100% General Fund. (0928-W0113B) The costs incurred by the County will be paid from the County’s General Fund. The General Fund will be reimbursed from proceeds realized from the 2020 sale of 1750 Oak Park Boulevard to Davidon Homes.
In the fall of 2020, the County completed the sale of its 5-acre property located at 1750 Oak Park Boulevard (Property) to Davidon Homes for approximately $13.8 million. The Property was the site of the former Pleasant Hill library. In advance of the sale of the Property, the County secured land-use approval for a 34-unit residential project with seven accessory dwelling units from the City of Pleasant Hill. The land use approvals included the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Among the determinations of the EIR was that the implementation of the project would result in a substantial adverse change of a historical resource – the former Pleasant Hill library.
To mitigate the impact, the EIR included Mitigation Measure MM CUL-1a which required the County to prepare a Historical American Building Survey (HABS) Report recording the building through photographs, drawings, and written description prior to its demolition. The Pleasant Hill City Council included the requirements in the Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program as part of its May 11, 2020, approval of the project and certification of the EIR.
The HABS Report was prepared over the summer and fall of 2020. ARG was retained by County’s contractor Bates Stringer, LLC, to prepare the HABS Report. Schafer was retained to document the building through photos that were included in the HABS Report. Currently, the contract with Bates Stringer, LLC, does not permit the County to pay for ARG’s mileage, reproduction, and photography consultant mark-up costs and Schafer’s services. The recommended actions will permit the consultants to be reimbursed for their costs and services.
The County will not be able to pay ARG and Schafer for costs and services already rendered for the HABS Report.