REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS – PROFESSIONAL CONSULTING SERVICES

For the City of West Des Moines

Preparation of a New Zoning Ordinance

1. INVITATION

The City of West Des Moines, Iowa is seeking a response to this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) from firms interested in providing professional services needed to assist city staff with the development and drafting of a rewrite of the City's Zoning Ordinance. Firms with relevant experience and qualifications are encouraged to submit.

2. BACKGROUND

The City is in the process of creating a new Comprehensive Plan, intended to be adopted by the City Council in early summer 2021. The Plan resulted from an approximately 3-year planning and citizen involvement process that included close to 12,000 responses from the community. As a next step in implementing the Plan in the near-term, the City desires to conduct a thorough review of all existing land development codes and ordinances and recommend a major update to the Zoning Ordinance that aligns with the vision laid out in this new Comprehensive Plan.

The City intends to implement a user-friendly, flexible, intent-grounded and impact mitigation-based Zoning Ordinance that will complement the innovative approach of the Comprehensive Plan while continuing to achieve the high-quality development that the City has experienced. City staff has not identified a standard Zoning Ordinance format or approach that we believe will complement the flexibility being built into the land use portion of the Comprehensive Plan. The City intends to minimize the number of land use categories while incorporating the Place Type planning concept in providing expectations of uses and the built environment. The City views Place Types as the bridge between the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Map and the Zoning Ordinance. Place Types paint a picture of the intended types of development possible within a land use category, while the Zoning Ordinance will detail how to achieve a specific Place Type.

3. REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ) OBJECTIVES

The City of West Des Moines seeks to retain a professional planning consulting firm that has substantial relevant experience in developing and drafting land development regulations. This new Zoning Ordinance should aim to enable and support the Place Type flexibility while ensuring development that creates live, work and play environments for all. It will be a primary objective of the City that the consulting firm chosen for this project have demonstrated experience in thinking outside of traditional Zoning Ordinance formats and instead tailoring a code that combines aspects of various types of codes, as well as potentially completely new approaches to achieve the City's desires.

It is the goal of the City of West Des Moines to complete the update through a multi-phase approach in partnership with a consulting firm based on the following general phases:

• Phase 1: Code Diagnosis – analysis of current regulations in relation to application &/or achievement of Comprehensive Plan flexibility and alignment with Subdivision, Building and Fire codes; examine industry best practices and procedures; identify code framework and anticipated user interface approach.
• Phase 2: Code Development – conduct stakeholder meetings to understand obstacles of current code and needs of new ordinance; evaluate and understand other Metro communities' regulations related to specific aspects of code; draft new regulations and illustrations; vet with internal departments and select development industry professionals.
• Phase 3: Implementation – conduct education and outreach with internal and external stakeholders; presentations to the City Council, Plan and Zoning Commission, Board of Adjustment and industry groups; adoption.
• Phase 4: End user interface/electronic version of Code – integration of Zoning Ordinance in readily usable web-based format (using a new or existing software program) that offers an intuitive structure to find zoning regulations information for citizens, stakeholders and staff.

4. SUBMITTAL PROCESS

DISTRIBUTION OF REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ) - This RFQ and any supporting document will be posted on the City of West Des Moines website (www.wdm.iowa.gov) and the American Planning Association website (www.planning.org).

QUESTIONS AND REQUESTS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION - Questions and request for information can be forwarded to: brian.portz@wdm.iowa.gov. Deadline for submitting questions is Wednesday, February 24, 2021, at 5:00 pm local time. Answers to questions or requests for information received by the deadline will be posted on the City's website RFP & Bid page by Wednesday, March 10, 2021, 5:00 pm local time: (https://www.wdm.iowa.gov/business/rfp-bid-postings)

RECEIPT OF THE RFQ - Submissions shall be addressed to Linda Schemmel, Development Services Department, City of West Des Moines and will be received at the following file drop location: https://lqfiles.wdm.iowa.gov/filedrop/~nzCHLx until 4:00 p.m., on Wednesday, March 17, 2021. Submittals received after the time specified above will not be considered.

EVALUATION OF THE SUBMITTALS – The Qualifications Statements submitted will be reviewed for completeness and compliance with all submittal requirements.

The City reserves the right to:

• Waive any informality or irregularity in any submission received.
• Reject a submission if it is not in full and complete compliance with the requirements and formats specified herein.
• Reject a submission which is in any way incomplete or irregular.
• Reject all submissions if they do not meet the overall standards established by this Request for Qualifications, are otherwise inappropriate, or if it is in the best interest of the City to reject all proposals.
• If the City so rejects all submittals it may thereupon either cancel this solicitation or re-solicit for Qualification Statements.

No costs associated with the preparation of this proposal, or incurred in any manner by the submitter, may be charged to the City. All materials submitted in response to this Request for Qualifications will be considered the property of the City. The City reserves the right to use any and all ideas submitted in the proposals received unless those ideas are protected by copyright, legal patent or proprietary rights as stated by the proposer.

5. ESTIMATED SCHEDULE

Included below for reference is the tentative proposal schedule. Schedule is subject to change.

Posting of RFQ — Monday, February 15, 2021

Deadline for questions and requests — Wednesday, February 24, 2021

All questions answered and posted — Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Deadline for proposal submittals — Wednesday, March 17, 2021 @ 4 p.m.

Staff/Committee Review of Proposals — Starting Week of March 22, 2021

Presentation from short list firms — Week of April 12, 2021

Selection of firm — Friday, April 30, 2021

Start of negotiation of contract — Monday, May 3, 2021

Council award of contract — Monday, July 1, 2021

6. MINIMUM CONTENT OF SUBMITTAL

Interested firms shall limit their Qualifications Submittal to a maximum of fifteen (15) double sided pages, 8 ½" by 11" vertical format submitted electronically via PDF file format to the file drop location noted in the Submittal Process section. Submittals are required to contain the following information:

1. Letter of interest indicating the unique features of the organization and project team that makes the team well-suited to undertake the project.
2. General introduction of the Project Team including the person who will serve as the main contact throughout the project, professional support staff, principal in charge, and sub-consultant/contractor relationships. Also include statements of qualifications or resumes for key project team members with specific mention of related projects including specific knowledge and experience and how previous projects that were completed align to provide unique insight and qualification
3. A Project Approach narrative that defines:
   • Proposer's understanding of the project objectives presented in this RFQ.
   • Proposer's impressions of the project's opportunities and constraints.
   • How the team will provide services for the project and the envisioned working relationship with City staff, stakeholders and all reviewing bodies during all phases of the project.
   • The methods and means by which the proposing firm will perform the services, highlighting innovative elements and deliverables for a user interface that is intuitive and graphics orientated.
   • Include a timeline and project schedule with key milestones identified and the process the team will use to develop the project within a budget.
   • Other information at the option of the Proposer
4. A summary of Professional Services including anticipated hours and fees for each project phase as outlined in the RFQ Objective section.
   • Fees should be stated as a fixed fee (not to exceed) number, based on services provided, including all expenses.
   • Provide a fee breakdown, by discipline, of all staff involved in the services proposed on an hourly basis to be used should the project scope be expanded.
   • Projected time frame for the project phases and anticipated workload/staff availability
5. Provide at least three (3) Client References that demonstrate a record of completing similar projects on schedule and within budget. For each reference, list the person's name, address, email and current telephone number, and nature of the reference or relationship.

7. SELECTION PROCESS

1. Selection of Consultant — The consultant selected for award will be the respondent whose vision, as presented in the response to this RFQ, would be the most aligned with the City's goals for the new Zoning Ordinance, as determined by the City. The evaluation criteria include, but is not limited to:
   • Project Team:
     • Qualifications & experience
     • Specific experience writing various types of Zoning Ordinances
     • Demonstration of developing creative solutions to unique problems &/or approaches to Zoning Ordinance development and formats
     • Consultant's ability to produce effective visuals to explain development regulations
     • Skills in presenting and educating
   • Project Approach:
     • Understanding of the City of West Des Moines' vision as articulated in the Comprehensive Plan
     • Proposer's impressions of the project's opportunities and constraints.
     • Realistic timeframe of development process of the Zoning Ordinance rewrite
   • Capability of the consultant team to draft a Zoning Ordinance that is compatible with today's technology for online, easy-to-use platforms
   • Ability to propose and lead in adopting innovative development regulations
   • Professional Services:
     • Projected time frame for the project phases and anticipated workload/staff availability
     • Anticipated fees will be used for budgetary purposes only
     • Phase 4 professional services may or may not be included in the final project scope
   • References
2. Review Process
   • A Selection Committee will be formed to evaluate RFQ Submittals
   • The Selection Committee will review and determine a short list of respondents
   • Respondents may be invited to be interviewed for the purposes of clarification or discussion of the Qualifications Submittal
   • Upon successful completion of preliminary negotiations with the selected firm(s), contract preparation will commence
3. This RFQ is a solicitation and not an offer to contract. The City reserves the right to issue clarifications and other directives concerning this RFQ to require clarification or further information with respect to any Qualification Submittals received, and to determine the final scope and terms of any contract for services, and whether to enter into any contract or not. The provisions herein are solely for the fiscal responsibility of the City and confer no rights, duties or entitlements to any proposer. A written agreement for services will be required between the City and successful proposer.

8. TIMELINE FOR CITY

The City desires to have a completed Zoning Ordinance for presentation to the City Council within 18 months, with a maximum of 24 months from executing the contract. The selected firm will present the Zoning Code update through public outreach events and to the West Des Moines Board of Adjustment, Plan and Zoning Commission and the City Council.