TITLE
Recommendation from Unified Development Ordinance Selection Committee to award the Unified Development Ordinance contract to CodeWright. Request for an approval of contract award and authorize the County Manager to execute all contracts and change orders associated with the project as well as reflect changes to budget in accordance to negotiated price.
ABSTRACT
Action Requested:
Recommendation from Unified Development Ordinance Selection Committee to award the Unified Development Ordinance contract to CodeWright. Request for an approval of contract award and authorize the County Manager to execute all contracts and change orders associated with the project as well as reflect changes to budget in accordance to negotiated price.
Introduction & Background:
As part of the on-going implementation of the comprehensive plan, the Planning Department in conjunction with Watershed Protection Department seek to modernize the county’s land development regulations. This modernization will address major issues and content in moving toward a Unified Development Ordinance that combines all land use and development regulations and ordinances into a single document.
Current land use related ordinances and regulations are not only numerous (reflective of the County previously being partially zoned), but are also outdated and cumbersome to navigate. Some regulations use contradictory language in tandem with others. There is a lack of graphics, illustrations, and clear definitions. There are insufficient cross-references, and outdated standards and design guidelines, and vague language.
The following goals are anticipated to be accomplished through this process:
• Draft and adopt a Unified Development Ordinance with commonly accepted modern planning practices and contemporary zoning tools; compliant with North Carolina state statutes.
• Create clear procedures and guidelines that are simple, flexible, and easily administered by staff; a user friendly document for residents, elected officials, appointed boards, and the development community.
• Create a streamlined and clearly outlined development review process tailored uniquely to Chatham County. All the while, incorporate innovative and creative approaches to land-use regulation, building upon the best design principles and practices throughout the United States and NC laws/codes.
• Integrate and cross reference other land use regulations, to ensure consistency with local, state, and federal laws and regulations.
• Incorporate the recommendations of the County’s Comprehensive Plan adopted in November 2017. The UDO should encourage development and redevelopment of designated centers, support sound economic development, support preservation of agricultural areas, integrate multimodal transportation where it is appropriate, and provide a platform to support sustainable infrastructure investment and affordable housing.
• Build an illustrated code: depiction of requirements, concepts, process flowcharts, etc.
• Coordinate with other county development related departments as well as other entities, including but not limited to: adjacent counties, regional partners, Army Corps of Engineers, North Carolina Natural Resource Wildlife Commission, North Carolina Department of Transportation, and municipalities to ensure consistency in land use patterns at boundaries as needed.
Discussion & Analysis:
On January 24th the Chatham County Board of Commissioners reviewed and approved the request to release of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Chatham County Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). Staff followed procurement procedures for the release of the UDO RFP on January 31st 2019. A total of 3 proposals we received by the February 28th 2019 deadline.
Using the criteria and instructions outlined in the RFP, the proposals were reviewed and scored by the selection committee consisting of staff from the Planning Department, Watershed Protection, and Manager’s Office. The Selection Committee held interviews with the top two scoring firms on March 25th and 27th, 2019
Following the interviews, the selection committee met again to make a unanimous recommendation to award the contract to CodeWright, the highest scoring on the evaluation matrix.
The current estimate for this contract award is $388,100 with additional grants possible through the Health Department.
How does this relate to the Comprehensive Plan:
The completion of the UDO is the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan and supports all 10 goals.
Recommendation:
Motion to award the Unified Development Ordinance contract to CodeWright. Request for an approval of contract award and authorize the County Manager to execute all contracts and change orders associated with the project as well as reflect changes to budget in accordance to negotiated price.