Recommend Planning Services Consultants for Interview with the City Council

On February 8, 2011, the City Council approved a reorganization of the City's Community Development Department that resulted in the elimination of one (1) full-time employee in the Planning Division.  As part of the reorganization, the City Council authorized the utilization of consulting/contracted services for planning and zoning services and authorized City Staff to issue a request for proposals (RFP).  The purpose of the RFP was to seek a consultant to work on an as-needed basis to provide service when the workload exceeds available resources utilizing existing staff.  This provides a cost-savings measure that allows the City to utilize this service only when needed.  The City received nine (9) responses to the proposal and Staff interviewed five (5) of these firms.  Staff is looking for a recommendation on three (3) consultants to forward to an interview with the City Council.  At this time, Staff recommends forwarding the firms of Bonestroo, Landform, and MFRA.

No notification required.

The City Council chose to utilize consulting services for a portion of the administration of the City's zoning and subdivision ordinance to better match market conditions and subsequent workload in the City's Planning Division.  The use of consultant services also provides the City the opportunity to capitalize on additional resources and expertise the firm may have in-house, including but not limited to, site planning, traffic forecasting, and engineering.  The chosen consultant is proposed to report to the Senior Planner and assist the City in implementation and administration of the City's zoning and subdivision ordinances through amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, amendments to the City Code, and review of land use applications.  The selected consultant will work on an as-needed basis at the request of the Senior Planner.

 

Based on the responses to the RFP and answers to interview questions, Staff recommends forwarding no more than three (3) consultants to be invited to the next stage in the process of selecting a consultant by interviewing/presenting to the City Council.  The scoring matrices used to score initial response (Response Scoring Matrix) and interview question response (Interview Scoring Matrix) are attached as background of the process used to review.

 

The City received responses from Bonestroo, Community Growth Institute, Farr and Associates, Landform, MFRA, NAC, SWB, Weber Community Planning, and WSB.  From those responses, Staff interviewed five (5) of these firms.  Subsequently, Staff recommends the firms of Bonestroo, Landform, and MFRA be selected to present to the City Council.  Selected respondents are anticipated to interview and present to the City Council at a Work Session on May 10th.  Planning Commissioners are welcome and encouraged to attend this Work Session.  Responses for all five (5) of the firms interviewed by Staff are attached for review.

Review of the responses to the RFP are being handled as part of regular Staff duties.  Funding for the selected consultant will come from the City's general fund.

Staff recommends forwarding three (3) consultants to interview and present to the City Council at a Work Session to be determined in April.

Motion to recommend that the City Council interview three respondents to the City's RFP for planning and zoning services as recommended by City Staff.

The Planning Commission may include in the motion any feedback on the proposals received, including those not currently scheduled for presentation with the City Council.