INTRODUCTION

Lenexa, Kansas is a suburban community located 12 miles southwest of downtown Kansas City, Missouri in Johnson County, Kansas. In the past 20 years, Lenexa has grown dramatically from just over 40,000 residents in 2000 to approximately 55,000 in 2019. Today, Lenexa is the 8th largest city in Kansas. The median age is 38, while approximately 23% of the population is under the age of 18 and approximately 15% of the population is 65 years old or over. Racially, the City is approximately 81% white, 7% African American, 5% Asian/Pacific Islander, 3.5% Other, and 3.5% Mixed Race. The City also has an 8% Hispanic population. The City is a major commercial center in the Kansas City Metro area with over 3,200 businesses and nearly 60,000 employees working in the City every day. Lenexa's median family income is estimated to be $82,705 and education levels are high, with nearly 59% of adults, 25 years of age or older, having attained a bachelor's degree or higher. There are approximately 22,000 housing units within the city. Lenexa is centrally located in Johnson County, Kansas, which has a population estimated at 600,000.

The City of Lenexa is seeking the services of a professional consulting firm with extensive experience and skills in the development of municipal comprehensive plans and establishing processes to implement, maintain and update comprehensive plans. The selected consultant will be responsible for developing a new comprehensive plan for Lenexa in a manner to which the City can use to further guide the City's rapid development while incorporating existing plans the City's various departments currently use, such as small area plans, future needs assessments, and corridor plans.

Lenexa's current comprehensive plan was originally adopted in 2000. Minor updates of the plan have been adopted since that time, however, it is time to consider a wholesale rewrite of the plan; several major developments have been completed, new development patterns have emerged, economic conditions have changed, and new plans have been created. Specifically, the city recently wrapped up our Vision 2040 strategic plan. Vision 2040 included participation by residents, property owners, developers, business and civic groups, educational providers, and relevant government agencies. The Vision 2040 strategic plan is intended to assist in the articulation and prioritization of public goals. It is anticipated that the new comprehensive plan will rely heavily on the results of Vision 2040 and create action plans for implementing those shared goals.

In addition to Vision 2040, the city has several other planning documents that need to be taken into consideration when updating the comprehensive plan. Such documents include, but are not limited to, the recently accepted Complete Streets plan, the Old Town and Quivira Road Planning Sustainable Places plans, and an update to the Parks and Recreation Master Plan that is currently underway.

In preparing the comprehensive plan, past and present conditions and trends relating to land use, population and building intensity, public facilities, transportation and transportation facilities, economic conditions, and natural resources shall all be considered. In addition, trends related to development, housing, technology and transportation shall be evaluated with respect to how such trends may impact the future development and redevelopment of Lenexa.

Since the 2008 recession, the City has experienced tremendous growth, with several years of record growth in new single-family home construction and commercial permit valuation. Development of City Center has exploded with a variety of living options, restaurants, offices, and civic experiences. While Lenexa has many positive attributes that have led to growth within the community, the City is looking to establish a clear vision for sustainable future growth in the face of continuing economic challenges. Shifts in housing needs and demands, the changing face of retail, and a greater interest in the sharing economy are changing how we use and develop the built environment.

The new comprehensive plan shall provide vision and policies that will guide the city's approach to future land use and will incorporate a variety of subject-specific plans currently underway or recently adopted. In addition, it is anticipated that the comprehensive plan will build on the goals and concerns of the community based Vision 2040 planning process. The community's vision, as well as issues that came to light in the Vision 2040 planning process should be of specific focus in the comprehensive plan. Development of policies, initiatives and implementation goals will be important to the overall development of a comprehensive plan.

Using Vision 2040, the new comprehensive plan should provide goals, objectives and policies to guide the city's development and redevelopment for the next twenty years. The comprehensive plan will be used as a tool by the governing body, planning commission, staff, developers, property owners, and residents to guide future growth and redevelopment.

SCOPE OF SERVICES

The consultant will prepare a new comprehensive plan to replace the current plan originally adopted in 2000. The new comprehensive plan is envisioned as both a physical plan and policy guide for staff and decision makers regarding future development in Lenexa for the next twenty years.

The person, firm or corporation selected to develop the comprehensive plan will be expected to develop a plan that:

• Guides the future growth of Lenexa by providing direction for future land uses and transportation systems;
• Is meaningful to the public and all city departments;
• Is written in a non-technical format, is highly visual, and organized in a way that is easily understood by a majority of laypeople;
• Includes recommendations that are sufficiently specific and can be tied to definitive actions;
• Is integrated with other public plans;
• Focuses on innovative implementation techniques and fiscal approaches;
• Incorporates best practices regarding planning, livability, and resiliency; and
• Is easily updated.

The City of Lenexa will provide copies of and/or links to any studies or reports it has commissioned that would be useful in development of the plan. The recently adopted Vision 2040 should specifically be used to guide the development of a new comprehensive plan. The City will also provide ArcGIS shapefiles maintained by its IT staff. Any other data collection will be the responsibility of the consultant. While gathering and evaluating demographic information does help in better understanding the community and may provide insight into future trends, particular attention should be given to generating information and gathering data that is focused on performance indicators and discovery, as opposed to simply an encyclopedic tabulation of data.

A steering committee will be used to guide the plan's development. Staff of the Community Development Department will be the primary point of contact for the plan, will attend (but not lead) public meetings, and will be available to provide limited assistance. Other City staff will be available to answer questions in their areas of expertise and experience working in the community. The planning process should include a public engagement component providing multiple opportunities for public input using various methods at key stages in the process. The consultant should facilitate a planning process whereby the community "owns" the plan, and the Governing Body and Planning Commission are spokespersons for the plan and have a consensus commitment to implement it.

The planning process shall include:

• A public participation component engaging the community at key junctures of the plan's development;
• A review of the completed and ongoing plans undertaken by various city departments and a coalescing of the outstanding elements as future goals;
• A detailed examination of demographic data and patterns, not limited to past, current and projected population, household size, employment and commuting patterns;
• Creation of at least three future land use scenarios of varying intensities considering present regulations as well as ongoing planning studies;
• Analysis of each of the three future land use scenarios in terms of the following at full build out, including, but not limited to:
  • Projection of population
  • Timing of full build out
  • Effect on key infrastructure (streets, water, sewer, storm water facilities)
  • Effect on government services (police, fire, parks)
  • Effect on traffic through the city
  • Effect on environment
• In addition to and as part of the above analysis of the three future land use scenarios, work with an independent consultant, selected by the City, to aid in the analysis of the projected public financial costs and benefits associated with each of the identified future land use scenarios. Consider the benefits and costs of each scenario, particularly tax revenues, fee revenues, and community economic benefits and costs, including capital and operating, associated with maintaining infrastructure and providing services, and any other financial impacts of the land use scenarios;
• Evaluation of, and recommendations for, specific sub-areas or corridors within the city that may be defined during the planning process;
• An assessment of infrastructure demands in light of current and projected development, population growth, and job growth including projecting when such infrastructure should be in place to accommodate the anticipated growth of the selected future land use scenario;

• Identifying strategies to enhance the human, social, economic, and environmental sustainability of the community as it grows and develops to full build-out;
• Reviewing the existing Transportation Plan map and alignment studies and recommending modifications consistent with the recommended future land use scenario;
• A plan for greater connectivity between all parts of the City;
• Continued attention to arts, educational and recreational opportunities;
• Consideration of political, economic, financial, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors;
• Innovative ideas to address trends in housing for all incomes and ages, multi-modal transportation, the sharing economy, and any other topics that may impact future development and redevelopment of Lenexa;
• Ascertaining the current retail sales surplus and leakage to identify opportunities to augment certain commercial sectors as the community grows to full build-out;
• Exploring alternative regulatory approaches to accommodate development, such as the possibility of a form-based code, a hybrid form-based code, or zoning overlays;
• Identifying implementation tasks and goals, prioritizing them and assigning the department(s) that are responsible for their implementation, including a recommended timeframe and anticipated budget for each task based on expected results and ability to finance and carry out the priorities; and
• Recommendations and examples of best practices on plan implementation.

The City will undertake a separate process to select a consultant to undertake the fiscal impact analysis of the future land use scenarios. The consultant team selected to update the comprehensive plan will be expected to work closely with the fiscal impact analysis consultant to take into account their findings when recommending a preferred future land use scenario. The fiscal impacts of growth are important to the City, thus the comprehensive plan consultant team shall include the various factors that were taken into consideration in recommending a preferred future land use scenario for the continued growth of our city.

The new comprehensive plan should include goals and related strategies that are implementable and focused on the priorities of Lenexa's distinct neighborhoods rather than a "one-size" fits all communities document. The strategies shall assist in achieving Lenexa's vision of being a community of healthy people, made up of inviting places and vibrant neighborhoods with integrated infrastructure and transportation systems, and an innovative economy. The strategies shall strive to visibly improve the community and promote a locally defined quality of life.

As part of the planning process, the Respondent will be required to present the plan before the Governing Body and Planning Commission at least two times each; one to solicit comments and input on the development of a new comprehensive plan, and one to present the final document as adoption of the plan is considered.

Final products of this planning process shall include an executive summary, maps and graphics as appropriate, and a final document suitable for both printing and viewing on the City's website.

Comprehensive Plan Update RFP