The Fresno City College community will know which company will construct the new parking structure which was approved by the board of trustees of the State Center Community College District during its meeting on April 2.

The district plans to use “Design Build” in the process of choosing a contractor. There is currently a bill which utilizes Design Build’s terms to help find a good contractor.

“Community colleges are allowed to use Design Build’s procurement process through an assembly bill, but [that assembly bill] has an expiration date in December of this year,” Christine Miktarian, vice chancellor of operations and information systems for the State Center Community College District board, said.

Three separate contracts for an architect, a mechanical-electrical plumber, and a parking designer, were all awarded on April 2, in preparation for release of board documents for a parking contractor.

“Contracts that are on this agenda are for the consultants that will put together our bridging documents to issue out for a request for proposal to Design Build Contractors,” Miktarian said. “We haven’t yet determined how we’re going to do the basis of award.”

She explained that the district usually chooses the lowest bidder when using a Design bid bill, adding that “through a Design Build process, you get to look at the experience of the contractor and their design that they’re going to submit to us and the price.”

The April 2 meeting was mostly about, “putting out basic specifications on the project,” Miktarian said and that there “won’t be full construction document plans” quite yet.
However, if construction is approved, it is estimated to take off in “early 2021 and finish in late 2021, early 2022,” Miktarian said.

Most who attended the April board meeting, including some members from the surrounding neighborhoods, expressed a preference for building the parking structure because it would alleviate a lot of stress. A few speakers questioned the wisdom of spending college funds on parking structures rather than on meeting specific needs of their departments.

The district had surveyed many students and faculty for what they thought was most important before determining how the funding would be spent.

The parking study was a part of the facilities’ master plan that determined the structure was a main objective. It was sent out to the Community College districts.

Other districts were spending, “$30,000 per stall,” Mitarian said. FCC plans to spend a mere $12,000 per stall.”