The City of Greenwood, IN is seeking proposals from qualified consultants for professional services to assist with the development of its Comprehensive Plan.

• Questions Due to the City via email: February 27, 2023
• Final Addendum Issued on City website: March 7, 2023
• Proposals Due to the City: 4:30PM on March 23, 2023
• Proposal Evaluation and Interviews: April 2023
• Plan Commission Confirms Selection: May 2023
• Contract Negotiations and Award by BPWS: May-June 2023
• Comprehensive Plan Process: July 2023- July 2024

Responses are solicited in accordance with terms, conditions, and instructions set forth in this Request for Proposal (RFP). All proposals are due no later than 4:30PM EST, March 23, 2023 and responses received after this time and date will not be accepted. Only electronic (submitted via parcel delivery, drop off, or email) submissions will be accepted. Please submit all proposals using the following mailing address, drop off location (installed on media device of your choice), or email (25mb size limit):

Gabriel Nelson, Planning Director
City of Greenwood
300 South Madison Ave
Greenwood, IN 46142
nelsong@greenwood.in.gov

Any correspondence or questions should be directed to Gabriel Nelson, Planning Director at nelsong@greenwood.in.gov.

About Greenwood

The City of Greenwood, Indiana is a growing and thriving community of approximately 65,000 residents and home to a world-class parks and recreation system, a redeveloping downtown area, a growing warehousing and distribution sector, and an expanding community as undeveloped land continues to be annexed. Greenwood is located in north-central Johnson County and shares borders with Indianapolis to the north and the Towns of Whiteland, New Whiteland, and Bargersville to the south.

Plan Overview

The City of Greenwood's current comprehensive plan was adopted in 2007 with minor map updates in 2012. The Comprehensive Plan ("Plan") will need to follow IC 36-7-4-502 with regards to content and planning elements. This Plan will help Greenwood create a vision, guiding principles, and recommendations for decision-making. While content is critical to the Plan's success, the way in which the information is presented is very important. The Plan must be organized and concise, with high-visual quality and organized in a user-friendly manner.

Plan Elements

Tentative timing for the Comprehensive Plan would begin the summer of 2023 finishing in the summer of 2024. Due to the flexibility of the scope, a strict budget has not been set; however, Greenwood has currently budgeted $200,000.

The Plan should be designed to incorporate the following:

• Public Participation Process: A full range of stakeholders encompassing citizens, city council, advisory boards, staff, and community members (such as local schools, businesses, and neighborhood representatives) shall contribute to this effort by means of an effective public participation process. The planning process should be designed and implemented to ensure the community is actively involved in the planning effort, identifying methods to provide meaningful input and expected points of engagement.
• Background Research and Analysis: The Plan will look at previous studies, existing conditions, regional and adjacent jurisdictional initiatives, trends and forecasts, as well as market and economic realities. The Plan should include a socio-demographic profile of the community analyzing how Greenwood has progressed as well as a snapshot of existing land uses, transportation, and infrastructure.
• Community Vision Statement: Establish a Vision for Greenwood's future.
• Key Planning Principles, Themes, or Topic Areas: The Plan should identify topic areas or planning principles which reflect themes identified from gathering public input. Each topic area should be supported by a goal and several objectives that serve to organize the specific actions detailed in the Plan.
• Goals, Objectives, and Actions: Goals should provide intended outcomes expressed in simple terms for the Plan's topics areas or planning principles. Objectives will provide subthemes within the goal that serve to organize actions. Actions will identify a project, policy, or program, indicating the reasonable timeframe for completion and the party or parties responsible for each action.
• Future Land Use and Character: In addition to the traditional Future Land Use Map, the Plan should identify desired character traits for different focus areas (future growth areas, mall district, I-65 gateways, airport parkway, downtown) throughout Greenwood. The Plan should highlight the intent, uses, and preferred development standards for unique areas to help define the desired character.
• Thoroughfare Plan: The Plan shall include a Thoroughfare Plan that determines lines for new, extended, widened, or narrowed public ways in accordance with IC 36-7-4-506. Thoroughfare classifications shall utilize the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) classification typologies. Required right-of-way width for each thoroughfare classification shall be established and typical cross-section recommendations shall be provided for adoption into Greenwood's Standard Details. The Thoroughfare Plan should identify a list of transportation projects necessary to provide a system of major public ways that supports the vision of the Plan, while allowing for effective vehicular movement. These projects should have planning level costs and priorities assigned to them. The Thoroughfare Plan should also analyze and address areas where mobility and multi-modal transportation improvement and connections should be incorporated. Greenwood's Trails and Greenways Master Plan is anticipated to be adopted mid-2023 and should be integrated.
• Project Website: Maintain a project website related to Comprehensive Plan update effort. The website will, at a minimum, provide project specific information as well as an interface for the public to solicit and gain knowledge regarding the public process associated with the creation of the Plan.
• Deliverables: The consultant will be required to deliver a variety of Plan products at various stages of the project. Examples of the Plan deliverables can include, but are not limited to:
  • Microsoft Word editable and Portable Document Format (PDF) file of the Draft Plan
  • Microsoft Word editable and PDF file of the Final Plan (8.5" x 11"), inclusive of color maps (11"x 17") in digital format
  • Web-based version of the Final Plan
  • Geographic information system (GIS) files be compatible with ESRI's ArcGIS products, such as a file geodatabase or shapefile, using the NAD 1983 Indiana State Plane East Coordinate System. When appropriate, raster datasets should be orthorectified and georeferenced.

Submittal Items

Submissions should be no more than 20 pages (inclusive of resumés) with each of those pages using standard 8.5" x 11" sheets. The RFP submittal should include the following items:

• Cover Letter (1 page)
  • Introduce entity/firm.
  • Describe familiarity with Greenwood and its regional context.
  • Interest in the project and a brief description of relevant experience that makes the consultant uniquely qualified to perform the work described in this RFP.
  • Signed and dated.
• Firm Overview (1 page)
  • Include information on lead and any sub-vendors on the team.
• Team Qualifications
  • Identify the project manager/main point of contact for the project. Provide a resumé, qualifications, and references of the personnel who will be involved in the management of the delivery of the services proposed.
  • Include resumés of key team members. Resumés should detail educational qualifications and previous work assignments related to the services proposed. Include qualifications of each employee, as well as expected roles and responsibilities for this project.
  • Identify any subconsultant(s) and their intended role on the team. Provide the percentage of work anticipated to be assigned to any subconsultant(s).
  • Describe the 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.
• Project Approach
  • Narrative and graphics describing the consultant team's overall method and general schedule to developing a citywide Comprehensive Plan that meets the elements outlined in this RFP.
• Public Participation
  • Describe and outline the forms/methods of public participation as part of this plan.
• Experience and Examples
  • Samples of final documents and graphics from comparable projects completed within the previous five years (providing samples on a flash drive and/or hyperlinks are sufficient).

Evaluation Criteria and Scoring

The following factors will be used in the selection process:

• Past Experience/ Examples of Work (20 points): Demonstrates team/firm experience with similar projects of comparable size and complexity as well as the ability to complete work. Examples provided are well organized, concise, and user-friendly with high-visual quality.
• Key Personnel Experience and Availability (40 points): Project Manager and Project Team demonstrate qualifications, expertise/skillsets, and availability to complete the Comprehensive Planning Process.
• Project Approach (30 points): Demonstrates project understanding incorporating Comprehensive Plan elements, outlining a thoughtful and organized project approach, and coordinating timeline.
• Public Participation Approach (10 points): Demonstrates an involvement approach designed to proactively, regularly, and thoughtfully engaging the community in meaningful ways, inclusive of an online presence.

Selection Process

From a review of the proposals received, the City intends to invite the top scoring 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 consultant 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, a consultant will be recommended to the Board of Public Works and Safety for its consideration and contract approval.

Legal Compliance

Work performed and maps and ordinances produced shall comply with all federal, state, and local laws.

The City reserves the right to reject any and all proposals and to waive informalities, if at its discretion, the interests of the City would be best served.

The City reserves the right to accept a proposal other than the low cost proposal and to negotiate final terms and price once a specific proposal is selected.

Proposals must be valid for at least 60 days.

No payment will be made or costs reimbursed for the preparation of the proposals.

Consultant and its subcontractors shall not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment with respect to the employee's hire, tenure, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, or any matter directly or indirectly related to employment, because of the employee's race, sex, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, familial status, disability, or United States military service veteran status.

Consultant must be enrolled in the E-Verify Program (the electronic verification of work authorization program of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-208), Division C, Title IV, s.401(a), as amended, operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security or a successor work authorization program designated by the United States Department of Homeland Security or other federal agency authorized to verify the work authorization status of newly hired employees under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (P.L. 99-603) and verify the work eligibility of its newly hired employees through the E-Verify Program. Consultant shall not employee any "unauthorized aliens" as that term is defined in 8 U.S.C. § 1324a(h)(3).

Consultant must represent that it is not engaged in investment activities in Iran. Pursuant to Ind. Code § 5-22-16.5-8, a Consultant is considered to be engaging in investment activities with Iran if: 1) it has provided good or services of Twenty Million Dollars ($20,000,000.00) or more in value in the energy sector of Iran, including oil or liquefied natural gas tankers or products used to construct or maintain pipelines used to transport oil or liquefied natural gas; or 2) has extended Twenty Million Dollars ($20,000,000.00) or more in credit to another party, for forty-five (45) days or more, if that other party will use the credit to provide goods or services in the energy sector in Iran and is, at the time credit is extended, is identified on the list developed by the State of Indiana of parties it has determined to be engaged in investment activities in Iran. Consultant must not be listed on the list published and/or endorsed by the State of Indiana pursuant to Ind. Code § 5-22-16.5-9 as a company engaged in investment activities with Iran.