Title
GRU Master Plan (NB)
Explanation
The City Commission has established a goal of creating a master plan for the area surrounding Depot Park, including the potential GRU development site. The majority of the Depot Park/GRU area lies within the College Park University Heights, Downtown, and Eastside CRA areas, and the redevelopment of the GRU/Depot area will be crucial to the success of the CRA and the surrounding areas. Therefore, the City Commission agreed to make the CRA the lead agency on this project. Additionally, representatives of GRU and City Planning staff have participated on the consultant evaluation team and will also be included on the project team as work goes forward. Each of the CRA Advisory Boards involved with this project (Downtown, Eastside, and College Park/University Heights) have included funding as part of their FY 2007 budgets. The amount of funding from each district is based on how much of each redevelopment area falls within the study boundary. As portions of the project area do not fall within any CRA district, both the general government and GRU are also participating in funding. The funding breakdown is as follows: CRA is funding $85,000 ($50,000 from CPUH, $25,000 from Downtown, and $10,000 from Eastside.) GRU is funding $25,000, and general government is funding $25,000 (to be paid from the Community Development Department through savings from personnel vacancies).
The RFP was issued on November 3, 2006 with a deadline for receipt of January 19, 2007; a pre-bid meeting was held on December 1, 2006. Ten proposals were received with one being disqualified for lack of pricing. A meeting to evaluate and rank the written proposals was held on February 16, 2007. The four top ranked firms were: Folsom Group, Genesis Group, Pizzuti Solutions and Wood & Partners, Inc. Oral presentations were held on March 20, 2007. Wood & Partners, Inc. was selected for the proposal. The initial project kick-off meeting occurred on August 22, 2007. The meeting was attended by the consultant team, public representatives, and citizen stakeholders. Subsequent to this meeting, it was recognized that the consultant team was not an appropriate match for this project and that an alternate approach to the study would be beneficial in order to achieve the final product desired by the City and the CRA. The final goal of this project is a comprehensive development program with a strong sense of design. The program will include steps towards implementation and will be based on engineering, site planning, and market/financial analyses as well as stakeholder input. The final product will contain an implementable framework for redevelopment at the study site. Wood & Partners has agreed to conclude their services relating to the project. CRA staff is currently working towards engaging another consultant team to assist with the project and will provide a more detailed account of GRU Master Plan progress at an upcoming meeting. Because the final goal for this project is not a conceptual plan, but rather a roadmap for redevelopment implementation, Staff recommends that the scope for the study be narrowed to include only the GRU site. The GRU site, because it is already controlled by the City, will be the first component of the area that is ready for redevelopment and capable of following the "roadmap" document created through the master plan process. Other sites in the area, due to a variety of issues and ownerships, will likely not be positioned to immediately move forward with implementing the results of the master plan.
Fiscal Note
The cost for Wood & Partners for services rendered is $15,616.13. This cost to the CRA is $9,838.16, with $5,777.97 coming from CPUH, $2,888.98 from Downtown, and $1,171.21 from Eastside.
Recommendation:
Executive Director to the CRA: 1) Hear an update from staff; and 2) approve altering the scope for the study to include the GRU site only.