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Council awards parks master plan contract to RJM; outreach to start in spring
Summary
The council approved a contract award for a Parks and Recreation Master Plan to RJM Design Group. The consultant will run a roughly eight-month process with multimodal public outreach, a needs assessment and an implementation strategy.
The West Covina City Council voted Jan. 21 to award the city’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan contract to RJM Design Group after an RFP and interview process.
Lede: The contract will fund an eight-month planning process that staff and the consultant said will inventory facilities, run statistically valid community surveys and in-person workshops, and deliver recommendations and a funding/implementation strategy.
Nut graf: Assistant City Manager Roxanne Lerma summarized the selection process: the city received three proposals, interviewed the top two and recommended RJM. Kristen Schnell, RJM’s project manager, explained the firm’s five-phase approach—inventory, outreach, needs assessment, recommendations and funding strategy—and said outreach would include stakeholder interviews, a multimodal (phone, email, paper) statistically valid survey and in-person and online workshops, with outreach concentrated between March and July.
RJM proposed QR-code-enabled outreach, school outreach and multiple workshop stages. Council members asked about reaching schools, youth and non‑English speakers; the consultant said the city team would assist with distribution to districts and that the project website and QR codes would be posted at parks and community events. City staff said contract routing and insurance clearance would take several weeks after council authorization; staff estimated outreach would begin in late March.
Council discussion also covered fee-escalation language in the consultant contract and how additional work or extensions would be handled. Mayor and councilmembers stressed that work at high-priority sites (for example, the skate park and Orangewood improvements) should not be delayed by the master plan process and that urgent repairs could proceed in parallel.
Ending: The council approved the award unanimously and directed staff to finalize the agreement and begin contract routing and insurance requirements so the consultant may start the inventory and outreach later this spring.
