RFQ Code Rewrite.pdf

4303 Lawrenceville Highway • Loganville, GA 30052 • 770-466-1165 • www.loganville-ga.gov

Request for Qualifications City of Loganville Zoning Ordinance Re-Write

Background The City of Loganville has issued a Request for Qualifications to re-write the City’s zoning ordinance and will receive written proposals until the 2 p.m. on Friday, July 18, 2025. Proposals can be sent to City of Loganville, Attn: Robbie Scwhartz, PO Box 39, Loganville, GA 30052 or delivered to City of Loganville, 4303 Lawrencev-ille Road, Loganville, GA 30052.

The City of Loganville encompasses almost 7.5 square miles of land that spans both Walton and Gwinnett coun-ties. The City experienced explosive population growth in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the population tripled from 3,180 according to the 1990 Census to 10,458 residents per the 2010 Census. The current popula-tion is estimated to be more than 16,500 residents.

The City of Loganville is both burdened and blessed to have three state highways traversing its limits, as the traffic is necessary for businesses to thrive but oftentimes results in local residents not wanting to leave their homes due to the congestion. Loganville has a healthy housing market, though the City itself is often lumped together with the 30052 ZIP code, which encompasses almost 89 square miles and 75,000 people.

The last major re-write of the City’s zoning ordinance took place in 2009, though various sections such as the alcohol ordinances and those pertaining to used car sales and signs have been updated over the years. The exist-ing code is available online at https://library.municode.com/ga/loganville/codes/code_of_ordinances

Questions regarding this solicitation and the process should be submitted via email to rschwartz@loganville-ga.

gov before 5 p.m. on Friday, July 11, 2025. Questions and responses will be posted on the City’s website at www.loganville-ga.gov.

Lobbying Prohibition Any communication regarding this solicitation for the purpose of influencing the process or the award, between any person or affiliates seeking an award from this solicitation and the City, including but not limited to the City Council, employees, and consultants hired to assist in the solicitation, is prohibited.

It shall be a breach of ethical standards to:

• Exert any effort to influence any City employee or agent to breach the standards of ethical conduct.

• Intentionally invoice and/or request any amount greater than provided in the agreement/contract or to invoice and/or request for Materials or Services not provided.

• Intentionally offer or provide sub-standard Materials or Services or to intentionally not comply with any term, condition, specification, or other requirement of a City Contract.

Reservations The City reserves the right to reject any or all responses or any part thereof; to reissue the solicitation; to reject non-responsive or non-responsible responses; to reject unbalanced responses; to reject responses where the terms and/or awards are conditioned upon another event; to reject individual responses for failure to meet any requirement; to award by part or portion, or total; to make multiple awards; to waive minor irregularities, de-fects, omissions, technicalities, or form errors in any response. The City may seek clarification of the response from respondent at any time, and failure to respond is cause for rejection. Submission of a response confers on respondent no right to an award or to a subsequent contract.

The City is responsible to make an award that is in the best interest of the City. The lowest price proposal will not guarantee an award recommendation. Proposals shall be ranked and evaluated based upon the selection cri-teria. All decisions on compliance, evaluation, terms and conditions shall be made solely at the City’s discretion and made to favor the City.

Evaluation Process and Criteria Responses will be reviewed by an evaluation committee comprised of City employee and/or authorized agents.

City staff may or may not initiate discussions with respondents for clarification purposes. Clarification is not an opportunity to change the response. Respondents shall not initiate discussions with any City employee or official.

The evaluation committee will rank offers using a point ranking system.

• Relevant Experience of Project Team 25 points

• Public Process 25 points

• Understanding the issues 20 points

• Proposed approach 20 points

• Timeline 10 points

Once the evaluation committee’s recommendation is made, the City Council may require presentations be made as a supplement to the evaluation process.

Contract Negotiations and Acceptance The selected firm will be given written Notification of Intent to Award by the City of Loganville. The City will negotiate and execute a contract with the selected firm prior to the beginning of the actual services. Should con-tract negotiations fail, the City will negotiate with one of the highly ranked firms. In general, the contract will comply with applicable laws and standard provisions and shall contain the following terms: detailed scope of services, schedule for providing services, and cost of services.

Protest and Appeals If a respondent believes there is a mistake, impropriety, or defect in the solicitation, believes the City improp-erly rejected its response, and/or believes the selected response is not in the City’s best interests, the respondent may submit a written protest to the City of Loganville. Protests based upon alleged mistake, impropriety, or defect in a solicitation that is apparent before the opening must be filed with the City Manager no later than five

(5) business days before the opening. Protests that only become apparent after the opening must be filed within five (5) business days following the opening.

Hold Harmless The Firm shall indemnify and hold harmless the City of Loganville, its agents and employees, from and against any and all claims, demands, judgments, or causes of action, including costs and attorney’s fees, by any party or parties whatever for loss, damage, injury, fines, or penalties or any kind, either to persons or property, directly or indirectly, arising out of the operations performed under this contract.

Standard for Evaluation and Award To assist in the evaluation of proposals resulting from this RFQ, it is requested that each proposal be written in a concise and forthright manner and that unnecessary marketing statements and materials be avoided. The propos-al shall consist of the following sections. Responses for each of the proposal requirements listed below must be clearly stated.

For the City of Loganville to consider your application, a proposal must include the following minimum re-quirements:

1. Cover letter that identifies the consulting firm as well as any sub-consultants. This letter should include the firm’s qualifications and experience as well as appropriate Georgia professional registrations and licenses. The letter should also clearly identify the name, telephone number, email address and name of a contact person and be signed by a duly authorized officer of the firm.

2. A description of the project team, specifically those who will be assigned to the project, including their responsibilities and individual qualifications.

3. A narrative describing the Firm’s understanding, philosophy and approach to this project based on the general outline provided in the Scope of Work. This should include a task-by-task description as to what the Firm anticipates providing to ensure successful project completion.

4. Provide five (5) client references for comparable projects handled by the lead Firm.

5. A schedule based on the scope of work that includes a timetable for deliverables.

6. A brief description of in-house procedures in place to ensure accuracy and integrity of the Firm’s work.

Proposals should include the above information in no more than 20 pages total.

Scope of Services The City of Loganville is seeking a firm to work with staff, elected leaders and the community to re-write the current Subpart B – Land Development and Related Ordinances of the City of Loganville Code of Ordinances, which includes Chapters 101-119, to incorporate form-based standards where possible, update convention-al zoning standards in newer, largely built out areas, and solidify standards that support walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods in the current and yet-to-be developed areas of the City.

The final work program will be developed in conjunction with City staff but the scope of work should include the following:

1. Current Zoning Ordinance and Adopted Plans Diagnosis. The consultant will work closely with City staff in producing a diagnosis of the existing Code of Ordinances and all adopted/relevant plans. The consultant will review for consistency between established zoning regulations and existing conditions.

The reviews will include but are not limited to the City of Loganville Comprehensive Plan, Livable Centers Initiative studies, Urban Redevelopment Plan and any other related plans. The consultant will review and identify plan goals, objectives and recommendations to ensure the new Code of Ordinances will be consistent with planning documents. The consultant should identify any issues that need further review and provide an outline for needed meetings that will establish content and regulations and any amendments. The consultant will review and make recommendations on already existing zoning districts and review all procedures to make recommendations on best practices to be incorporated for all boards and council. This should include the most efficient timeline while ensuring each board and council, as well as the public, has adequate time to review and make informed decisions on proposals.

2. Review of the Fee Structure. The consultant will review the current fee structure for development, permitting and bonds.

3. Evaluation of Existing Neighborhoods, Corridors and Districts. The City of Loganville contains many unique areas that will warrant context-sensitive regulations. Staff will work with the consultant to identi-fy these and new areas.

4. Community Engagement/Public Outreach. The consultant will develop a detailed public engagement outreach/participation plan designed to inform community stakeholders and the general public on the benefits of re-writing the zoning ordinance, as well as conducting regular meetings and web/social media interaction throughout the process. The consultant will conduct five (5) stakeholder interviews. These may be conducted by conference calls or meetings with the stakeholder groups.

5. Drafting the Document. The consultant will prepare three (3) drafts of the zoning ordinance, including graphics, for review by staff and the stakeholder committee(s), culminating in a final version to be acted upon by the Planning Commission and the City Council.

6. Executive Summary Report. Executive summary describing recommendations and a supporting docu-ment describing the process, meeting attendance, and stakeholder interviews.

7. Zoning Map. The consultant will update the zoning map to match new districts, amendments and other changes.

8. Staff Training. The Consultant shall provide resources to assist City staff with implementation of the new code through a ‘start-up’ period not to exceed three (3) months.

9. Legal Review. Provide a legal opinion on the enforceability of the zoning ordinance. Address any concerns by the City’s Attorney prior to finalizing the draft.

Respondents must demonstrate the necessary ability, financial resources, and relevant experience to perform the work in a satisfactory manner. A minimum of five (5) years’ experience in planning and zoning services or similarly related services is required.

Insurance Requirements Selected respondent shall, at their own cost and expense, acquire and maintain (and cause any subcontractors, representatives, or agents to acquire and maintain) during the term with the City, sufficient insurance to ade-quately protect the respective interest of the parties. In addition, the City has the right to review the Contrac-tor’s deductible or self-insured retention and to require that it be reduced or eliminated.

Specifically, the selected respondent must carry the following minimum types and amounts of insurance on an occurrence basis or in the case of coverage that cannot be obtained on an occurrence basis with a minimum three (3) year tail following the termination of the agreement.

• Commercial General Liability Insurance coverage, including but not limited to, premises, operations, products, products liability, contractual liability, advertising injury, personal injury, death, and property damage in the minimum amount of$1,000,000 (one million dollars) per occurrence and $2,000,000 (two million dollars) general aggregate.

• Commercial Automobile Liability Insurance coverage for any owned, non-owned, hired, or borrowed automobile is required in the minimum amount of $1,000,000 (one million dollars) combined single limit.

• Unless waived the State of Georgia, statutory Workers’ Compensation Insurance coverage and Employer’s Liability Insurance in the minimum amount of $100,000 (one hundred thousand dollars) per each employee each accident.

• Professional Liability Insurance coverage appropriate for the type of business engaged with minimum limits of $1,000,000 (one million dollars) per occurrence.

Vendor shall submit nine (9) copies of the proposal and all documentation as well as a digital copy. One (1) signed original (identified as ORIGINAL) response with eight (8) copies, and one (1) electronic format copy on a thumb drive in a sealed envelope/container. Any changes or corrections must be initialed by the person signing the proposal documents.

Documents The documents shall be submitted on standard 8 1/2 x 11” paper, a single 8 1/2 x 11” sheet printed on both sides is two (2) pages. All information shall be assembled and indexed in the order indicated below, including typed text, graphics, charts and photographs, but does not include supporting documents. Any tabbed or similar sep-arator pages, cover page, table of contents, and back pages must be labeled.

- Letter of Interest. Cover letter should briefly introduce firm, organization, and consultant.

- Work Plan & Technical Approach. Provide a detailed work plan describing the firm’s proposed activi-ties and overall strategies and understanding of the services and approach to the project. utline a detailed proposed project schedule to complete the services with a detailed breakdown of all zoning rewrite project costs.

- Experience and Qualifications of Firm and Staff. Describe the firm’s background, experience, and qualifications of key personnel proposed to work on the project; include resumes for key team members (including subcontractors) demonstrating specific planning and zoning projects relative to the scope of work.