Planning staff are recommending that Huntsville Council approve Sorensen Gravely Lowes Planning & Design Inc. (SGL) for a sum of $63,109 plus tax, to be taken out of the Town’s Development Reserves Account, to complete the municipality’s Official Plan review.
A Request for Proposal was issued by the Town on November 3, 2017 and closed on December 4, 2017, with six respondents offering their services at a significant range in cost. The proposals were evaluated by planning staff and SGL came out on top with a price that was about $33,750 higher than the lowest bid, and about $24,000 lower than the highest bid (see chart below).
Manager of Planning Services Kirstin Maxwell told the Town’s Planning Committee at its January 16 meeting that those who submitted a proposal had to pass an 80 per cent bar, based on the criteria used by staff to evaluate them. Those who met the bar then moved on to the interview process in order to be considered further.
Maxwell told committee that while the cheaper proposals received the highest ranking in the cost aspect of the evaluation, they did not do as well in other aspects. Overall, she said the majority of proposals were about 15 per cent lower than SGL.
She said the previous consultant who had been working on the Official Plan did submit a proposal to finalize the plan, but were unable to meet the 80 per cent mark.
According to Maxwell, staff looked at things such as cost, the scope of the work proposed, the team composition of those who would be working on the project, as well as the history and stability of the firm. Other parameters also included possible conflicts of interest. “So there were a few aspects that we evaluated them on, other than cost,” she added.
A further breakdown of the criteria used to evaluate the proposals was as follows: Cost was 20 per cent, team composition and experience of the firm was rated at 30 per cent, the scope of work was also graded at 30 per cent and conflict of interest was 20 per cent.
Committee Chair Nancy Alcock reminded her colleagues that an issue had occurred with a previous consultant related to who was actually doing the work. “Correct me if I’m wrong but the people we thought might be working on it were just present… so I believe that was a really important point for the second go round.”
The recommendation from staff was approved by Planning Committee; it will need to be ratified by Council in order to proceed.
Below is a list of the respondents and their prices:
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