BACKGROUND

The City of Watertown, with a population of 26,437 (2017 American Community Survey), is the principal city of the Watertown-Fort Drum, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the urban core of Jefferson County (population 116,567; 2017 ACS). Comprising 9.4 square miles, the City is located on the banks of the Black River in New York State’s North Country region, near the Canadian border. Watertown is located along Interstate-81, a major 855-mile highway that serves as an inland alternative to I-95 and provides a direct connection to Canadian highways that access Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.

Within a ten-mile drive of the City, Fort Drum is home to the 10th Mountain Division, one of the most deployed divisions in the U.S. Army, and is the largest single-site employer in New York State. Healthcare, Retail Trade and Light Manufacturing are all specialized industries locally. Other major employers include Samaritan Medical Center, New York Air Brake and Knowlton Technologies (paper manufacturing).

Public employees also make up a significant share of Watertown’s labor force, as the City, Jefferson County and State of New York all maintain large workforces within the City, as do the Watertown City School District and SUNY Jefferson Community College.

As an aging, small City in the northeast, over half of the housing stock is pre-World War II, and due to the transient nature of a military community, more than fifty-percent is renter-occupied. Many of these structures also enjoy grandfathered status, resulting from nonconformities related to setbacks, lot area coverage, lot size per household, density, etc.

Watertown is governed by a City Council, which consists of a Mayor and four Council Members that are elected on an at-large basis to staggered four-year terms. The Council employs a City Manager that administers the day-to-day operations of the City.

STAFF

The City of Watertown’s Planning and Community Development Department consists of a Planning Director, a Senior Planner and two Planners, one of which is a Certified Arborist. The City recently transferred administrative responsibility for the Zoning Ordinance from the Engineering Department to the Planning and Community Development Department. Planning Staff works closely with the Engineering Department on development activities within the City. The City also has a GIS Department that works closely with the Planning and Engineering Departments that will be available to supply shapefiles and maps for research purposes.

CITY OF WATERTOWN COMPREHENSIVE, STRATEGIC and SMALL AREA PLANS

The City adopted its first Comprehensive Plan as well as a new Strategic Plan in December 2019. Earlier in 2019, the City also adopted a Downtown-Riverfront Connection Feasibility Study that examined the waterfront areas to the north and west of downtown, stretching from the Veterans Memorial Riverwalk to Whitewater Park, in an effort to better connect downtown to the waterfront. In summer 2020, the City expects to adopt a redevelopment plan for the waterfront area northeast of downtown that includes Sewall’s Island and Factory Square. The new Zoning Ordinance will be a primary tool for implementing all of the above plans.

The City recently received funding to update its Local Waterfront Revitalization Program Plan, which was created nearly a decade ago but never adopted by City Council.

CURRENT ZONING ORDINANCE

The City’s current Zoning Ordinance dates to 1959 and has undergone numerous patchwork amendments in the decades since, usually precipitated by a particular section of the code presenting an obstacle to development. It is Euclidian in nature and does not contain any design standards, despite a prevalence of historic architecture within the City, particularly downtown. While recent amendments have helped to promote mixed-uses, the Ordinance as a whole generally perpetuates suburban-style development in the rest of the City through onerous parking and setback requirements.

In addition, signage and setback regulations that reflect outdated planning concepts bring about frequent applications to the Zoning Board of Appeals, in which the board often finds itself weighing the various hardship tests against common sense.

The existing code is accessible in its entirety online at: https://www.ecode360.com/10498494.

SCOPE OF WORK

With the assistance and input from City Staff and a small steering committee, the selected consultant will conduct a public process to develop a new Zoning Ordinance for the City of Watertown. The City anticipates that the consultant will work with the community to develop a “hybrid” Zoning Ordinance that incorporates form-based standards in the historic downtown and traditional gateway corridors, but conventional zoning standards in newer, largely built out areas. The new Zoning Ordinance should include standards that support walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods in areas of the City most prime for adaptive reuse and infill development, such as downtown transition areas.

The consultant will develop a work program in conjunction with City Staff. The agreed upon scope of work will, minimally, include the following:

• Review of Comprehensive Plan: The consultant will review and identify plan goals, objectives and recommendations, as well as incorporate guidance from the plan’s Future Land Use Character Areas to ensure that the new Zoning Ordinance implements the plan’s vision.
• Application of Strategic Plan: The consultant will consider goals and objectives from relevant chapters (Pride in City Appearance, Economic Development, etc.) and identify ways the Zoning Ordinance can advance these goals and objectives where possible.
• Review of Small Area Plans: The consultant will review the aforementioned Downtown-Riverfront Connection Feasibility Study and Sewall’s Island/Factory Square Redevelopment Plan and identify opportunities for the Zoning Ordinance to advance implementation of both plans.
• Evaluation of Existing Neighborhoods, Corridors and Districts: In addition to the waterfront areas highlighted in the two plans above, Watertown contains many other unique areas that will warrant differing and specific regulations. The consultant will work with Staff to identify these areas, such as the special neighborhood concept areas contained in the Comprehensive Plan, and draft appropriate code.
• Public Outreach: The consultant will develop a public outreach strategy designed to inform community stakeholders and the public about the project, on the benefits of a hybrid code as well as conducting regular meetings and online interaction throughout the process.
• Utilization of Planning and Community Development Department Recommendations: The consultant will incorporate input from Planning Staff on particular topics of importance, including but not limited to housing density, landscaping and walkability.
• Drafting the Document: The consultant will prepare drafts of the Zoning Ordinance, including all applicable graphics, for Staff review, prior to producing a final version of the document for Planning Board and City Council action.
• GIS Shapefile of new Zoning Map: The consultant will work with City Staff to draw a new zoning map for formal adoption, and upon completion, shall provide the City with a final copy in shapefile (.shp) format for Planning Board and City Council action.

EVALUATION CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES

• Quality and completeness of the response: The City will evaluate proposals based on their clarity and demonstrated understanding of the project objectives. The consultant must provide the City with an anticipated schedule for the above work, with a goal of completion by fall 2021.
• Completion Schedule: The City will also evaluate proposals based on their ability to complete the project within the 18-month timeframe specified by the City, and on how the firm lays out its timeline in its submission.
• Relevant Experience of Firm: The proposer must demonstrate a thorough understanding of zoning processes and previous experience working with zoning code. Proposals must include three references from projects of similar scope and nature. Each reference should include a contact person and phone number. The City encourages submission of sample zoning code from previous projects accompanied by written context for the submitted samples.
• Relevant Experience of Project Team: The proposal must include a list of all person(s) who will be assigned work pursuant to this RFP (including subcontractors), as well as their resumes showing qualifications, educational background, training and experience.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Interested firms shall submit their qualifications, which should include the following:

• A full description of how the Scope of Work will be completed along with a schedule detailing when milestones will be reached. This shall include an estimated timeframe for delivering a final document, which shall be no more than 18 months from the project start date.
• Narrative explaining the firm’s qualifications for the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite, including a summary of the firm’s recent experience with writing new zoning code and samples of recent work.
• A description of each staff member or sub-consultant who will be involved with this project and a description of his or her role in the project.
• Ability to integrate this project into the firm’s present workload.
• References: names and contact information of previous clients with a detailed description of the type of project completed.
• A budget, including a cost for each task and a total cost for the entire project. This should be completed for both the lead consultant and any sub-consultants, if they are utilized for the project. The City does not expect that the maximum contract for this project will exceed $140, 000-$150,000.
• The successful firm will be required to provide proof of General Liability Insurance in the amount of not less than $1,000,000.00 for each occurrence and in an amount not less than $2,000,000.00 general aggregate.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Proposals are due by 4:00 PM, Friday, February 21, 2020. Responses shall include five (5) paper copies and by email in PDF format. All files must be less than 10 megabytes. Dividing the response into multiple emails to exceed the 10 megabyte per email limit total is not acceptable.

Responses must be sent to:

Dale Morrow
Purchasing Manager
245 Washington Street, Suite 302
Watertown, NY 13601

planning@watertown-ny.gov

For questions, please contact:

• Michael Lumbis, City of Watertown Planning and Community Development Director: mlumbis@watertown-ny.gov (315) 785-7734
• Jennifer Voss, City of Watertown Senior Planner: jvoss@watertown-ny.gov (315) 785-7724

PRESENTATION BY RESPONDENTS

The City will require finalists to give presentations. <edited> Presentations will provide an opportunity for the City to obtain a greater understanding of:

• The extent of the firm's depth of knowledge of the subject matter;
• Whether the methods and resources that will be used by the firm in performing services to achieve the project goals and objectives are appropriate and cost effective;
• The firm's ability to draw together specialists and professionals with the necessary skills and experience to contribute to the overall project;
• The primary features and benefits of their proposal;
• The public presentation skills of the proposers; and
• The ability of the consultant to enhance and not replace the extensive work already completed.

Presentation format will be at the discretion of the proposers. Presentations will be limited to a one-hour period per respondent, which includes questions. All key managerial personnel, as well as key personnel working on the project, must attend the proposal presentation.

Please contact Jen Voss or Dale Morrow for at the City of Watertown for the complete RFQ Packet and compliance documents that must be completed with your proposal