The following is a summary version of the Request for Proposal. For a copy of the full request, please e-mail Courtney Magaluk, Senior Project Manager for the City of Grand Rapids' Planning Department at cmagaluk@grcity.us. You may also access the proposal through the City of Grand Rapids' Vendor Self Service system, at the following web address: https://cgiadvantage360.cgi.com/micgr/AltSelfService. This Request will be listed under "Current Bid Opportunities."

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

South Division Avenue Corridor Development Plan
City of Grand Rapids, Michigan
March 9, 2018

INTRODUCTION

Professional consulting firms are invited to submit a written proposal for the development of a comprehensive planning study for the South Division Avenue Corridor (defined below) for the City of Grand Rapids. The plan is to be adopted as an "Area Specific Plan" as part of the City's 2002 Master Plan. Consulting firms may respond to all or a portion of this request. The City reserves the right to select multiple consultants and to form a consultant team to complete the key phases of this Study. While a response is requested to the provided scope of services, it is anticipated that a scope will not be finalized until a consultant/team is selected, at which time the City will work with the selected team members to finalize a scope of services, fees, and contract.

BACKGROUND

The intent of the South Division Avenue Corridor Development Plan is to create a framework for equitable future development by planting the seeds necessary to lift up existing businesses and residents, create new opportunities for a sustainable mix of housing, businesses, and institutions, and to raise overall quality of life. These efforts should work toward stabilizing neighborhoods, rather than attempting to supplant existing businesses or residents.

The South Division Avenue Corridor Development Plan includes South Division Avenue, from Wealthy Street to 28th Street. The final east-west extent of the plan will be determined as a part of the first phase of work under this proposal, however it is generally expected the core plan will cover the immediately adjacent blocks, while recognizing a larger influence area of the surrounding neighborhoods and inclusion of these neighborhoods in the plan effort and decision making process.

The Corridor has a wide range of land uses, with many locally owned and operated businesses, a mix of residential uses, industrial buildings, and non-profit organization uses. There are both areas of relative vitality and areas of decline, with significant portions of the Corridor available for new development or redevelopment opportunities.

The inauguration of The Rapid's Silver Line (bus rapid transit service) held promise to support business and residential development along the South Division Corridor. The Silver Line has become an important community resource, with some of the highest ridership rates across the entire transit system. However, the Silver Line has not been a silver bullet in prompting secondary investment and improvements along the corridor. It will take the combined efforts of the City, business owners, land owners, and residents to fulfill the promise of what South Division Avenue can be.

Efforts related to the South Division Avenue Corridor Development Plan have been underway since March 2017, led by an Advisory Group of area residents, business owners and other stakeholders. This early effort was started because of a recognized need for a deeper level of engagement and relationship building with the surrounding community prior to formal launch of an Area Specific Plan effort. There are clear challenges within the community to achieving meaningful engagement of residents. For some, there is a history of exclusion from the decision-making process, including deep divisions created through past use of redlining, eminent domain, and other past missteps. Others, particularly within the Hispanic and other immigrant communities, have never or rarely been given the opportunity to effect change within local government policy for the benefit of their communities. These experiences lead to a relatively high level of skepticism and distrust to overcome.

In order to overcome these challenges, a process is needed that ensure that local community members most affected, especially low-wealth people, people of color, neighborhood groups, community organizations, people living with disabilities, and new immigrants are involved in the development project. Specifically, we must build cultural competence and responsiveness among all stakeholders, and structure planning processes to be clear, accessible and engaging.

PRELIMINARY SCOPE OF SERVICES

The City is interested in an Equitable Development approach to this project. Accordingly, this is not solely a land use plan, but rather a more holistic development plan build around several key themes that that define the places and people that define South Division. Accordingly, the selected consultant team will need a broad range of expertise and experience.

The overall length of the Corridor (approximately 3 miles from Wealthy to 28th Street) and the changing fabric of the corridor along this length will require an approach that addresses both the unifying elements as well as the development of more specific nodes or focus areas of plan development and implementation. These focus areas should recognize exiting community patterns, such as the established Burton Heights commercial area, as well as the possibility of developing new nodes around major BRT stops or other assets that could create new opportunities for the community. It is envisioned that three to five smaller focus areas will be identified within Task 2.5 for specific study. Generally, these studies will include a more detailed analysis of the building, land use, and infrastructure pattern and specific action strategies based on these findings.

The Advisory Group has developed preliminary themes on which the Development Plan will be based. These themes include:

• Meaningful Engagement
• Development without Displacement
• Economic Opportunity
• Health, Environment and Quality of Life
• Transportation
• Build and Preserve Community Identity

Although certain elements must be covered within the Development Plan, the depth at which each theme is developed is largely reliant on community prioritization. Because some of these topics require special expertise, we have included several items which we would like developed as optional, discrete plan elements.

As a means to identify relevant issues and opportunities, the proposal should describe a comprehensive public participation process to ensure widespread public participation in planning for the corridor. The proposal should recommend a methodology that will include working closely with the residents and business and institutional stakeholders, both directly and through the Community Ambassadors.

The first application of the methodology will be a process to refine the project themes and identify the specific issues of concern for the Division Avenue audience that will allow the study to be more carefully targeted, and allow the process to rise from those who will be most affected by its outcomes.

The consultant and the core leaders will facilitate a discussion with residents, business owners, and others for each of the character segments to determine what plan concepts should be pursued for each segment and what connective threads between segments might be present, or developed. The consultant should suggest a preferred method and "language" for expressing these directions (vision, guiding principles, themes, goals, objectives, policies, or others). Following prioritization, the consultant will refine the themes and develop a series of major issue/opportunity categories and begin inventories of information related to them (e.g. property conditions, economic conditions, housing inventory, vacant land analysis, etc.). The purpose of delaying this stage of the process is to ensure that the data collected directly addresses the issues and opportunities identified through the public participation process, rather than simply collecting mounds of data that may or may not prove useful.

If appropriate, based on the identified issues and collected data, the consultant may begin to preliminarily characterize segments of the Corridor by their individual neighborhood characteristics. These segments may be distinct, but more likely they will overlap in some areas. Identifying connective threads between these segments will be an important element of the process.

In addition to the core scope of work, separate optional task elements being requested include:

• Enhanced Outreach and Communications
• Housing Demand Analysis
• Retail Market Analysis
• Multimodal Transportation Support Plan
• Health Impact Analysis

Based on the Directions established by previous tasks, the consultant will develop a methodology to devise plan concepts for the Corridor, by segments, Corridor-wide, and/or both. This could include a charrette process or a combination of other techniques. Prospective consultants may suggest methods they have used successfully.

Deliverables expected from the selected firm will include a draft and final corridor plan report, in a format suitable for publication, including intermediate and supporting studies which will be used in the planning process. The basic document should include only directly relevant information, to keep down the overall size and should include liberal use of graphic depictions where appropriate. Documents must be bilingual or available in both English- and Spanish-language versions.

Once the planning process is completed, there will be an active process that builds on the leadership development of Phases 1 and 2, aimed at putting into place an organizational structure that would be responsible for long-term implementation advocacy. While many studies simply list this as an implementation action, the process envisions that the last phase of the Corridor Study will be dedicated to building on the relationships established during the previous two phases and will work toward organizing the various neighborhood leadership interests that will provide a structure for a sustained implementation program.

RESPONSE AND SELECTION

Responses are due no later than 4:00 p.m. EST on Friday, March 30, 2018. Please see the full request for submittal requirements.

Proposals will be subject to evaluation by members of the South Division Avenue Corridor Development Plan Steering Committee. The City of Grand Rapids will short-list up to four qualified firms/teams for Steering Committee consideration. Consultants who submit a proposal may be required to make an oral presentation of their proposal to a subcommittee of the Corridor Plan Steering Committee. The presentation provides an opportunity for the consultant to clarify their proposal to ensure mutual understanding of its contents. The Steering Committee will then select the preferred consultant(s). Upon selection, consultants will work jointly with City staff and the South Division Avenue Corridor Development Plan Steering Committee to complete the Scope of Work and negotiate a contract value. The successful applicant(s) will negotiate an actual-cost plus fixed-fee contract with the City of Grand Rapids Planning Department, including details on hourly labor rates, overhead, equipment costs, travel, and any direct costs. It is anticipated that the City will award a contract by May 1, 2018.