Comprehensive Plan Update

RFP - Request for Proposal for Development of a Comprehensive Plan | Morganton North Carolina (morgantonnc.gov)

This Request for Proposal (RFP) seeks professional assistance from qualified persons or firms to develop a comprehensive land development plan.

The City of Morganton is seeking a dynamic planning consultant firm or team to prepare a new comprehensive land development plan (Plan). This comprehensive plan is intended to re-energize Morganton's land planning concepts and initiate community consensus on growth and development policies over the next 15 years. The City seeks to utilize this new Plan as a policy and visual guide for city growth and development throughout the study area. The Plan will examine how the present built environment may, or should be, changed over the next 15 years given the current demographic profiles, economic conditions and community goals. The plan will examine national, regional and local trends that will impact development patterns in the community. It will provide growth implementation strategies and graphically illustrated visions to help guide development decisions over the upcoming 15 years.

The City seeks a professional planning firm that can provide a creative, interactive and dynamic public process intended to build consensus across a broad range of topics affecting the built environment. The plan is intended to promote and provide understanding on Morganton's strengths and weaknesses. A successful plan will involve extensive community engagement to develop a shared vision for the community. The Plan will initiate new or revised public land use policies that will promote long term sustainable growth and development in the community. The successful firm will provide evidence that it has the ability to produce a plan that represents the best of Morganton's past and present and creates an inspiring approach to the future. Morganton's current comprehensive land development plan Mission 2030 has productively led the City's development for the past 13 years. The updated plan will provide a renewed vision and fresh perspective. The consultant is requested to provide outside perspective and make recommendations as to which directives remain relevant to Morganton's future and which directives should be abandoned.

The City's current Mission 2030 Comprehensive Planwasadopted in 2009. Since that time, a tremendous amount of economic, cultural, and environmental change has taken place. Many of the changes reflect national trends; however, unique regional and local conditions also exist. These new trends and existing conditions are reshaping Morganton in ways beyond the guidance offered within Mission 2030. For this reason, the City now desires to develop a new foundation document to help guide the anticipated growth and development over the next 15 years.

The successful consultant should provide a detailed outline of the proposed approach and methodology to develop the comprehensive plan, including a detailed community engagement strategy, to achieve the requirements as outlined under Scope of Service and Project Deliverables (see RFP document on the City's website). The successful consultant should also provide a detailed proposed timeline for each step of the project, including community engagement activities.

City of Morganton

Established in 1784, the City of Morganton is branded as "Nature's Playground" and is situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina, approximately 20 miles west of Hickory and 50 miles east of Asheville along the I-40 corridor. The City covers 19.23 square miles and is the County seat of Burke County. Morganton's population is approximately 17,500, including an approximately 23% Hispanic population, that adds variety and culture to the local area.

Morganton is the County seat and home to a significant number State facilities, such as Broughton Hospital, North Carolina School for the Deaf, J. Iverson Riddle Development Center, and the second campus of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, as well as Western Piedmont Community College. Historically a home for furniture and textile manufacturing, the city's economic focus has shifted in recent years, with several international companies, such as Viscotec Automotive Products, Continental Teves, and Molded Fiber Glass, having selected the area as a location for their manufacturing operations.

In the historic downtown area, there are local shops and handcrafted art stores and galleries, several local taprooms and breweries, and CoMMA, the City of Morganton Performing Arts Center, which support residents and visitors to the many local and regional scenic areas. Morganton is home to some spectacular municipal parks including Catawba Meadows Park, the Catawba River Soccer Complex, and the Morganton Greenway System. These local amenities cover more than 300 acres in the city and provide abundant recreational opportunities that are used daily by local residents and visitors from the region. The Morganton Greenway System offers several access points, with parking leading to miles of paved trails along the Catawba River for walking, jogging and biking. Morganton is known for the TGIF Summer Concert Series, a free outdoor event every summer Friday on the newly renovated Historic Courthouse Square, as well as the Historic Morganton Festival, which just celebrated its 40th year.

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