The Transportation Agency for Monterey County, as the local lead agency, grantee agency and owner of the Salinas Rail Extension project, proposes to extend passenger rail service from Santa Clara County south to Salinas. As currently proposed, the service will function as an extension of existing state-sponsored Capitol Corridor passenger rail service. The project provides an alternative to the highly congested US 101 corridor to access to jobs, education, and health care, and improves interregional transportation and air quality. It also promotes mixed-use, transit-oriented development, affordable housing, livable communities and economic growth around stations.
The Salinas Rail Extension Kick Start project requires acquisition of parcels near the Salinas Rail Station in order to construct an extension of Lincoln Avenue, improve parking and access to the rail station, and to build a train layover facility. It is critical that all the acquisition proceed according to applicable state and federal laws. The project area primarily covers the properties along West Market Street and Station Place that will be needed for additional parking once rail service begins, as well as the Lincoln Avenue extension to provide direct access to the station.
The Transportation Agency's right-of-way acquisition consultant, Overland, Pacific & Cutler, has secured property appraisals and the Agency has presented offer letters to the property owners. However, negotiations on several of these properties have slowed, and the Agency is required to update the appraisal documents to advance to the next stage of negotiations. The appraisal services division of Overland, Pacific & Cutler is currently in the process of updating the primary property appraisals. With updated property valuations, the Agency will be able to present revised offers to the property owners and proceed with advanced negotiations.
In addition to the initial property appraisals, the Agency is required under state regulations to obtain review appraisals to verify the property valuations and assumptions in the updated property reports. The Board of Directors approved the release of a Request for Proposals at the September 2016 meeting to solicit proposals for a consultant to provide right-of-way review appraisal services. From this competitive solicitation, the Agency received proposals from three firms: Associated Right of Way Services; Bender Rosenthal; and Sierra West Valuation.
A review committee composed of Agency staff ranked the proposals based on the submitting firms' experience in reviewing right-of-way appraisals, experience with public transportation projects (particularly rail), availability to complete the project on schedule, references, and cost. While all of the bidders submitted competitive proposals, the review committee unanimously ranked Associated Right of Way Services, Inc. as the highest scoring proposer, based on their experience in reviewing appraisals, their experience working on rail projects (such as high-speed rail and Union Pacific), their competitive costs, and their stated ability to complete the project within the proposed schedule. Agency staff also contacted the firm's references and received positive feedback.
Under the proposed contract, Associated Right of Way Services, Inc. will provide complete review appraisal reports that conform to the standards prescribed by the Federal and State Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Acts, the Federal Transit Administration and Federal Highway Administration procedures, and Caltrans procedures. The consultant will also coordinate with the Transportation Agency’s other acquisition and legal advisors to incorporate comments into the final appraisals, as necessary.