Citizens for Modern Transit (CMT) is pleased to distribute this Request for Proposals (RFP) for the creation and adoption of Form Based Zoning Codes (Code) for the Rock Road MetroLink Station (Rock Road) and Grand Avenue MetroLink Station (Grand) areas.
CMT is the awardee of a Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) grant which will fund this important community project. CMT is joined by the Bi-State Development Agency (BSDA) in this effort with BSDA assisting CMT in a project management capacity. CMT is engaged as the St. Louis region’s primary promoter for light-rail investment. It is CMT’s belief, as well as that of BSDA, that additional private investment around the MetroLink stations is important. Therefore, the creation and adoption of a Code around a number of these stations may prove important in sparking some amount of additional private development within a one-quarter to one-half mile radius of these, as well as other stations.
CMT has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with representatives from St. Louis County (County), the City of St. Louis (City), the BSDA and Beyond Housing to work towards the creation and adoption of Codes for Rock Road and Grand. Four key project elements include the County’s making its recently created form based zoning code fully available as a template for the Grand and Rock Road Code documents; the City and County both supporting the creation of Codes for Grand and Rock Road, respectively; the support of Beyond Housing, which is developing numerous projects in the Pagedale area; and, the City of Pagedale, where the Rock Road Station is located, focusing attention on the area around the station within the City’s boundaries.
In the Summer of 2012, the City of St. Louis amended its Zoning Code via Ordinance 69199 to allow for the creation of Form Based Districts with a specific rationale that areas supporting Transit Oriented Development would be candidates for Form Based Districts. The Form Based Districts are established as zoning overlay districts. The consultant under this RFP would perform the tasks to establish a district for the area around the Grand Station per Ordinance 69199.
The consultant (Consultant) selected for this project will create Codes for both Rock Road and Grand, prepare legislation in the form required for adoption, and participate in the adoption process by the City, the City of Pagedale and the City of Wellston, respectively. The project will be awarded in early 2013 with an end date no later than 1 December 2013.
It is anticipated that the Code shall be written for a geographic area of at least one-quarter mile to one-half mile in all directions (based on parcel lines and manmade and natural features) from both Grand and Rock Road. The Consultant shall produce a document with language and graphics formulating the Code based on responsible planning principles, and is encouraged to hire as part of its Consultant team both a landscape architect and attorney if they do not already have these skill sets in-house.
One of the key elements of this project is the convertibility of the Code for adoption at later dates for other Metrolink station areas. Accordingly, the Consultant must state in its proposal that the final Code will become property of CMT and that it may be used by CMT and others for the creation and adoption of Codes at additional stations areas. Secondly, in that CMT has a very limited budget for this project, the Code should be general and brief in nature for adoption only as an overlay zoning district.
Following RFP submittal by the Consultants, CMT shall make a hiring decision upon review of the submittals and possible interviews. CMT will select a single Consultant team for both Code projects (i.e., one team, two projects). For the RFP, the Consultant is invited to submit:
- an overview of its project approach;
- the project team and key project principals;
- examples of representative project team projects;
- approach to community visioning;
- approach to Code writing and Code graphics;
- legislative approval approach to municipal ordinance adoption or revision for the Code;
- a project schedule; and,
- a project budget.
The project budget for this RFP is $40,000. Five (5) hard copies of the submittal should be sent by 4 p.m. January 14, 2013 to:
Kimberly M. Cella
Executive Director
Citizens for Modern Transit
911 Washington, Suite 200
St. Louis, MO 63101
CMT reserves the right in the future to modify the requirements and the right to reject any proposal for any reason. Questions regarding this project may be directed to Kim Cella at (314) 231-7272 or John Langa, Vice President, BSDA at (314) 982-1400.