STAFF REPORT - URBAN FOREST STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION FOR AWARD

TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL COUNCIL REPORT

TO: Council
DATE: April 22, 2024
FROM: Laura Busby, Engineering Clerk
MEETING DATE: May 7, 2024

URBAN FOREST STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION FOR AWARD

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to recommend award of the Urban Forest Strategy Project, in accordance with Project N-074 of the 2024-2028 Financial Plan (Pre-Approved with a budget of $82,500).

OPTIONS:

TIME CRITICAL:

Consultant fees identified in proposals are typically valid for 30 days.

ALIGNMENT WITH TOWN INITIATIVES:

The recommended option aligns with the following Town strategies and initiatives:

• Strategic Plan (2023-2026): Goal 3a: Develop an urban forest strategy to support community preparation for climate change impacts.
• Community Climate Action Strategy (2022): Explore opportunities to improve carbon sequestration actions including preservation of natural assets.
• Official Community Plan (2011): Policy NE1.7 stipulates maintaining a healthy urban forest by encouraging the retention of trees and ecological features, promoting tree coverage expansion and enhancing wildlife diversity.

DISCUSSION:

Proposal Review

Staff issued a Request for Proposal (“RFP”) for the project from March 21st to April 12th, 2024.

The Town received one proposal from Diamond Head Consulting. Although only one proposal was received, staff’s review confirmed that the proposal satisfies the Council-approved terms of reference.

Diamond Head has worked with over 25 communities across Canada and internationally to develop urban forest plans and related implementation materials such as tree bylaw reviews, city tree policies, planting plans and operational manuals.

Furthermore, Diamond Head Consulting already have a presence in the Capital Region: they are currently working on Urban Forest Strategies for the District of Saanich and the City of Langford (completions in 2024), and they completed the Urban Forest Strategy for the District of Oak Bay in 2016. Diamond Head Consulting also have an extensive presence within the Lower Mainland BC, conducting over nine urban forest strategies, protection plans and tree regulation toolkits within these communities over the last five years.

Diamond Head Consulting’s base fee amount to complete the Town’s urban forest strategy is $82,470 plus GST. The current project budget is $82,500.

Recommended Optional Work: Diamond Head Consulting

Diamond Head Consulting has stated that, after working on the District of Saanich’s and City of Langford’s Urban Forest Strategies, that the CRD’s 2019 LiDAR based datasets present inaccuracies that can lead to an overestimation of canopy cover. What this means is that the reliance of CRD data may indicate a more positive urban forest cover within the Town than the actual conditions. The 2019 datasets are also four years old and outdated as a result.

Diamond Head Consulting offers 2 optional work tasks that would provide more precise measures on the current state of the Town’s urban forest. While these optional tasks would require a budget amendment, staff agree that these tasks would be valuable in providing a “View Royal catered” assessment that the CRD datasets cannot provide in itself. The optional work are as follows:

• Option 1: Field Plots ($7,020 plus GST) Diamond Head Consulting would visit strategic forest locations as a “ground truth” exercise to estimate species composition, age, health, and potential risks of the urban forest’s natural areas. The CRD datasets do not provide this level of detail – therefore, this option would calibrate the CRD data closer to actual forest conditions, allowing Diamond Head Consulting to obtain a more accurate understanding of the urban forest and provide better solutions to protect and enhance the forest.

• Option 2: New Individual Tree Detection Canopy Mapping ($14,620 plus GST) Diamond Head Consulting would remap and recreate the 2019 dataset to address the noted concern over the overestimation of canopy cover. The end result would include improved tree species detection and identification of urban forest areas with high tree mortality rates (e.g. pests, climate change stressors). The added benefit of this option is it will extend the canopy analysis to 2023 (the CRD dataset only allows the Town to identify canopy loss up to 2019). This would (1) provide a more accurate representation of canopy cover to date, and (2) identify canopy losses over an additional four years to present time.

SUSTAINABILITY/CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS:

The knowledge acquired from the Urban Forest Strategy will enable the Town to make strategic decisions to foster the protection and enhancement of the urban forest against factors including but not limited to climate change and development.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:

Diamond Head Consulting’s base fee ($82,470 plus GST) for completing the urban forest strategy is within the project budget. Therefore, there would be no financial implications over an above the project budget by accepting the base fee.

Staff recommend that Council consider incorporating Optional Work Tasks #1 and #2 as identified above. The benefits include (1) a calibrated urban forest model that better reflects “actual” forest conditions, (2) an extension of tree canopy mapping by four years to 2023, and (3) removal of the overestimation of tree canopy that would be apparent by solely relying on the original scope of using the 2019 CRD LiDAR mapping. This would increase Diamond Head Consulting’s fee to $104,110 plus GST, thus requiring an additional $21,640.

Project N-074 is currently funded through Casino Revenue. If approved, the optional additional work would also be funded from unallocated Casino revenue.

CONCURRENCE:

REVIEWED BY:

ATTACHMENTS:

1. Project Summary N-074: Urban Forest Strategy