On-Call Planning Services

The County of Santa Cruz invites statements of qualification submittals for On-Call Planning Services .

The purpose of this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is to identify potential planning consultants who can assist the County of Santa Cruz (“County”) Community Development & Infrastructure Department (CDI)-Planning Division with on-call planning services. From time to time, CDI-Planning Division has planning projects, as well as environmental review needs, that are beyond the capacity or expertise of County staff. The intent of this RFQ is to identify planning consultants who can supplement staffing needs as necessary. The County’s intent would be to create a Qualified Vendor List of consultants for up to three years; purchase orders or project-based contracts would then be issued for specific projects based on evaluation of vendor proposals and scopes of work and costs.

Established in 1850 as one of the state’s original 27 counties, the County of Santa Cruz was originally called Branciforte. The name was later changed to Santa Cruz, which is “holy cross” in Spanish. The County of Santa Cruz geographically is the second smallest county within the State of California yet it has one of the largest unincorporated area populations. Santa Cruz County is a coastal community with both urban and rural development areas and a current unincorporated population of 128,136, as of January 1, 2025 (with the four cities included, the total population is 263,710) per the State Department of Finance.