Urban Forestry Grant Request for Qualifications

Questions about proposals are due May 29th, 2024.

Request for Qualifications
City of Port Townsend
Urban Forestry Plan

INTRODUCTION:
The City of Port Townsend is requesting statement of qualifications from qualified consultants to provide professional services to complete an Urban Forestry Plan and update the Tree Conservation Ordinance before June 30, 2025. The US Forest Service has awarded funding to complete the project. Firms interested in this project are advised to carefully review the information outlined in this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and respond accordingly. The City has earmarked $100,000 for consulting services.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION:
Statements of Qualifications are due by June 7th, 2024, by 5:00 p.m. All proposals shall be submitted electronically, in Adobe PDF format, to:

Emma Bolin, Director of Planning and Community Development
City of Port Townsend
ebolin@cityofpt.us

BACKGROUND:
Following extensive efforts by our Planning staff, Planning Commission and City Council, the City of Port Townsend recently updated our residential zoning codes for flexibility in providing more affordable housing to low-income families and households. These code changes allow for more units to be built on a single lot, including tiny homes on wheels as long-term rentals (one of only a few cities in Washington state allowing such structures for this purpose). We are hopeful that our new code changes will have positive impacts for our unhoused and low income populations.

However, we also need to be thinking about our disappearing tree canopy as we create more housing for these underserved populations who deserve to have access to tree canopy and all the benefits that come with neighborhood canopy. Our community does not have an Urban Forestry Plan and our Tree Conservation Code is out of date. Development of an Urban Forestry Plan and an update of our Tree Conservation Code can go hand in hand with our new zoning code changes to serve those who need equitable housing without disparity of environment. A significant amount of the tactical housing infill will likely occur on empty lots in our Historic District and Castle Hill areas, both of which are in a federal designated environmental justice area. Densification brings its own burdens, in particular to tree canopy cover, and care must be taken to protect and improve our canopy while we densify.

The timing of the Urban Forestry Plan adoption is scheduled for no later than June 2025 because the City will adopt the plan as an appendix or functional plan for the Citywide Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update, which will occur in June 2025. The outreach activities for the Urban Forestry Plan and the Comp Plan will overlap—the community will be strategizing its vision for compact urban development, housing, climate resiliency, active transportation, and street tree and park/open space and trail amenities simultaneously.

ANTICIPATED SCOPE OF SERVICES:

• As needed, assist the City with refining scope of work for grant contracting purposes with pass-through funding entity, River Network, to elaborate on timelines, equity objectives/outcomes, and community based organization.

The Urban Forestry Plan will at a minimum include the following scope:*

• Tree canopy study identifying urban canopy opportunities and equity challenges to address through plan implementation.*
• Professional arboricultural planning work to lead an outreach effort with the community in identifying strengths, opportunities, actions, and desired results (SOAR) to urban forestry within the City to help inform the plan and the new Tree Conservation Code with the inclusion of Planning Commission, PRTTAB, CBO, and Climate Action Committee input.*
• The culmination of the plan will include implementation recommendations such as initiating a resident Adopt A Tree program to ensure that newly installed trees in all our neighborhoods will be irrigated for the interval required by code, and invasive plants will be minimized. Other implementation recommendations may include a resident-based Street Tree Canopy expansion program.
• Coordinate an outreach effort in the community in coordination with the Washington State University Extension Office, who will serve as a Community Based Organization (CBO), as a and contracted by the City.

The purpose of working with a CBO is to support their success to lead ongoing implementation of the forestry plan objectives identified in the plan. The WSU possible scope for project collaboration includes:

Advising consultant and work with other partners as CBO:
Community Engagement

• Recruiting advisory committee (if needed)
•  Assistance with developing educational and outreach strategy
• Facilitating community conversations about community engagement
• Assistance with engagement events (plant giveaways, volunteer work parties)

The CBO may be active in grant activities post-plan adoption such as:

• Designing and conducting an educational course to assist the city develop a skilled volunteer base as part of a one-day workshop offered upon plan development.
• Material Development such as how-to guides and engagement kits
• The City has also received two other grants 1. tree planting in the Castle Hill area coordinated with City street projects and 2. DNR Tree steward grant working with local high school nursery. It’s expected that the CBO will operate plan implementation efforts to advance all three efforts along with goals for youth participation and engagement, urban school forests, junior forester clubs, and curriculum integration, as specified in the other grants awarded.

*Per USFS grant guidance, a city-wide tree inventory and urban forestry management plan covering a broad area other than City Disadvantaged Community portions must include information on how the city will prioritize equity and be utilized to inform future decisions to allocate resources equitably.

Additional Tasks include:

• Update to City’s Engineering and Design Standards: update the list and guidelines for ROW/street plantings of trees and shrubs that are a part of Port Townsend's Engineering and Design Standards (EDS) as Chapter 6, Appendix D, Trees and Vegetation. The full EDS has not been updated since 1997 and a full update is under discussion by staff. As our community looks to change our car-centric culture by putting more emphasis on nonmotorized transportation and transit, we anticipate the development of more pedestrian and bicycle trails, edge lane roads and transit-friendly routes
• Tree Conservation Ordinance Amendment: The current code is 20 years old, challenging to read, and does not address the impacts of climate change or concepts of the importance of equitable tree canopy coverage that includes native and introduced species which are appropriate for the current climate but resilient for changing conditions. Zoning changes in the area of impact will need to expand beyond density changes. At this time, our code exempts construction on individual lots from protection of existing trees, and tree protection is enacted only at the parcel level (~40,000 square feet). However, Port Townsend's unique history as a fully platted jurisdiction prior to any significant residential construction has produced a piecemeal lot-by-lot development rather than subdivision development of full parcels, particularly as construction expanded out from the Historic District. Consequently, trees are often clear-cut from these individual lots for the builder's convenience, not because they interfere with a building footprint.
• Submittal of a non-project State Environmental Policy Act Checklist for the plan adoption.

BUDGET:
The City of Port Townsend has earmarked $100,000 for consulting services with the contract ending June 30, 2025. The final dollar amount, tasks, and schedule will be negotiated with the selected firm/team as part of the final contract. The City will not be liable for any costs incurred by the consultant in preparation of a response to this RFQ, in conduct of a presentation or other activities related to responding to this RFQ. No costs chargeable for work under the proposed contract may be incurred before receipt of either a fully executed contract with the city or specific written authorization from the City.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
Statements of Qualifications should include, as a minimum, the following information:

A.   An introduction to your firm, names and qualifications of key personnel who will be assigned to this project.  Identify the person who will be responsible for this project and who will be your firm’s primary contact.
B.   A brief narrative of your understanding of the project and approach to include examples of how a citywide tree inventory and urban forestry plan could prioritize equity and inform future decisions to allocate resources equitably and address urban forestry disparities, and why your firm is best qualified to perform the work.
C.   A list of projects similar to this project that your team has completed in the recent past. Provide references for each.
D.   Statement of experience working with urban forestry volunteers and community members and community based organizations to envision and plan for realistic implementation of urban forestry plan
E.   The name, title and telephone number of individuals with authority to negotiate and execute contracts and who may be contacted during the evaluation process.
Submissions should be no longer than fourteen (14) pages, including a cover page. All submissions shall be submitted ELECTRONICALLY ONLY, in Adobe PDF format.

RIGHT TO REJECT SUBMITTALS:
The City reserves the right to reject any submittals at any time with no penalty or to waive immaterial defects and minor irregularities in any submittal.

SUBMITTAL DISPOSITION:
All material submitted in response to this RFQ shall become the property of the City.

PROJECT CONTRACT:
The selected firm will be required to use the City of Port Townsend Professional Services Agreement and accept all language contained within. Any firm that has significant reservations concerning using this agreement should not submit this request.

EVALUATION CRITERIA AND SELECTION PROCESS:
The City expects to select a consultant from the Statement of Qualifications. The City may, however, elect to conduct follow-up interviews with a smaller subset of consultants.

Consultants must have a strong background in project management, arboricultural planning and urban forestry principles, equitable policy and regulation development, public participation design and implementation, climate resiliency, and GIS skills. The selection criteria will be as noted:

• Ability to demonstrate an understanding of the city’s needs and special challenges for this balancing urban forestry with compact urban design and infill/middle housing goals.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate multiple concurrent processes and/or community-based organizations.
• Ability to formulate and clearly present concepts.
• Degree of interest and responsiveness shown in undertaking the project.
• Overall quality of the response including creativity of the written proposal describing the approach and methodologies the consultant will use.
• Demonstration of past ability of completing similar projects and meeting deadlines, tree implementation results from planning efforts, including references.
• Current workload of firm and key personnel.
• Qualifications and experience of key staff and sub-consultants who will participate in the project on state and local planning issues and policies including but not limited to the Growth Management Act, tree conservation, climate, urban planning and forestry, and landscape architecture.

The City of Port Townsend is committed to a program of equal opportunity regardless of race, color, creed, sex, age, nationality or disability.

After review of submissions, the City anticipates selecting no more than three (3) firms for interviews. Interviews will occur via web-based video conferencing for a one-hour session.

NEGOTIATION/SCOPE DEVELOPMENT:
The top-ranked firm will be notified in writing and be asked to meet and submit their prospective scope of services, schedule, and a fee proposal.

If, after negotiation and consideration, the City is unable to reach an acceptable agreement with the top-ranked firm, the City will terminate negotiations with the top-ranked firm and, at its sole discretion, may enter into negotiations with the second ranked firm and/or withhold the award for any reason and/or elect not to proceed with any of the proponents and/or re-solicit via a new RFQ.

TIMELINE FOR FINAL SELECTION:
May 29th, 2024: Q and A posted to City website
June 13th & 14th 2024: Virtual interviews as needed
June 24th, 2024: Interviews and finalist selection and contracting
July 1st: Contracting and Notice to Proceed

Once an agreement is reached with a preferred firm, the City will provide a Professional Services Agreement for signatures and full execution. A Notice to Proceed will be issued to formally begin work.

WHERE TO GET MORE INFORMATION:
More information can be found on our Bid/RFP Status page https://cityofpt.us/rfps
A. City of Port Townsend Professional Services Agreement (See Supporting Documents below)
B. Port Townsend Municipal Code Tree Conservation standards Ch 19.06
C. Urban Forestry – Trees in the Right of Way
D. Tree Permit Application and Approved Tree List (update coming soon)
E. Parks, Recreation, Trees, and Trails Advisory Committee information
F. USFS Urban Forestry Grant Scope
G. City 2025 Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update
H. City Interim Parking Design Standards (eliminates minimum off-street parking requirements with street and ROW canopy improvements)