The City of Forest Acres (population 10,000+) was incorporated in 1935 and is situated in the midlands of South Carolina along Interstate-77 and contiguous to the City of Columbia. With respected and desirable schools, convenient commercial areas, vibrant parks and public events, and a safe and inviting atmosphere, the City is particularly appealing to families with school aged children. While maintaining its coveted small-town feel within residential areas, the City's growing commercial thoroughfares — Forest Drive, Trenholm Road and Beltline Boulevard — generate enough traffic to support retail activity the scale and quality of which are rarely found in towns our size.

The City of Forest Acres operates under the Mayor – Council form of government. The City Council includes a Mayor and four additional members who are elected at-large for four-year, staggered terms. The City Administrator, serving at the pleasure of City Council, is the Chief Executive Officer of the City and is responsible for budgeting and related financial planning, economic development, planning and zoning, and the overall operation of the City.

Today, while the City continues to focus on the goals and objectives identified in the Comprehensive Plan, a new focus has advanced that seeks to blend the City's efforts with those of the development community by modernizing the City's Zoning and Land Development Ordinances. The anticipated result of this effort is a comprehensive overhaul to the City's Land Development Ordinances, Zoning Ordinances and Comprehensive Land Use Plan to better organize development and mitigate impacts to the City's resources.

The City is seeking qualified professional planning, environmental and urban design consultants to provide a comprehensive overhaul of the City's Land Development ordinances and Zoning Ordinances to address the challenges of integrating a comfortable residential environment with a vibrant commercial development atmosphere.

The City is seeking a collaborative approach that will involve stakeholder input. This would include various board members, staff, and members of the development community. It is expected that the Consultant will serve as the project manager and principal drafter of the revised codes. City staff will assist with coordinating public meetings and providing material input to drafts of the codes. A project schedule should conclude with final adoption of the new codes.

The Consultant will review the key background materials and then join City staff on a tour of the community. Once this is completed the Consultant should incorporate a public outreach component with community stakeholders to receive comments on community concerns and inform these groups on a proposed outline and organization of the new codes. After draft codes have been developed, the Consultant will provide assessment tools to create, compare, and communicate the benefits and drawbacks of alternative zoning choices. These tools will be shared with the public and stakeholders to receive comments on the proposals before final codes are presented to the Planning Commission and City Council for adoption.

At a minimum the Consultant should review and provide options for the new zoning codes to address:

• Zoning Districts
• Map changes and changes to allowable densities
• A new zoning map in electronic form using standard ESRI products
• Allowable Uses
• Sign regulations
• Development standards including parking requirements for both residential and commercial uses.
• Development standards for residential development including lots sizes, road design, greenspace preservation and landscaping requirements.
• Development standards for residential development that more clearly detail the provision of amenities for various types of developments.
• Required offsite improvements for both residential and commercial developments.

The following tasks are anticipated with this project:

• Evaluate the City's current Zoning and Land Development Ordinances
• Conduct community meetings with stakeholders including property owners and representatives of the building industry.
• Target portions of the development codes that are problematic and outdated.
• Recommend amendments to the Land Development Ordinance codes that will resolve community concerns regarding sustainable development, greenspace, and infrastructure while avoiding detrimental impacts to the development community and maintaining compliance with State and Federal laws.
• Prepare and provide modernized amendments to the Zoning and Land Development Ordinances that will incorporate the principles of the City's Comprehensive Plan into these ordinances so that optimal growth patterns and high-quality design are blended with the character and vision of the community.
• Prepare other changes to the City's Zoning and Land Development Ordinances that protect greenspace and enhance the City's ability to preserve and enhance the existing transportation infrastructure.
• Conduct a build-out analysis of the City and the surrounding area demonstrating the impact of the proposed ordinances or amendments.
• Create a new Future Land Use Map for the City's Comprehensive Plan that incorporates the results of the build out analysis into the map and coordinate the new zoning maps with the future land use map.
• During the development and adoption process the Consultant will prepare an Administrative Draft, a Public Review and Comment Draft and a Final Draft for presentation to the Planning Commission and City Council.