SUMMARY OF REQUEST

The Evansville-Vanderburgh County Area Plan Commission (APC) seeks proposals for a consultant (or team of consultants) to assist in the development and adoption of a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) for the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County. The UDO will be the primary source of land use regulations for both the City and the County, including both zoning and subdivision control ordinances. The UDO must be consistent with and complimentary to the 2015-2035 Evansville-Vanderburgh County Comprehensive Plan. The new UDO will express a progressive vision that promotes thoughtful growth and protects the health, safety, and welfare of the community along with the property rights and values of its citizens. In addition to the ordinances themselves, procedural rules must be developed and organized for codification and adoption by the APC and Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA).

EXISTING ORDINANCES

The last major updates of the current zoning codes occurred in 1962; the subdivision control ordinances have not been substantially updated since 1984. Numerous amendments have been made to those ordinances on an ad hoc basis since the respective updates. The UDO will represent the first major overhaul of these ordinances and will correlate to and further the goals of the recently adopted 2015-2035 Comprehensive Plan. The City Council, County Commissioners, the Area Plan Commission and its staff, the development community and our citizens continually express concerns with the current ordinances. Many of the requirements in the current ordinances are unclear or obsolete and must be analyzed and rewritten with the inclusion of smart growth practices.

The City and County wish to modernize its development regulations and address major issues such as:

• Awkward and confusing ordinance format and structure
• Separate codes for the City and the County with unnecessarily inconsistent provisions
• Unclear and sometimes contradictory language
• Standards or requirements which are difficult to meet or that result in excessive variances
• Outdated standards that do not reflect the community's priorities and values in land use and development, public infrastructure, and property rights; nor are they tailored to reflect urban vs. suburban/rural settings
• Lack of graphics and illustrations
• Lack of sufficient and clear definitions
• Lack of detailed design guidelines and aesthetic criteria to address the zoning districts
• Lack of cross-references within sections, section headings, and a comprehensive index;
• Insufficient incorporation and encouragement of smart growth practices for long term sustainability
• Risk of inconsistent interpretation, application, and enforcement; codes must be re-written to minimize or eliminate any mistaken interpretations by any agency or governing body within the City and County governments, to ensure consistent understanding and enforcement by staff, and to prevent political bias.

OBJECTIVES

The following objectives should be considered in developing the new UDO:

• Ensure that the new UDO implements the recommendations and goals of the adopted 2015-2035 Evansville-Vanderburgh County Comprehensive Plan
• Recommend updates to all existing zoning districts, defined and permitted uses, special uses, development standards including parking requirements, public infrastructure, etc.
• Recommend subdivision code updates for all design and platting requirements including alternative designs
• Include innovative and user-friendly interactive graphics that illustrate design and other requirements and make the codes easy to use
• Develop provisions that will facilitate mixed use development along with high-quality infill and redevelopment projects consistent with the context of existing development in the area
• Generally incorporate form-based concepts throughout the code and target them to specific areas offering greater opportunities for redevelopment, primarily in the downtown, historic, and overlay districts
• Improve the technical review process (i.e., site review, subdivision plat review)
• Promote and support multi-modal transportation options including complete streets with bicycle and pedestrian facilities
• Update sign regulations to meet current legal precedent (e.g. Reed vs. Town of Gilbert) and to improve sign regulations such as structuring the amount of signage allowed to be based on ratio of sign to building façade area
• Preserve the character of neighborhoods and special districts
• Provide for and promote incorporation of public spaces and art
• Update, clarify, and add definitions to the zoning and subdivision codes
• Update and codify procedural rules and documents for the APC and Board of Zoning Appeals for all actions, including all applications and approvals for permits, rezonings,variances, special uses, appeals, subdivisions and parcelizations, and lot line adjustments

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The project will be managed by the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Area Plan Commission staff, and a Steering Committee will be created to meet with the consultant regularly.

SELECTION CRITERIA & EVALUATION

Consultant selection for this project will be based on an evaluation of the responses along with the consultant interviews. The APC reserves the right to request additional information or to reject all responses and not select a consultant. It is anticipated that the scope of services, fees, and contract details will not be finalized until a consultant is selected, at which time the APC will work with the selected consultant and team members to finalize those matters.

SUBMISSIONS

See our website for full submittal requirements at: http://dev.evansvilleapc.com/udo-rfp.html

Must be emailed to Ronald S. London, rlondon@evansvilleapc.com (812) 435-5226.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Interested parties must submit proposals electronically by Monday, June 4, 2018 at 4:00 PM Central Daylight Time (CDT).

Submissions received after 4:00 PM Central Daylight Time on June 4, 2018 will not be considered.