Item 11.c.
City Council
Study Session on Efforts to Redevelop East Grand Avenue February 24, 2026
2. Does the corridor need a branding strategy/identity? For instance, is it an entertainment/dining district, arts district, family-friendly area, small business incubator, or a combination of these and others?
3. Are there specific topics or areas that the plan prioritizes, such as parking, streetscape, improving walkability, adding housing, supporting small businesses, displacement of businesses, signage, etc.)?
4. Does the public outreach effort fit the goals (i.e. stakeholder meetings with businesses, chamber of commerce, developers, owners, community groups, general public)
5. Is an economic development plan the correct tool to meet the goals/objectives? Next Steps
The General Plan update is nearing completion, which establishes the high-level vision for the built environment within the corridor. Policies to encourage vibrant mixed-use corridors, walkable development, and community placemaking are proposed in the Land Use Element and also help establish that vision. The EDP’s recommendations and strategies to revitalize the corridor would inform and reconcile both the development code update and streetscape project to help achieve the vision of a vibrant E. Grand Ave.
Council comments will help clarify the EDP’s goals and objectives. This information will be used to refine the RFP and identify the timing of its release to solicit a consultant to assist with the development of the EDP.
ALTERNATIVES:
The following alternatives are provided for the Council’s consideration:
1. Provide direction regarding the goals and objectives of the Economic Development Plan and timing of project initiation; or
2. Provide other direction to staff.
ADVANTAGES:
The EDP will establish a strategy to revitalize the section of E. Grand Avenue between Elm Street and Halcyon Road that aligns with both the community’s and Council’s vision for the area and the City’s General Plan.
DISADVANTAGES:
The primary risks of economic development efforts involve economic displacement and operational complexity. For instance, unintentionally pricing out existing small businesses due to increased interest in the planning area. Additionally, coordinating four updates as part of an overall strategy for E. Grand Avenue puts a strain on City personnel.
Item 11.c.
City Council
Study Session on Efforts to Redevelop East Grand Avenue February 24, 2026
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
The study session is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) pursuant to State CEQA Guidelines sections 15060(c)(2) and 15061(b)(3) because it will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable physical change in the environment; and the activity is covered by the general rule that CEQA applies only to projects which have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. The study session will inform the timing and scope of the EDP, which is not an authorization for any development or construction. Thus, it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA.
PUBLIC NOTIFICATION AND COMMENTS:
The Agenda was posted at City Hall and on the City’s website in accordance with Government Code Section 54954.2.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Draft Request for Proposals
City of Arroyo Grande
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CITY OF ARROYO GRANDE
NOTICE FOR REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Regarding Economic Development Strategic Planning Services for the East Grand Avenue Corridor
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The City of Arroyo Grande Community Development Department is seeking proposals from qualified professional consulting firms to assist with the development of an Economic Development Strategic Plan (the “Strategic Plan”) for the E. Grand Avenue corridor (“Corridor”).
The Corridor consists of all privately owned properties with frontage on E. Grand Avenue between Elm Street and Halcyon Road.
E Grand Avenue Corridor
The Strategic Plan is aimed to establish an economic baseline, market context, and a clear vision to revitalize development within the Corridor, with a heavy emphasis on the area between Elm Street and Halcyon Road, to achieve overarching economic goals and objectives and to guide the City’s priorities, programs, and services for the foreseeable future. The Strategic Plan should:
• Define a framework that furthers a diversity of development types, including retail and service commercial, office, multi-family residential, and compatible uses; • Identify opportunities for adaptive reuse of existing buildings; and • Promote development patterns and functional urban design amenities that encourage pedestrian activity
ATTACHMENT 1
City of Arroyo Grande
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The information below provides a project description and an outline of the proposal submittal requirements, selection process, budgets, and scope of work.
This Request for Proposals (RFP) is being distributed on _______________ and the deadline to submit a proposal is ______________, by 5:00 pm PST.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The City is seeking to collaborate with an experienced and enthusiastic Consultant to establish a vision and stakeholder-informed strategies to guide development that will reinvigorate the Corridor’s economic potential. The Consultant will work with staff, community stakeholders, businesses, City Council, and other applicable boards, commissions, and committees to develop a comprehensive, robust and innovative Economic Development Strategic Plan that will:
• Evaluate the Corridor’s economic potential in light of the citywide tax base to expand the economic opportunities of its businesses and residents; • Improve the economic and civic vibrancy within the Corridor; • Identify responses to market failure, responsibly develop common goods, and responsibly seek to encourage and incentivize the type of development that will support existing businesses, improve the City’s economic resiliency, and seek growth that has a holistic economic benefit; and
• Recommend goals, objectives, policies, and programs that prioritize a cohesive vision and identify commercial opportunities for under-utilized and vacant commercial properties within the Corridor that aligns with the City’s Economic Development element of the General Plan.
SCOPE OF WORK
The City, on behalf of the Community Development Department, is hereby soliciting competitive proposals for the development of the Economic Development Strategic Plan. The proposer shall perform the certain services necessary to achieve the following scope. Consultants are strongly recommended to suggest refinements and innovative methods that ultimately achieve the scope of work. The City has budgeted $250,000 for the development of the Strategic Plan. A detailed outline of the services to be provided have been defined below:
TASK 1: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The consulting team will schedule a kickoff meeting with City staff to discuss refinements to the scope of services and schedule. The schedule will address all major stages of the project. The consulting team will facilitate regular progress meetings with City staff in person or via video conference, to ensure that the project is on time, on budget, and that any issues are quickly resolved. The consulting team will coordinate with City staff to ensure that the project remains on schedule and within budget. The team will regularly coordinate with staff, including via calls and emails, to communicate status of deliverables and budget, progress, and any information needed from City staff. Project management shall include attendance at a minimum of two public hearings.
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TASK 2: BACKGROUND EXAMINATION, MARKET ANALYSIS AND BASELINE RESEARCH This task will include visiting the project site and surroundings to observe and photo document environmental and land use conditions and reviewing the regulatory setting for the project area (including relevant ordinances and zoning provisions, City of Arroyo Grande General Plan, etc.).
Consultant will perform the necessary research, and shall be well versed in, the City’s history and current context to successfully inform the strategic planning process, including but limited to, the following aspects:
• Literature review of existing plans and program materials, City departmental plans, such as the draft Economic Development Element of the General Plan, the General Plan Existing Conditions and Trends Workbook, regional economic development strategic plans and other relevant documents.
• A refined market analysis specific to the corridor that considers the following components, among others:
o Market position analysis of the City’s strengths and competitiveness within the region.
o Cluster scan and analysis of regional growth industries. o Business density, retail mix, ownership patterns, small business, and industry composition.
o Job typologies and workforce characteristics, employer density, wage rates and patterns.
o Gap analysis of city tools, programs, and incentives. o Analysis of retail/commercial supply conditions e.g., inventory, vacancies, lease rates, industry leakage and surplus.
o Indicators of financial vulnerability and if/how they are concentrated in specific geographies and/or populations.
o Additional local and/or regional data e.g., planning/zoning, land use, parcel data, transportation networks, etc. that may influence opportunities and challenges in promoting economic equity and growth within the City.
• Examination of undervalued community assets that data may miss e.g., community coalitions, networks, and other civic structures; arts and culture, community history and collective memory; social ties; entrepreneurial spirit; community aspirations. • Examination of economic impacts of existing, proposed, and reduced parking, pedestrian accessibility, bicycle and rolling accessibility, landscaping, public art and other streetscape improvements.
• Coordinate with the E. Grand Avenue/Branch Street Corridor Streetscape Plan workplan to ensure consistency between the two documents.
TASK 3: STAKEHOLDER AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
The Consultant will engage stakeholders including the City Council, Planning Commission, City staff, businesses, and stakeholders. The Consultant will be expected to conduct in-person outreach with a hybrid virtual option for those unable to attend. The engagement effort should include, but is not limited to, the following:
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• Work closely with the Community Development Department to form a core advisory group to guide the strategic planning process; facilitate discussion and the development of a strategic vision, guiding principles, goals, and objectives. • Develop and execute a stakeholder and community engagement plan proposing various methods and formats to solicit thoughtful participation and input from various individuals and groups including business owners, business development organizations (small business development centers, chambers of commerce, district management associations, community development financial institutions, foundations, other nonprofits), anchor institutions, real estate brokers, developers, property owners, elected officials, City staff.
• Utilize in-person and digital methods, interviews, focus groups, surveys, informal discussions, events, storytelling, mapping exercises, and others; determine the best methods for meaningful participation from each stakeholder group. • In addition to promoting participation and gathering input, the consultant will leverage engagement opportunities to engender a culture of partnership, accountability, and knowledge sharing, socializing these values and planting the seeds for successful future collaborations and implementation of the agreed-upon strategies. • Design engagement activities and materials that are culturally competent and accessible to various diverse community stakeholders.
• Facilitate discussion among stakeholders to identify economic development strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges, identifying trends by stakeholder type and those shared across groups.
• The outreach and engagement effort should consider the stakeholder vision and aspirations for the Corridor area, solicit feedback from businesses and property owners on the challenges currently facing this area, better understand the unique needs of businesses and property owners, compare feedback to the Consultant Team’s findings and identify areas that may require further study, and invite ideas on the vision plan process and potential strategies for revitalization
TASK 4: STRATEGIC PLAN DELIVERABLES
The consultant will synthesize information from the background scan, market analysis, baseline research, advisory group and community engagement activities and the knowledge from its project team to deliver a streamlined strategic plan document that includes, but is not limited to, the below listed items. The consultant will also develop a communication plan including recommendations for publishing, distributing, and leveraging the plan to reinforce the strategies and actions within.
• Executive summary, acknowledgments, history and context, vision, exploration of the Corridor, vacant and underutilized commercial properties, guiding principles, goals, and objectives.
• Summary of market analysis for the Corridor with strong narrative descriptions and visual representations of key findings including maps, charts, tables, images, and other graphics. • Summary of community engagement activities and participants, with key findings specific to each stakeholder type and similarities across stakeholders.
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• Strategy recommendations. Though the planning and engagement process will bring to light priorities and areas of focus, recommended strategies should generally include those related to small business and entrepreneurship ecosystems; place based/neighborhood commercial revitalization; parking requirements; special projects; night-time culture and arts/culture/entertainment opportunities; marketing and communications; real estate development and reuse, strategic partnerships; and placemaking as tools for economic development. Consultants will work with the division and advisory group to develop high level strategies as well as recommendations for tools and actionable items to carry out the strategies. This will ensure the plan is not one that “sits on a shelf,” but one that has a strong vision as well as practical, implementable actions. The strategies and action items should include short, medium- and long-term time horizons, feasibility, and cost assessments, as well as an assessment of resources required forimplementation including data, software, tools, memberships, policies, partnerships, funding, etc. Preliminary areas of focus include:
o Entrepreneurial ecosystem mapping and building. Understand the existing support network, mapping the roles of various stakeholders, identifying redundancies and efficiencies, and building strategic partnerships. o Economic resilience. Develop strategies to prepare for, withstand and recover from economic shocks of various kinds.
o Creative funding and financing. Identify funding streams and opportunities to support implementation.
• Evaluation framework including performance metrics, methods, and tools for effectively measuring and evaluating success.
• Relevant appendices and/or standalone documents, graphics, tools, backup data. • Other components in which the consultant, division and advisory group identify as essential to a stronger plan document.
PROPOSAL CONTENTS
Each response to this RFP shall consist of the following:
1. Cover letter describing specific qualifications related to requested services
2. Project team, including organization chart and staff resumes
3. Qualifications and examples of relevant projects, including references
4. Hourly billing rate.
5. Management Plan: proposers must develop and submit a plan demonstrating how they will manage the project tasks described in the Role of Consultant section of this RFP. If City staff resources are to be utilized to assist in preparation of the Plan, the management plan should specify the anticipated amount of time and level of expertise that will be needed. The proposer shall also address quality control, project specific criteria, risks that have been identified by the RFP and additional risks that the team has identified and state how those risks will be mitigated. As part of the management plan, proposers shall include a proposed project schedule and other information in sufficient detail for the City to determine if the timelines are reasonable. If possible, include an expedited project schedule and associated costs to
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expedite the project. The management plan should be concise yet contain sufficient information for evaluation by the City.
PRELIMINARY PROJECT SCHEDULE
The following is the anticipated schedule of events for the selection of a consultant:
RFP Released
Proposal Submittal Deadline
Selection Interviews
Notification of Selection
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL DOCUMENTS
The Request for Proposal (RFP) documents, including the submittal requirements and the selection criteria and schedule, are available in electronic format on the City’s website at http://www.arroyogrande.org. The City reserves the right to reject any or all submittals or to waive any formality or technicality in any submittal in the interest of the organization.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Except as authorized by the City representative or as otherwise stated in the RFP, communication during the selection process shall be directed to the specified City representative. In order to maintain fair and equitable treatment of everyone, proposers shall not unduly contact or offer gifts or gratuities to any official or employee of the City in an effort to influence the selection process or in a manner that gives the appearance of influencing the selection process. This prohibition applies before the RFP is issued, through selection, as the project is developed, and extends through the award of a contract. Failure to comply with this requirement may result in a disqualification in the selection process.
All communications regarding this project shall be directed to:
Andrew Perez, Planning Manager
City of Arroyo Grande
300 East Branch Street
Arroyo Grande, CA 93420
(805) 473-5425
[email protected]
QUESTIONS AND REQUESTS FOR CLARIFICATIONS
Proposers may submit questions or formal requests for clarification on the RFP in writing until 72 hours prior to the submittal date via email at the contact address noted above.
SUBMITTAL DUE DATE AND TIMES
Three (3) hard copies and one (1) electronic copy in PDF format of all required submittals must be delivered to the City, 300 East Branch Street, Arroyo Grande, California, no later than _______.
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Submittals received after the specified time will not be accepted. Please allow adequate time for delivery. If using a courier service, the submitting firm is responsible for ensuring that delivery will be made directly to the required location. PDF documents must have permissions enabled for comments and printing.
TERMS OF CONTRACT AND SELECTION.
Evaluation of the proposals will be performed by City staff who will assess the qualifications, experience and ability to perform the work of each consultant based on the criteria listed above.
An oral interview with one or more of firms may be requested after written proposals have been received and reviewed by the City. At the time of the interview, representatives of the consulting firm shall be prepared to clarify and elaborate on the details set forth in the firm’s proposal.
The City will make selection decisions on the basis of relevant experience, knowledge of Arroyo Grande, past performance, presentation skills, availability, billing rate, and the best alignment of specific skills and experience with specific project needs.
FINAL SCOPE OF WORK
The Final Scope of Work document shall be negotiated and executed prior to the start of work.
Should the City and consultant be unable to come to a negotiated agreement, the contract may be negotiated and awarded to the second highest scoring proposal.
FORM OF AGREEMENT
At the conclusion of negotiations, the selected consultant will be required to enter into a Consultant Services Agreement.
LICENSURE
The consultant shall comply with and require any subconsultants to comply with the license laws of the State of California.