The City of Chicopee, acting through its Department of Planning & Development, seeks Qualified Statements from Qualified Planning Teams to develop the City of Chicopee's first City-wide Comprehensive Plan through a robust community driven process. Chicopee has never before prepared and adopted a long-range, participatory plan for the future of the City, as described in M.G.L. Chapter 41, Section 81D. Since the City has never previously adopted a Comprehensive Plan, the community has a once in a lifetime opportunity to advance the development of a community-driven, ambitious vision. The Comprehensive Plan will provide the basis for decision-making to create a more sustainable, resilient, equitable, and exciting future for the City of Chicopee and its residents.

Sustainability should be woven throughout all elements of the Plan and will address environmental, fiscal, and social elements. Further, the City recognizes that climate change is the most urgent environmental consideration that should be addressed in all long range planning efforts serving as a foundation for the planning process.

The City acknowledges that the success of the Plan is directly correlated with the quality of its outreach. For this reason, the City requires this process to be dynamic, with an authentic and robust public engagement strategy to maximize community involvement, likely requiring multiple outreach strategies to complete. Qualified Planning Teams should have experience in all aspects of community planning:

• Community visioning and goal setting,
• Extensive public engagement and outreach,
• Communication and coordination,
• Data collection and analysis,
• Marketing and branding, and;
• Implementation planning.