non-profit entity for fund raising. Staff to talk to the Pasadena Parks and Recreation Foundation?
Councilman Holden suggested having a parking fee instead of free parking to help raise revenue. A "small fee" not as high as the one at the current rink. Staff is to look into that.
Staff is to work with the skating community to make sure their needs are met. (No mention of working with neighbors or other interested parties.)

No mention was made during the meeting of the location or environs of the proposed rink, the neighborhood, the next door park, or PCC.

Director of Public Works, Martin Pastusha presented the staff report with additional details:

current construction budget is indeed $12 million, so lowest bid 90% higher
they think they can save $1 to $1.2 million in construction right off by a combination of:

redesign of roofing system
look into solar power / arrays
changes to window glazing
changes to interior finish

will also look into whether can reduce overall construction costs by having a more "squared building", using more conventional construction instead of architecturally significant.
will look into parking fee
will look into sports foundation through Pasadena Parks and Rec foundation
will look into new financial projections for revenue
projections are that construction costs will stay relatively flat into 2009. Some increasing costs, such as oil, offset by decreasing costs due to less demand

Councilman Madison (not a member of finance committee)

expressed strong opposition to parking fee (only councilman to say so)

virtually unheard of at other rinks
one attraction of this site was ability to not charge for parking
noted he thought there was free parking in surrounding area and charging fee would make it hard to manage traffic
lots of problems at current facility due to paid parking - hard for many parents to afford

urged looking into private fund raising
commended PCOC board as being very supportive in past (he is council rep on that board) and suggested they may be able to offer additional help with financing
suggested looking into naming rights
noted could be more harmful then helpful to eliminate services such as food service and pro shop

Councilwoman McAustin asked if staff had talked with outside entities for possible financial support

Interim City Manager Melekian indicated staff had had some preliminary discussions which looked promising but did not want to raise any expectations yet.

No other Council member spoke, including Haderlein. No idea what he or others may have said in Finance Committee. Subsequently, Haderlein responded to an e-mail on the subject with "I don't think that the parking fee idea has merit."

Neighborhood Concerns Commentary

Primary new concerns for neighborhood as a result of this are:

Parking fee is very bad idea from our standpoint

One reason we've been relatively neutral about putting that huge view blocking, open space hogging, potentially big nuisance of a facility there is that plans always were for parking to be free so users would not be driving around and parking in our neighborhood (like the many PCC students who don't want to pay for parking).
Immediately next to the proposed ice rink site is Viña Vieja Park, including the very popular dog park. That free parking is already very oversubscribed at busy times such as weekends and evenings. Park visitors are already parking way up and down Orange Grove Blvd at busy times even though it is a substantial distance from the dog park location. If the pedestrian path to our neighborhood were not as long and circuitous as is the current temporary path that goes through the planned ice rink location, dog park visitors would also be parking in our park adjacent neighborhood and walking in via the pedestrian path.
As long as there is any pedestrian access between the park and the ice rink (and that is planned), then requiring payment for ice rink parking will result in ice rink patrons using free park spaces, potentially displacing more park patrons to greater distances or discouraging them from using the park.
Not having pedestrian access between the park and the ice rink would cut off pedestrian access from Orange Grove and that would make the ice rink even less accessible for those who wish to access it without driving (bicycle, foot and/or public transit). It is a long way around.
Our neighborhood was hoping that once the ice rink parking was located immediately south of the dog park, frequent dog park users would learn that they could come via Foothill and use the supposedly usually mostly empty ice rink parking and have a shorter walk to the park instead of clogging up Orange Grove or our neighborhood streets and walking further.
If the pedestrian path from our neighborhood to the park is moved to its planned location going directly into the park, then not only will park users be parking in our neighborhood but it will convenient for ice rink users. If it is not moved, then our neighborhood will be an even more obvious place for ice rink users to park for free since the path would likely be along the ice rink access road.
You can't say on the one hand that the ice rink will be used by and affordable for regular people, but on the other hand claim they will readily pay for parking when free parking is available just slightly further away. Especially anybody who comes to the place more then once. Our experience with PCC students proves it.
There was talk of the parking fee being "small". The parking fee for PCC isn't particularly high, but it is still avoided. Costs of devices for charging a parking fee are not insignificant. Need to consider whether the revenue gain will actually be sufficient to pay for that and parking enforcement for the rink lot and surrounding areas that will have to have restricted parking instituted.

Redesign into conventional "squared off" building

Could potentially mean we'd have to look at a really ugly building without any attempt to reduce the monstrous visual impact.
Need to reinforce calls for visual screening from huge size of building and from building, parking, and vehicle lights.
Need to request again that official and public landscaping plans include the area east of the property itself, including the access road and the Avocado frontage. Tired of vague verbal assurances and no actual plans.
Sent an e-mail to Haderlein on this subject but received no reply.