Citywide 10-Year Strategic Plan Consulting Services

Request for Proposals
Citywide 10-Year Strategic Plan Consulting Services
RFP 2026-010
Issue Date: September 21, 2026
Closing Date: November 02, 2026

1. Introduction and Purpose
The City of Douglasville, Georgia is seeking proposals from qualified consulting firms or
consultant teams to assist the City in developing a comprehensive Citywide 10-Year
Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan will serve as a guiding document for City leadership, staff,
elected officials, community partners, residents, and stakeholders as Douglasville continues
to grow and evolve.
The purpose of this project is to create a practical, actionable, and measurable strategic plan
that connects and aligns the City's existing master plans, departmental priorities, community
needs, and future opportunities into one unified citywide framework.
The Strategic Plan should help the City answer key questions, including but not limited to:
* What are the City's long-term priorities over the next 10 years?
* How should existing master plans and adopted planning documents work together?
* Where are there gaps, conflicts, overlaps, or emerging opportunities?
* What strategic initiatives should guide City decision-making, budgeting, staffing,
capital investments, partnerships, and service delivery?
* How can the City measure progress and remain accountable to the community?
The final plan should be clear, visually engaging, implementable, and useful for City
leadership, staff, elected officials, and the public.
2. Background
The City of Douglasville is a growing municipality located in Douglas County, Georgia, west of
Atlanta. As the City continues to experience growth, redevelopment opportunities,
infrastructure needs, changing community expectations, and economic development
activity, it is important to establish a coordinated citywide strategy that aligns long-range
priorities across the organization.
The City has developed and participated in multiple planning documents, master plans,
departmental plans, and strategic initiatives over time. These plans address topics such as
land use, transportation, parks and recreation, downtown development, economic
development, tourism, facilities, infrastructure, housing and community engagement.
The City now seeks to develop a 10-year Citywide Strategic Plan that synthesizes these
existing plans and priorities into a single actionable roadmap. The plan should not duplicate
existing planning work, but rather organize, prioritize, connect, and expand upon it where
needed.
3. Project Goals
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The selected consultant will assist the City in developing a 10-Year Strategic Plan that
accomplishes the following goals:
1. Create a unified citywide vision and strategic framework for the next 10 years.
2. Review and connect existing master plans, departmental plans, and adopted planning
documents.
3. Identify common themes, priority initiatives, gaps, conflicts, and opportunities across
existing plans.
4. Engage residents, businesses, community partners, elected officials, and
stakeholders through meaningful public participation.
5. Establish and facilitate a Strategic Plan Steering Committee to guide the process.
6. Conduct internal engagement with Mayor, City Council, City staff including
department directors and employees responsible for leading existing plans or major
initiatives.
7. Develop clear goals, objectives, strategies, implementation actions, timelines, and
performance measures.
8. Align strategic priorities with budgeting, capital planning, departmental work plans,
and performance reporting.
9. Ensure the plan reflects current and future needs, including emerging trends and
priorities not yet captured in existing plans.
10. Produce a user-friendly final document and implementation tools that support
accountability and progress tracking.
4. Scope of Services
The City expects the selected consultant to provide professional planning, facilitation,
research, analysis, community engagement, organizational strategy, and implementation
planning services. At a minimum, the consultant shall provide the following services:
A. Project Management and Kickoff
The consultant shall:
* Conduct a project kickoff meeting with City leadership and designated project staff.
* Conduct a focus group with Mayor and City Council
* Confirm project goals, expectations, schedule, deliverables, communication
protocols, and decision-making process.
* Develop a detailed project management plan.
* Provide a project schedule with major milestones, engagement activities, draft review
periods, and final adoption timeline.
* Conduct regular project check-ins with the City's project manager or project team.
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* Provide meeting agendas, summaries, presentation materials, and progress updates
throughout the project.
B. Review of Existing Plans and Documents
The consultant shall review and analyze existing City planning documents and related
materials, which may include but are not limited to:
* Comprehensive Plan
* Downtown Master plan
* Economic development plans
* Parks, recreation, and trails plans
* Transportation and mobility plans
* Capital improvement plans
* Facility plans
* Housing-related studies or plans
* Budget documents
* Council priorities
* Other adopted or active City plans and initiatives
The consultant shall prepare a summary of findings that identifies:
* Major goals and recommendations from existing plans
* Common themes across plans
* Duplicative or overlapping recommendations
* Conflicting priorities or implementation challenges
* Gaps in existing plans
* Time-sensitive priorities
* Potential "quick wins"
* Long-term transformational initiatives
* Opportunities for better coordination between departments
C. Internal Staff Engagement
The consultant shall conduct internal engagement with City staff to understand existing
priorities, operational needs, implementation capacity, and plan ownership.
At a minimum, the consultant shall:
* Meet with the City Manager's Office and executive leadership.
* Meet with department directors and key staff responsible for managing or
implementing existing plans.
* Conduct interviews, focus groups, workshops, or working sessions with City staff and
residents.
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* Identify departmental priorities, challenges, resource needs, staffing considerations,
and implementation barriers.
* Assess how existing plans are currently being used in departmental work plans,
budgeting, capital planning, and performance management.
* Provide opportunities for staff to review and validate draft strategic priorities and
implementation actions.
The consultant should specifically include staff members who are leading or responsible for
implementation of existing master plans, major initiatives, or special projects.
D. Steering Committee Development and Facilitation
The consultant shall assist the City in developing and facilitating a Strategic Plan Steering
Committee.
The consultant shall:
* Recommend the size, structure, role, and meeting schedule for the Steering
Committee.
* Assist the City in identifying appropriate Steering Committee representation, which
may include residents, business owners, community partners, institutional partners,
youth or young adult representatives, nonprofit representatives, elected or appointed
officials, and City staff.
* Prepare agendas, presentations, worksheets, and meeting materials.
* Facilitate Steering Committee meetings throughout the planning process.
* Document feedback and recommendations from each meeting.
* Use Steering Committee input to help shape vision, goals, strategies, priorities, and
implementation recommendations.
The Steering Committee should serve as an advisory group, not as a replacement for broader
public engagement or Mayor and City Council direction.
E. Public and Stakeholder Engagement
The consultant shall design and implement a meaningful public engagement process that
reaches a broad and representative cross-section of the Douglasville community.
The engagement process should include multiple methods and opportunities for
participation, such as:
* Public meetings or open houses
* Community workshops
* Pop-up engagement events
* Online surveys
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* Stakeholder interviews
* Focus groups
* Small group discussions
* Youth or young adult engagement
* Business community engagement
* Digital engagement tools
* Public presentations to Mayor and City Council, as needed
The consultant shall provide an engagement plan that identifies:
* Target audiences
* Engagement methods
* Proposed timeline
* Outreach strategies
* Communication materials
* Roles and responsibilities
* Methods for documenting and reporting feedback
The public engagement process should be accessible, inclusive, and practical for residents,
businesses, and community stakeholders.
F. Implementation Plan
The Strategic Plan must include a realistic and actionable implementation plan. The
consultant shall develop an implementation framework that includes:
* Priority initiatives
* Action steps
* Responsible departments or partners
* Estimated timeframes
* Level of effort
* Potential resource needs
* Potential funding considerations
* Dependencies between initiatives
* Performance indicators
* Reporting recommendations
* Annual review and update process
The implementation plan should distinguish between:
* Immediate actions: 0-2 years
* Mid-term actions: 3-5 years
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* Long-term actions: 6-10 years
The consultant should also recommend how the City can integrate the Strategic Plan into:
* Annual budget development
* Capital improvement planning
* Departmental work plans
* Council goal-setting
* Performance measurement
* Grant-seeking
* Staff reporting
* Public-facing progress updates
G. Performance Measures and Accountability Framework
The consultant shall develop a performance measurement framework to help the City track
and communicate progress.
This framework should include:
* Recommended key performance indicators
* Baseline data needs
* Targets or desired outcomes, where appropriate
* Reporting cadence
* Responsible departments
* Dashboard or scorecard recommendations
* Internal review process
* Public reporting recommendations
The consultant should recommend measures that are meaningful, manageable, and aligned
with the City's capacity to collect and report data.
H. Draft and Final Strategic Plan Documents
The consultant shall prepare draft and final documents for City review and consideration.
Deliverables shall include:
* Existing plans and conditions summary
* Public engagement summary
* Steering Committee summary
* Internal staff engagement summary
* Draft strategic framework
* Draft implementation plan
* Draft 10-Year Strategic Plan
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* Final 10-Year Strategic Plan
* Executive summary
* Presentation materials for Mayor and City Council
* Editable source files
* Print-ready PDF
* Public-facing summary document or visual roadmap
The final Strategic Plan should be professionally designed, visually appealing, easy to
understand, and suitable for both internal use and public distribution.
5. Project Timeline
The City anticipates the project will begin following contract award and should be completed
within approximately 8 to 12 months, unless an alternative timeline is proposed and
approved by the City. Proposers should include a recommended schedule that identifies key
phases.
The City reserves the right to modify the schedule as needed.
6. Consultant Qualifications
Proposers should demonstrate experience and qualifications in the following areas:
* Municipal strategic planning
* Long-range planning and implementation
* Public sector facilitation
* Community engagement and public participation
* Steering committee facilitation
* Organizational strategy and performance management
* Local government budgeting and capital planning
* Data analysis and performance measurement
7. Proposal Requirements
Proposals should be clear, concise, and organized in the following format:
A. Firm Profile and Qualifications
Provide:
* Overview of the firm
* Location of office that will serve the City
* Years in business
* Areas of expertise
* Experience with municipal strategic planning
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* Experience with community engagement
* Experience with implementation-focused plans
* Relevant public sector clients
B. Project Team
Provide:
* Project manager
* Key personnel
* Subconsultants, if any
* Roles and responsibilities
* Resumes or brief biographies
* Availability and capacity to complete the project
C. Relevant Experience
Provide at least three comparable projects completed within the past five years. For each
project, include:
* Client name
* Project description
* Project dates
* Consultant role
* Deliverables produced
* Public engagement approach
* Implementation outcomes, if known
* Client reference with contact information
D. Project Understanding and Approach
Describe the proposer's understanding of the project and proposed approach, including:
* Overall methodology
* Plan review and alignment process
* Staff engagement approach
* Steering Committee development and facilitation approach
* Public engagement approach
* Equity and inclusion considerations
* Data and performance measurement approach
* Implementation planning approach
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* Final document design approach
E. Scope of Work and Schedule
Provide a detailed scope of work that includes:
* Major tasks
* Meetings and engagement activities
* Deliverables
* Timeline
* City responsibilities
* Consultant responsibilities
* Proposed number of meetings, workshops, interviews, and presentations
F. Cost Proposal
Provide a detailed fee proposal that includes:
* Total not-to-exceed project cost
* Cost by task or phase
* Hourly rates by team member
* Estimated hours by task
* Travel costs
* Materials or printing costs
* Optional services or enhancements
* Any assumptions or exclusions
The City may negotiate scope and fee with the selected consultant.
8. Evaluation Criteria
Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
Evaluation Criteria Points
Completeness of proposal 25
Qualifications of Project Team 25
Understanding of scope, proposed project approach and
30
Timeline
Cost Reasonableness and Value 20
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