Smart City Master Plan
City of Kirkland Planning & Building
Kirkland, WA
Objectives and Background
The City of Kirkland is issuing this Request for Proposals (RFP) to obtain proposals from a firm(s) to assist in developing a comprehensive Smart City Master Plan and an implementation roadmap to further existing city-wide policies and guide the City's effort in advancing the City Council's goals through innovation, transparency, and resilience.
Objectives:
- Define what "Smart City" means in Kirkland, and how it relates to City-wide goals. Define the shared vision, objectives, and high-level strategies associated with being a Smart City.
- Provide national best practices by cataloging the past and ongoing City's Smart City initiatives and identify how the City could learn from these efforts. Identify an intimate understanding of Kirkland's role locally and regionally.
- Identify specific future needs and city services that could be most effectively addressed and improved by Smart City programs.
- Develop a governance framework and recommendations to accompany the Smart City Master Plan.
- Develop a realistic roadmap and implementation plan for how the City can achieve the defined vision, which includes priority area projects, timelines, and resources. The roadmap should prioritize equitable use of technology and data.
- Partner with all departments to identify a list of Smart City projects that are feasible to implement. Where appropriate, identify funding ideas for future evaluation that can be paired with specific Smart City initiatives to aid implementation.
Background:
"Smart City" programs, which entail the use of technology to make City operations more efficient, transparent, and intelligent, have been used in Kirkland for many years. These programs have improved the city's operational efficiency and yielded better policy-level and operational decisions. However, the City lacks an enterprise roadmap to leverage existing Smart City programs and launch new programs in an integrated fashion to meet broad city-wide goals. The recent and ongoing COVID pandemic, along with social movements that started in the spring and summer of 2020, reinforced the need to use technology wisely in municipal operations to help Kirkland respond effectively to the challenges of the future, including the need to create a more livable, sustainable, and equitable community.
Some Smart City efforts that the City is pursuing or has recently implemented are shown in Table 1, below.
Smart City Efforts Areas Status
Intelligent transportation system (ITS) Transportation and Mobility Phase 1&2 completed; Phase 3 in progress
Green initiatives: examples are converting cityowned streetlights to LEDs to reduce electricity consumption; and growing the City's electric vehicle fleet to reduce carbon emissions.
Transportation and Mobility; City Infrastructure and Environment in progress
Police bodyworn camera pilot
Municipal Operations Eastrail fiber project
City Infrastructure In planning and Environment Data intelligence and dashboards (spatial and nonspatial) DataIn planning driven Decisions; Community/Civic Engagement In progress
Efficiency gain projects (e.g., parking enforcement using automatic license plate readers, and the fleet smart fueling system which enables easy fuel monitoring and reporting Municipal Operations In progress ).
Economic development and tourism initiatives:
Example is the Kirkland Ca$h initiative, a dollar-backed local a currency supported by City funds and created to encourage local spending and tourism and to provide equitable, digital presence and free marketing to Community/Civic Engagement In progress
Kirklandbased business. Wireless access in downtown parks City Infrastructure and Environment Cloud migration* City Infrastructure Completed and Environment Completed
*Please note that majority of the city information systems/applications are hosted in Azure Government Cloud.
There are some exceptions such as the city's Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), which is on-premise. All city buildings are connected via fiber optics and free wireless access in Kirkland downtown parks.
Table 1: Examples of the Existing Smart City Efforts Information
In addition, please refer to the following links to learn more about Kirkland work plans and initiatives that will help shape and guide the Smart City Master Plan:
- Kirkland Sustainable Master Plan
- Kirkland Intelligent Transportation System Strategic Plan
- Kirkland Comprehensive Plan
- Kirkland Active Transportation Plan
- Kirkland Transportation Master Plan
- Kirkland Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Plan
- Kirkland Police Strategic Plan
- Kirkland Fire Strategic Plan
- Kirkland Fire Department Standards of Coverage