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Birmingham planning board refines scope for zoning-ordinance RFP, targets Aug. 13 review
Summary
The planning board agreed to extract zoning-related actions from the 2040 master plan into a working matrix and to narrow the RFP scope before posting, with staff to return a refined draft and selection-process guidance ahead of an August 13 meeting. A resident urged removal of a proposed rezoning along 14 Mile Road.
The Birmingham City Planning Board on July 9 began narrowing the scope of a forthcoming request for proposals (RFP) to update the city’s zoning ordinance and set a target to review a refined draft on Aug. 13.
Planning staffer Nick Dupuy told the board the RFP draft could not be posted yet because it still requires review by the city manager and the city attorney; he said he had compared the city’s draft with Ferndale’s RFP and the planning department’s prior master-plan RFP and recommended the board focus on five consequential RFP sections: the introduction, scope, submission requirements, evaluation criteria and timeline/deliverables. “I basically served you up a big juicy nothing burger,” Dupuy said, adding the body text of those sections is still malleable and that the board should help define which items belong in the RFP.
Why it matters: Board members said clear scope and evaluation criteria will produce comparable consultant proposals and avoid widely varying price and work interpretations. Chair Scott Klein warned that the city commission “does not dwell in these areas like we do,” and urged the planning board to define what the RFP should and should not include so commissioners and the public are not confused later.
Board members debated how much of an audit of the existing zoning code should precede the RFP. One member cited Allegan’s approach, where an audit of the zoning ordinance in the context of the master plan was completed before contracting; others said the planning board already has a master-plan matrix of action items that staff and the board can refine into short-term (to be addressed in the update) and long-term (outside current scope) buckets. Multiple members argued for a clear scoring rubric for proposal evaluation and recommended staff produce a scored shortlist for the commission rather than asking the commission to conduct the board’s initial interviews.
Next steps: The board instructed staff to extract zoning-related items from the 2040 master-plan matrix, remove unrelated noise, and present a focused spreadsheet the board can use to define RFP scope and evaluation measures. Members agreed to target an Aug. 13 meeting to review the refined materials and a draft RFP, with staff checking with the city manager and city attorney about permissible outreach to prospective consultants and the commission’s role in finalist interviews.
Public comment: Resident Larry Ling urged the board not to include a master-plan item that would create an “activity scene” on the north side of 14 Mile Road between Grant and Woodward, saying that corridor is currently zoned R-3 and largely single-family. “That entire stretch is already single family housing,” Ling said, asking the board to remove that specific request from the RFP materials.
What was not decided: The board did not adopt a final RFP or selection procedure on July 9, and members left open which items will remain in the RFP versus placed in a long-term bucket for later study. The next procedural milestone is the staff presentation of the refined matrix and draft RFP material at the planned Aug. 13 meeting.
