Commission moves toward RFP for updated design guidelines, to include economic feasibility review

City staff told the Bay City Historic District Commission Aug. 26 that they plan to issue a request for proposals this fall to hire a consultant to draft updated design guidelines that include an economic and feasibility component.

Staff said they had consulted Haley Schreiber, the Certified Local Government coordinator at the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), who recommended using a recent RFP from Battle Creek as a model. Staff said they received Battle Creek's materials the day before the meeting and planned to circulate the example to commissioners and to produce a draft scope and deliverables ahead of the next meeting.

"To be honest, I have not really even thought about what kind of framework we wanna apply here," the staff member said, describing the commission's current lack of a formal economic-feasibility process and the intent to develop framework language with consultant input.

Commissioners asked about the timeline for posting the RFP, how proposals would be solicited, and whether the commission would participate in interviews; staff said the tentative plan was to post in the fall and hire in winter, and that the chair would be asked to serve on the interview committee as standard practice. Commissioners also raised questions about how the economic-feasibility parameters would be defined and how to ensure fairness and equity when evaluating projects.

Staff said they expect to see multiple proposals and to review drafts of the consultant's work with commissioner input, possibly through a subcommittee, before finalizing the RFP and selection.