Request for Qualifications s3

Request for Qualifications

Carolina Thread Trail

I.  Purpose

The Carolina Thread Trail is seeking firms to short-list to be eligible for selection by local governments as contractors for:

q  Greenway Master Planning: Local governments in the 15-county Charlotte-Mecklenburg area are eligible to receive Greenway Master Planning Grants from the Carolina Thread Trail. Carolina Thread Trail and the Trust for Public Land will assist grant recipients in selecting firms from a short-list of eligible firms to provide greenway planning services to the local government.

q  Trail Design: Local governments with completed Greenway Plans are eligible to receive Design Grants from the CTT to design segments of the Carolina Thread Trail in their jurisdiction. CTT will assist grant recipients in selecting firms from a short-list of eligible firms to provide trail design services under contract to the local government.

Through this RFQ, the Carolina Thread Trail will select up to ten (10) firms to short-list for Greenway Master Planning and Trail Design services to be provided to local governments in the 15-county Charlotte metropolitan area. North Carolina counties include Anson, Cabarrus, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Rowan, Stanly and Union. South Carolina counties include Cherokee, Chester, Lancaster and York.

Preference will be given to firms with offices and/or past experience in the region.

II.  Background and Project Description

Vision

The Carolina Thread Trail is a vision for a network of greenways that will eventually weave through 15 counties in North and South Carolina, serving approximately 2.3 million citizens and potentially connecting over 40 destinations. With a vision of connectivity, technical resources and catalytic funding, The Thread will help fuel and accelerate each county’s local efforts and therefore, enhance everyone’s individual investment.

While not every local trail will be part of the Carolina Thread Trail system, it will link the regionally significant trails and many regional attractions. Think of it as a "green interstate system" of major trails created by connecting smaller trail systems throughout the region.

The Carolina Thread Trail will be funded through a combination of public and private sources. A private capital campaign is underway to create a pool of funds to give to communities through grants for planning and building their trails. These catalytic private funds can serve as matching funds required by many state and federal sources.

Local communities in the 15-county area will be invited to join the Carolina Thread Trail. With assistance from The Thread, each community will create and implement its own trail plans, working with neighboring communities to determine points of connection.

Steps to the Carolina Thread Trail

We are designing a process of four different types of grants, matching the steps of building a trail—planning grants to develop a countywide master greenway plan, then once a plan is developed and a Carolina Thread Trail segment is prioritized, grants to design, acquire land and construct trails will be available.

We are making available planning grants to each county in our footprint and inviting them to participate in a planning process to further develop their vision for The Thread in their county. The grantee (a government agency or NGO chosen by the steering committee to serve this function) will manage the grant, working closely with the contractor/consultant who will oversee the planning process. The Trust for Public Land (TPL) will complete all GIS mapping in order to assure consistency across the region.

We have already awarded two planning grants of $50,000 each to Gaston County, NC and York County, SC, where county master plans are currently underway. Additional grants will be given to counties in a phased process over the next two years. The implementation grants (Design, Acquisition and Construction) are under development and should be available starting in late 2008.

Guiding Principles

There are a few guiding principles that are fundamental to the philosophy of the Carolina Thread Trail and guide the work of our Governing Board, volunteers, staff and partners.

o  Connectivity and collaboration — by getting municipalities working with their county, and counties working with each other in a collaborative way, we can achieve our goal of connectivity.

o  Inclusiveness and free accessibility to all – The Thread will be an asset available for the use of all of our citizens in urban, suburban and rural settings. The process by which it is built needs to include many different voices.

o  Leverage – private capital will only go so far, but it can help stimulate activity and attract state and federal sources that require match funds and value initiatives that are regional in scope.

o  Respect for the land and respect for the landowner- it is critical to educate landowners about the project and include them in the process.

Local Information

This region has a rich heritage in manufacturing, particularly for the textile and furniture industries. Many communities have been severely impacted by mill closings over the last couple of decades. However, the Charlotte region is one of the fastest growing in the nation. With Bank of America and Wachovia headquartered in uptown Charlotte, the banking industry is attracting people from all over the world and creating a rapid growth rate for the area. The region includes a very urban core, with suburban areas emanating from that center. Rural areas are scattered throughout, particularly along the perimeter of the Carolina Thread Trail footprint. Currently, the region is experiencing a development conversion rate of 94 acres per day and that number is expected to increase.

III.  Scope of Services

Firms should indicate if they are requesting to be (a) short-listed as contractor for greenway master plans, or (b) short-listed as contractor for trail design, or both.

a)  County Greenway Master Plans

The purpose of the Greenway Master Plan is to (1) identify the conceptual route for the Carolina Thread Trail through the county and its incorporated jurisdictions; (2) identify the broader existing and potential trail network to which the CTT will connect, and (3) develop an action plan for implementation of the CTT, including identifying any CTT trail segments ready for design and implementation. The key outcome of this process should be a publicly adoptable countywide Greenway Master Plan.

CTT is seeking firms to be selected by local governments to create Greenway Master Plans for counties and their municipalities within the 15-county region. Any GIS data collection, mapping or modeling for the trail will be conducted by TPL, which will work closely with selected firms to facilitate the creation of a master GIS-based trail plan for the Carolina Thread Trail.

The greenway planning process will vary depending on what past or current greenway planning efforts are already underway in each county, what is needed to add value to those efforts, and how this effort can best support implementation. It is assumed the scope of services for the greenway planning work will generally involve the following tasks. Each task will be refined or expanded with input from the local governments and the selected firm.

1. Outreach to and engagement of local trail user groups, planners, land trusts, developers and other local partners who would be key to planning and implementing trails in their community. This will include planning and facilitating public meetings and tracking and incorporating public comment into the process and final report. Meetings will also be held with neighboring counties to solicit consensus on common connection points.
2. Selecting the CTT conceptual route through that county.
3. Creating GIS-based trail maps that reflect local input into the CTT and other trail routes in their community. (To be completed by TPL.)
4. Producing a Master Plan that provides background and context for the trail maps and strategies for implementation. The plan would be relatively short, but with high production value for distribution to key stakeholder groups in the community. A design template will be provided so that each county’s plan has a similar look and structure.
5. Working with communities to have those plans adopted by local elected officials and incorporated into appropriate local or regional plans.
6. Producing county-specific marketing brochures to promote the CTT to local residents, consistent with look, feel and content of other CTT brochures and materials. A template will be provided.

Selection criteria for short-list

q  Experience successfully engaging stakeholders and local residents in trail or park planning.

q  Experience developing park and greenway plans that are well written and designed, accessible to the public and successfully adopted by local governments.

b)  Trail Design

CTT is offering Design Grants to eligible local governments in the 15-county region surrounding the Charlotte metropolitan area to design one or more segments of the Carolina Thread Trail in their jurisdiction. CTT is seeking firms to be short-listed for selection by local governments to provide trail design services. The amount of the design grants and the scope of work for design services will depend on (1) design related work that has already been completed, such as land surveys or environmental assessments, (2) whether the property is in public ownership or control (3) whether the jurisdiction is ready to move forward on construction. Services may include, but are not limited to:

q  Land survey

q  Environmental assessment

q  Detailed site planning

q  Engineering services, such as grading and erosion control, stormwater management and roadway design

q  Schematic drawings

q  Signage and site graphics consistent with CTT standards currently under development

q  Planting design

q  Construction drawings

q  Construction cost estimates

q  Construction administration

Selection criteria for short-list

q  Experience with a variety of trail and greenway design projects, including any or all of the above services

q  Experience moving a greenway or trail project from design through successful construction

IV.  Selection Process/Schedule

Carolina Thread Trail is utilizing a “qualifications-based” selection process, without consideration of fee proposals in the initial stage, for selecting landscape architects or planners to work on the Carolina Thread Trail.

Firms submitting qualifications will be eligible to be short-listed for selection for the following:

1. Developing Master Greenway Plans with local governments who have received Planning Grants.
2. Providing trail design services to local governments who have received Design Grants.

Selection Committee will include staff and Advisory Council members from Catawba Lands Conservancy, The Trust for Public Land and the Carolina Thread Trail.

Advertisement – this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) will be posted on the following web sites:

q  American Planning Association (APA) www.planning.org/

q  American Society of Landscape Architect (ASLA) www.asla.org

q  Carolina Thread Trail (CTT) www.carolinathreadtrail.org

Pre-Submittal Conference – A pre-submittal conference call will be held for interested firms on Wednesday, May 21 at 1:00 pm EST. Firms interested in participating in conference should contact Colleen Frenzel at 704-376-2556, ext 214 for the conference call number.

Qualifications Submittal Date – All inquiries and questions must be directed to Colleen Frenzel by email, at , and must reach her office at least seven (7) calendar days before the Qualifications submittal due date and time in order to be considered for a response. The due date is Friday, June 6th at 5:00 pm EST.

To ensure fair consideration and equal access to information for all consultants, the questions and answers will be made available to all consultants on the Carolina Thread Trail website (www.carolinathreadtrail.org). Oral answers will not be authoritative. Consultants are requested not to contact anyone at TPL or CLC other than the individual named above.

Submittal Requirements – Qualifications packages should be 10 to 15 pages long and should include the following:

·  Contact information. Name, address, and phone number of the consulting firm.

·  Form of organization. Whether firm is a partnership, corporation, or sole proprietorship and where it is organized

·  Key personnel. Names of key personnel who would likely work on the project, their respective titles, experience, and periods of service with the firm

·  Indication of services for which the firm would like to be considered. Master Planning, Trail Design, or both

·  Statement of qualifications. A narrative or other statement by the firm of its qualifications for the proposed project

·  Project list and brief descriptions. List of similar projects completed by the firm, with a brief description

·  References. Names and telephone numbers of persons whom CTT can call for references regarding the firm's past performance, preferably on similar projects and/or projects in this geographic region.

All qualifications packages must be submitted electronically by Friday, June 6th, 2008. Hard copies will not be accepted. Instructions for submitting electronically:

Finished proposals should be sent to . Proposals should be sent via http://www.sendthisfile.com/. This is a free service. Simply create an account with your email address, upload a single file (a zipped folder containing all your materials), and then designate Colleen as the recipient. Please save the zip file under the name of your company. For questions, please contact Colleen Frenzel at 704 376 2556 ext. 214.