Allegheny County is accepting proposals for the development and drafting of an update to Allegheny Places, the County's comprehensive plan. The official Planning Agency for Allegheny County is the Allegheny County Economic Development Department (ACED), and this project will be managed through ACED's Planning Division. The County seeks a creative, innovative, forward-thinking, and solution-based consultant or consultant team to provide professional services to assist in the update. The consultant or consultant team will bring experience in comprehensive planning, ideally within the context of a large urban county, community planning, advanced knowledge of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC), and innovative approaches to public outreach and engagement. The consultant or consultant team who best demonstrates a clear understanding of the work requested and their experience in the successful completion of similar projects will be selected.

Over the course of this highly collaborative endeavor, the consultant or consultant team will work closely with the Planning Division of ACED, any steering committees and work groups that may be established to inform the project, municipalities, and stakeholders. Guided by the requirements of the MPC, the plan will reflect changes to the County since the initial adoption of Allegheny Places with regard to demographics, land use, housing, and economics, and will address a series of key issues through studies and public engagement and the proposal of policies and projects aimed at addressing such concerns. The planning process will be leveraged to foster social capacity to support plan implementation.

The County seeks to develop an innovative, issues-oriented, implementable comprehensive plan that incorporates web-based technologies and is easily-accessible and understandable by the general public. It must establish a vision for County policy and be proactive and implementable, with recommendations that are the basis for actions to improve the County and its communities. These actions should have backbone and provide sound, practical, adoptable guidance while allowing creativity in implementation. These recommended actions should be developed with a focus on the following questions:

• What does the County consider important?
• What can the County affect directly?
• What can the County affect indirectly?
• Where will the County invest resources?

The County desires a plan that can serve as a leading example of county comprehensive planning in Pennsylvania in terms of its approach to public engagement, addressing issues, accountability and tracking, presentation and accessibility, and assistance to municipalities. The County desires a plan that can help build a culture of planning.

The proposal can be obtained on the Allegheny County Economic Development Web Page under Bid Notices - https://www.alleghenycounty.us/economic-development/bids/bid-notices.aspx