Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan
FY 2024-25
Introduction
This five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) outlines the vision for short- and long-range development, maintenance, improvement and building of new infrastructure assets to benefit our residents, businesses, property owners and visitors. It provides a linkage between the General Plan, various master planning documents and budget, and provides a means for planning, scheduling and implementing capital projects over the next five years. The CIP provides a long-term approach for prioritizing and selecting new projects in the City. Although the plan document is updated annually, it allows the reader to review projects planned over the five-year timeframe and provides an overview of works in progress. The CIP is intended to incorporate the City’s investments in infrastructure development and maintenance (i.e., capital improvements) with other significant capital expenditures that add to or strategically invest in the City’s inventory of assets. Studies and capital expenditures of less than $75,000 are not typically included in the CIP.
Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan development
The CIP focuses on addressing critical deferred maintenance and modernizing the City’s public infrastructure. The projects are consistent with the City's adopted budget principles and City Council's stated goals, including climate action, emergency preparedness, housing, and safe routes.
Identifying projects
The City has invested in the development of long-term infrastructure planning efforts, including the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, Green Stormwater Infrastructure Plan, Zero Waste (trash and recycling) Plan, Information Technology Master Plan, Bedwell Bayfront Park Master Plan, Water System Master Plan, Stormwater Master Plan, Vision Zero Action / Transportation Master Plan, and an updated Climate Action Plan. These planning efforts have laid the groundwork to identify and prioritize key infrastructure needs in each topic area. The CIP then takes the recommendations from each plan and programs them for further planning, community engagement, design and construction. This has allowed for a more strategic approach to identifying capital needs, while still allowing the flexibility to respond to other projects or issues as they arise.
Starting in FY 2023/24, the CIP began including a new program to invest the community amenity funds contributed by development in the Bayfront area back into District 1. It is expected that this program will continue to evolve over the coming years, with opportunities for community engagement to identify and make decisions about specific projects to be implemented.
Prioritization
Even with these master planning efforts substantially completed, projects must be further scoped and prioritized annually according to available funds and resources to successfully deliver the projects. The following evaluation criteria to prioritize projects were reaffirmed by the City Council on May 14:
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Public health and safety/risk exposure
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Infrastructure protection
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Impacts on operating budgets and ongoing maintenance needs
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Capacity to deliver/impacts to other projects
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Economic development
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External requirements
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Population served
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Ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support the City's climate action plan
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Community/commission support
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Relationship to adopted plans
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Cost/benefit
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Financing availability
Project funding sources
The five-year CIP coordinates physical improvements with financial planning, allowing maximum benefits from available funding sources. It relies on funding from various sources, largely retained in the capital and special revenue funds, with uses that are usually restricted for specific purposes. Although an annual transfer from the General Fund to the City’s general capital fund (approximately $3.0 million with annual inflationary adjustment) is part of the City’s operating budget, this funding is intended solely for maintaining existing infrastructure in its current condition. Funding sources are each further described in the City's adopted budget.
Proposed projects
On May 14, the City Council reviewed and provided feedback on the projects proposed to receive funds in fiscal year 2024-25. Based on that feedback, the proposed CIP includes 64 projects. New funding requests are included for both ongoing projects with scope changes or anticipated cost escalation, as well as newly identified projects.
A number of projects address ongoing infrastructure or facility maintenance needs and are included on an annual, bi-annual or periodic basis. Examples of these programmatic projects include street resurfacing, the sidewalk repair program, annual city buildings, parks, water, and transportation improvement projects.
Carryover appropriations
Projects which had prior City Council appropriations but have not yet been completed, have a balance that is included in the budget as a carryover amount. These amounts are strictly an estimate as of March 2024, and will be trued-up at the end of the fiscal year during development of the City's Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. In many cases the carryover estimate includes funds that have been encumbered/committed as a result of an executed contract for services or goods.
General Plan consistency
The projects included in the five-year CIP must be consistent with the City’s adopted General Plan, as required by Sections 65400, 65401, and 65403 of the California Planning and Land Use Government Code. Per Sections 65100 and 65401, the City Council, as the City’s governing body, makes the determination of conformity. The CIP projects, descriptions, and budget are reviewed by City Council in June. A determination of conformity with the goals, policies, and actions contained within the City’s adopted General Plan City’s is made in June through the budget adoption process.
Environmental review
The development of the five-year plan is not a project, as defined in the California Environmental Quality Act, and an environmental review is not required. Individual projects listed herein may be subject to CEQA and environmental reviews will be conducted at the appropriate time during implementation of those projects.
Fiscal Years 2026 through 2029 are included for illustrative purposes and do not represent a finalized Capital Improvement Plan budget proposal.