The City of Carlsbad is currently accepting submittals for the following:

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS RFP 20-12

OBJECTIVE DESIGN STANDARDS & EXPEDITED PROCESSING

The City of Carlsbad invites proposals from a qualified consulting firm or firms to provide professional services, including environmental review. The City of Carlsbad seeks to establish objective design standards for applicable housing development projects. The ideal consulting firm will have a focus on urban and site design, architecture, landscape architecture, city planning, and community facilitation. The ideal firm will also have experience developing objective standards in other communities and creating programs that expedite the processing of projects while satisfying design and development standards.

To be considered for selection, please review the Request for Proposal documents which provide a detailed scope of services and submission requirements. Required documents must be submitted by Friday, January 10, 2020 by 5 p.m.

Proposal description.

In response to California's housing crisis, several state laws have been enacted with the intent to stimulate housing production by streamlining permit processes and making it problematic for communities to deny or reduce the density of housing projects that meet objective General Plan and zoning requirements. The new legislation affects development, long range planning, and decision-making in Carlsbad and requires the city to change the way it processes multi-family residential housing development applications.

Housing development projects are reviewed for consistency with the General Plan, various area master plans and specific plans, standards and policies, and the Carlsbad Municipal Code. Each of these documents contains a variety of design guidelines and development standards, which may or may not be applicable to housing development projects. Many of the city's development standards will need to be amended to ensure that they are objective and enforceable. In addition, new standards may need to be created to fill in any gaps in the city's current design standards. Objective standards do not involve discretion or subjective judgment and can be referenced to an external and uniform benchmark or criterion. The primary goal for this project is to create applicable objective design standards that will help to streamline approval processes and provide more certainty to applicants, decision makers, residents, and the public. The intent is also to implement and enhance the existing character within the city as new development and property improvements occur. An additional goal for this project is to streamline development by creating new forms, brochures and internal processes that provide clear guidance to applicants on objective standards and permitting requirements.

The city seeks to establish objective design standards for applicable multi-family residential housing development projects. Transforming guidelines and subjective criteria into objective standards will require an in-depth review of each of select master plans and specific plans, as well as a portion of the Carlsbad Municipal Code (e.g., Zoning Ordinance), and various standards (see Attachment 2 for further details). This task will entail cross-references between various plans and the Municipal Code to ensure that the new standards would be enforceable. This project will also result in the creation of a new chapter in the Municipal Code and a new or revised section of the Village and Barrio Master Plan (VBMP). Given the diverse expectations of the community and stakeholders, significant public outreach efforts will also be required, likely resulting in several community meetings.

Additional tasks and components of the project are described in the scope of services.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal, you may view and/or download the RFP specifications and requirements by visiting the City of Carlsbad's bidding site at http://www.carlsbadca.gov/services/depts/finance/contracting/bids.asp

Click on "Open requests for proposals, bids or qualifications" link. If you have questions regarding the bid process, please contact the Finance/Purchasing Department at (760) 602-2430.