REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) FOR COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

City of Farmers Branch is seeking proposals from qualified consultants for professional services to prepare a city-wide Comprehensive Plan. Responses are solicited for this Project in accordance with the terms, conditions, and instructions set forth in this RFP. Responses are due no later than 5:00 p.m. (CDT) Monday, January 31, 2022. The complete RFP can be accesses at Comprehensive Plan RFP.

The respondent shall submit four (4) bound hard copies of their Proposal, and one (1) digital copy in a portable thumb drive by 5:00 P.M. (CDT), Monday, January 31, 2022. Responses received after this time and date will not be accepted. Reponses shall be addressed and marked as

Attn: Surupa Sen, AICP
Deputy Director of Planning
City of Farmers Branch
13000 William Dodson PKWY
Farmers Branch, Texas 75234

COMMUNITY BACKGROUND

The Farmers Branch City Council adopted Strategic Plan 2022 which indicated a need for developing a City-Wide Comprehensive Plan. Funds have been allocated in the Fiscal Year 2021-2022 budget accordingly to accomplish this goal. Farmers Branch is a unique community and residents-visitors alike pride themselves to be part of the "City in a Park".

Farmers Branch (TX), is a first-ring suburb of Dallas, with a 2020 Census population estimate of 35,991 residents. The City has experienced significant growth, fueled by the attractive job market of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. In addition, Farmers Branch is home to more than 4,000 companies and more than 250 corporate headquarters, and over 17,000 residential units. Farmers Branch encompasses approximately 12 square miles and shares a portion of its eastern and southern border with City of Dallas. It is accessible by two interstate highways and two NTTA-toll roads. The city is in less than 20 minutes driving distance from both the Dallas/Fort Worth International and Dallas Love Field airports.

The City's safe neighborhoods, 28 parks, state-of-the-art recreational facilities and world-class businesses make Farmers Branch a great place to live, work or play.

The City's first comprehensive plan, Forward Farmers Branch was adopted in 1989, and is the only city-wide comprehensive plan for the community. Since then, the city took a unique approach of adopting area-based comprehensive plans, the West Side Plan (2003), the Central Area Plan (2012) and the East Side Plan (2017). These area-based plans have provided direction for future projects and growth in the City, however, an overall vision, strategy, and implementation policy to guide the city and unite its long-term as well as new residents has been lacking.

As evident from the year of adoption, the West Side Plan is the oldest comprehensive plan of the city and will be the focus of the new city-wide comprehensive plan. The Central Area Plan contains a largely built out and overwhelmingly residential area of the city. There are some commercial, office, and light industrial development around the intersection of Josey Lane and Valley View Lane (Four Corners Report) and along IH-635 and Beltline Road. The East Side Plan is more recent and the level of update required may not be as extensive. The city recently adopted the IH-35E Corridor Vision Study (2021) which will remain in effect and does not require review or update as part of the citywide comprehensive plan.

The City is largely built out and thus the focus of direction provided within the citywide comprehensive plan will largely be related to infill, redevelopment, and neighborhood revitalization projects within the city, to maximize use of existing infrastructure and community assets. The citywide comprehensive plan will combine the East, West and Central area plans into one document that provides clear land use, planning and economic development strategy/direction for the next 20 years in an attractive and user-friendly format.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

Once completed, the citywide comprehensive plan will support the City's strategic vision "to be a city of the future with a vibrant and diverse economy that supports beautiful parks, great amenities and friendly neighborhoods". This vision will be supported through clear concise vision, goals, land use direction, and actionable implementation items that will aid in successful implementation of the plan over its 20-year lifetime.

PRELIMINARY SCOPE OF SERVICES

The city-wide Comprehensive Plan will develop an overarching vision for the community that can be espoused by all. The goal is to not overlook current policy framework and guidance provided by various long-range plan and policy adopted by the city, but to review them and incorporate the best applicable practices and recommendations provided by these documents. The consultant should attempt to think outside of the box while providing recommended structure and scope for this Project that shows, implementable tactics and on-ground expertise. With this broad objective in mind, the city has developed the following outline for the Plan's development.

• Community Profile: Develop a socio-demographic profile of the community analyzing how the city has progressed through the years and the direction the city might take in the next 20 years given the context of explosive growth in the DFW metroplex.
• Inventory of Existing Conditions: Inventory of current land uses, transportation, infrastructure by utilizing city's available data and other regional resources, such as North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), Dallas County etc.
• Resident/Stakeholder Engagement Strategy: The public's participation is critical to the development of a Comprehensive Plan and policies that reflect the needs, desires, and decisions of the community as a whole. The Comprehensive Plan should strive for consensus building that dominate the process. The consultant needs to design, implement, and guide the public participation process that incorporates effective and innovative participation mechanisms and techniques. Public participation can include but is not limited to conducting town halls, public forums, utilizing social media and the City's website to promote the planning process, and receiving community feedback through surveys.

The consultant in collaboration with the City staff shall draft regular articles and website releases providing updates of the Comprehensive Plan process, which includes information about upcoming workshops and community input opportunities. These will be made available on the City's website by staff.

• Establish Vision and Goal: Develop a Vision and Goal for the city-wide Comprehensive Plan
• Future Land Use Plan: Develop a future land use strategy that focus on infill/redevelopment.
• Mobility/Transportation: Address areas where mobility and transportation connections in the city could be improved, including concepts of road-diet projects throughout the city.
• Economic Development and Redevelopment Strategies: Identify and recommend both proven and emerging programs along with available funding sources geared toward spurring private investment and reinvestment within the City. Provide strategies that ensure the continued maintenance, quality, and success of the existing commercial base, which maintains the vitality of areas that serve the City.
• Implementation Strategy: The city-wide comprehensive plan is expected to include a robust implementation strategy with a monitoring system that is measurable over time and can provide staff and Council with easy to understand metrics to achieve year-marked goals over time.
• Final Document: Production of the final document, which should be an attractive, engaging, and easy to use document. Supplemental reports providing more detailed analysis of demographic and economic trends, historical reports, meeting summaries should be developed as appendices.
• Brochure: Production of an accompanying information brochure (preferably in 24" x 36" that can be folded into 8.5" x 11") containing essential direction from the plan in and attractive, graphic heavy format, that is easy for members of the public and developer community to understand.
• Maps and Graphics: The consultant consultant/team will be responsible for developing and preparing graphics (to be provided in original digital and hard copy, where appropriate) for presentations, public meetings and the final report, including but not limited to the following:
  • Base Maps including the physical context of the study area, including major vegetation, waterways, utility installations, public facilities, surrounding land use and transportation infrastructure.
  • Framework/Vision Plan, including suggested future land use and mobility maps, location of community assets and graphics showing potential future and use and development.
  • Presentation Materials, including PowerPoint slides and/or other graphics or appropriate documentation at the scale and level of detail necessary for public meetings.
  • Finished Graphics and Text, including PowerPoint slides and other documentation for inclusion in the final report and presentation to the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council.

CITY RESOURCES

Existing area based comprehensive plans, other relevant policy and regulatory documents, and a map showing the boundaries of the existing comprehensive plans that may be of interest to respondents which are available on the Farmers Branch website located at: https://www.farmersbranchtx.gov/290/Planning-Zoning .

PROJECT SCHEDULE

Following the consultant selection process and contract execution, it is the City's objective to complete the project within an approximate 18-month time frame. The following is the tentative schedule for completion of the study:

APPROXIMATE SCHEDULE

RFQ issuance — December 20, 2021

Responses Received — January 31, 2022

Consultant selection/interviews — February 2022

Scope of work/fee/schedule and contract development with selected Consultant — February 2022

City Council contract approval and contract execution — March 1, 2022

Project initiation — April 2022

Project completion (includes project acceptance/adoption by Planning & Zoning Commission and City Council) — October 2023

BUDGET

The anticipated Budget for this project is approximately $270,000.

SUBMITTAL TO INCLUDE

The submission shall include the following information in the order listed below, with each section clearly labeled and separated by tabs, with pages numbered.

Cover Letter (five pages maximum)

• Familiarity with Farmers Branch and its regional context.
• Interest in the project and a brief description of relevant project experience that makes the consultant uniquely qualified to perform the work described in this RFP.

Consultant team qualifications

• Resume/Bio for the project manager and each team member as well as experience and qualifications of the consultant.
• Availability and manpower estimate for the project manager and team members who will be committed to completing the project through acceptance/adoption by City Council.
• Describe the lead consultant consultant's personnel resources that are available to the project manager to ensure the project remains on schedule and address unique challenges presented during the project.

Method and Approach

• Narrative describing the consultant team's overall method and approach to developing a citywide comprehensive plan that meets the requirements outlined in this RFP.

Experience and Examples

• Samples of final documents and graphics from comparable projects completed within the previous five years (providing electronic copies on a flash drive is sufficient).

References

• Provide five current references (within the past five years). References provided shall be for work completed for similar type projects.

SELECTION PROCESS

From a review of the proposals received, the City intends to invite consultants to be interviewed before making a final selection of a consultant for this Project. If the City desires to interview a consultant, that consultant will receive notification of the date and time of the interview.

The selected respondent then will negotiate with the City the project contract including scope of work, project schedule and fee. If a reasonable contract including fee cannot be achieved with the respondent of choice, in the opinion of the City, negotiations will proceed with the second-choice respondent until a mutually agreed upon contract can be negotiated.

Once a consultant has been selected and contract negotiation has occurred, the Staff Evaluation Panel will recommend a consultant to the City Council for their consideration and contract approval.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

The following factors will be used in evaluating Consultant's qualifications:

1. Experience and knowledge in completing a citywide comprehensive plan.
2. Ability to complete the project within a given timeframe and budget.
3. Ability to maintain communication on project development.
4. Ability to engage partners and stakeholders during the process.
5. Experience and involvement with subsequent implementation phases associated with a previously completed citywide comprehensive plan.
6. References.