HomeMy WebLinkAboutRFP for Landscape Plan Check Services 2025REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
LANDSCAPE PLAN CHECK SERVICES
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE:
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2025, 11:59 P.M. PST
I. OVERVIEW AND SCOPE OF SERVICES
The City of Diamond Bar is seeking proposals from qualified landscape architectural firms
to perform landscape and irrigation plan check services for compliance with the City’s
Water Efficient Landscape ordinances (Diamond Bar City Code Chapters 8.14 and 22.26)
and other applicable laws; inspections services; and project management. Consultant
will work closely with City staff and applicants to complete required services in a cost-
effective and responsive manner to achieve a high-quality landscape and irrigation
design. Most projects will consist of residential or commercial developments, but may
also include park sites and other developments. In addition, Consultant will occasionally
review conceptual landscape plans for high-profile or significant projects to outline any
major concerns or issues with the proposed design.
The City is seeking to enter into a three-year agreement, with a possibility of two one-
year extensions with the selected firm, with work to commence on or about July 1, 2025.
A copy of a sample one-year agreement is attached.
II. SCOPE OF WORK
The Scope of Work shall include but not be limited to the following:
A. Plan Check Services:
1. Review landscape and irrigation plans for completeness and compliance with
the City’s Water Efficiency Landscape Ordinance, as well as compliance with
project conditions of approval. In addition, review of civil/grading plans may be
needed to ensure consistency with landscape plans.
2. Completion of a checklist, or similar method to document plan check
comments, and red-lined plans with review comments noted for initial and all
subsequent reviews.
3. Meeting with staff and/or applicant, as may be needed to communicate plan
check comments and resolve issues. Communication may also occur via email
or telephone to answer questions of staff or applicant.
4. Delivery and pick-up of plans, or submittal of plans and review comments via
mail and email.
5. Provide the schedule/timeframe for typical completion of initial plan check and
subsequent plan checks. The City’s objectives are for initial plan check to be
completed within two weeks of receipt, and one week for subsequent plan
checks.
B. Inspection Services:
1. Conduct field inspections, and assist staff as needed to perform inspections of
completed development projects, and interim inspections as needed during the
landscape construction process to ensure proper installation of irrigation and
landscaping to comply with the approved construction plans, project conditions
of approval, and City’s Ordinances.
2. Confer/coordinate with the project landscape architect, contractor, etc., in the
field and office as needed to provide direction or clarification on issues as
needed.
3. Verify landscape and irrigation audits as required by the City’s Water Efficiency
Landscape Ordinance.
C. Other Services:
1. Review and provide comment on conceptual landscape plans as requested by
the City for particular high-profile or significant projects to outline any major
concerns or issues with the proposed design in the early stages of the project
review.
2. As requested by the City, assist City staff with developing information for the
public regarding the use of drought tolerant and low-water usage plant
schemes.
3. Monitor California legislation related to landscape and water efficiency changes
and inform the City of the new requirements.
III. REQUIRED PROPOSAL CONTENTS
The proposal must include the following:
1.Letter of Transmittal: A Letter of Transmittal shall be addressed to May
Nakajima, Senior Planner, and shall contain the following information.
a. Identification of Proposer who will have contractual responsibility with the City
of Diamond Bar. Identification shall include full legal name of company,
address from which the services will be managed, telephone number and email
address of the contact person identified during the period of proposal
evaluation.
b. The number of years your firm has been doing business.
2.Qualifications of the Firm and Personnel: A summary of the Proposer’s
qualifications and experience, including a brief description demonstrating the
relevant expertise and experience of its key staff members, to show competence
in providing landscape and irrigation plan check and inspection services for a
government or regulatory agency. Identify the designated principal, project
manager, and key staff members, and include resumes for each. Also provide a
summary of projects plan checked in the past 12 months, including the scope of
plan checks provided and the five highest dollar valuation projects.
3.Understanding and Approach: Describe the services and activities that your firm
proposes to provide to the City in accomplishing the scope of work described
herein. Include the following information.
a. Describe the complete plan review procedures to be used, include transmittal
of plans, sample checklists, plan control logs, billing process, quality control,
resolution of applicant appeals, training and supervision, etc.
b. Describe how unforeseen high workloads will be serviced without
compromising quality and turnaround time.
c. Describe adaptation of technology to conduct electronic review of plans, or the
digital transmittal of plan check comments to clients or customers.
4.Fee Proposal: Proposed fee schedule/pricing information for the services in the
scope of work described above and include the following information.
a. Specify your fee for providing plan check services, including fees for preliminary
plan checks, recheck, revisions, inspections, reinspections, pick-up and
delivery of plans.
b. The cost proposal should include personnel, equipment and supplies,
overhead and other additional costs. The cost proposal shall include hourly
rates for personnel.
5.Project References: List of three city or county clients that involved a similar
scope of work, including the length of time services has been provided along with
contact name and telephone number of an individual who can be contacted as a
reference.
IV. PROPOSAL SCHEDULE
RFP Posting Date: Friday, April 11, 2025
Proposals Due: Friday, May 2, 2025, by 11:59 p.m. PST
Award of Contract: Tuesday, June 3, 2025, City Council Meeting
Start of Services: Tuesday, July 1, 2025
Deadline for submittal is Friday, May 2, 2025, on or before 11:59 p.m. PST. Late
submittals will not be accepted. Please submit proposal on PlanetBids and deliver three
(3) hard copies to:
City of Diamond Bar
Attn: Mayuko Nakajima, Senior Planner
21810 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765
(909) 839-7033 - MNakajima@DiamondBarCA.gov
V. CONSULTANT SELECTION PROCESS
Each proposal will be evaluated to determine if it meets the submittal requirements
specified above. Failure to meet the requirements will be cause for rejection of the
proposal. Selection will be based on the quality and value of the proposal, including
comprehensiveness and responsiveness to the requirements outlined in this RFP. The
proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria.
1. Qualifications (30 points)
a. Proposed plan to achieve the Scope of Services described herein and provide
the required outcome in a timely manner.
b. Overall quality of the proposal, including a demonstrated understanding of the
purpose, scope and objective of the services to be performed. It is the intention
of the City to award a contract to the Proposer who furnishes satisfactory
evidence that the Proposer has the requisite experience and ability to enable
the Proposer to execute the work successfully and properly, and to complete
services in a timely manner. To determine the degree of responsibility to be
credited to the Proposer, the City will weigh the evidence that the Proposer has
performed satisfactorily other contracts of like nature, magnitude and
comparable difficulty and comparable rates of progress.
2. Past Performance (30 points)
a. Professional experience in performing tasks similar in scope and complexity.
b. Past, recently completed, or on-going landscape plan check and inspection
services that will substantiate experience.
c. References from customers and/or clients whom you have delivered similar
service.
3. Responsiveness (20 points)
The Proposer’s responsiveness to the RFP including completeness and
thoroughness of proposal. All required information must be provided in the format
specified. This category will evaluate the following:
a. Ability to provide services as outlined in the RFP.
b. Approach and proposed methodology to project scope.
c. Demonstrated knowledge of the work required.
d. Innovative approaches and internal measures to ensure timely and quality
completion of work.
e. Ability to demonstrate its qualifications in a clear and compelling manner and
ability to follow all directions included in this RFP.
f. Review and negotiation of acceptance to the City’s Professional Services
Agreement.
4. Competitive pricing as compared to other qualified Proposer’s RFP
responses (20 points)
The City expressly reserves the right to reject any and all proposals responding to this
RFP without indicating any reason for such rejection(s). The City may determine that it
is necessary to conduct interviews prior to final selection. In the event that interviews are
necessary, the teams that submit the highest ranked RFPs will be invited to the City to
make presentations to the members of the selection panel and answer questions. Each
member of the selection panel will evaluate the interviews and the final scores will be
established based on criteria and instructions provided prior to the interview taking place.
The City shall not be liable in any way for any expenses incurred by Consultants in
responding to this RFP. Consultants shall not include any such expenses as part of the
costs to complete the scope of work.
VI. CONTRACTUAL REQUIREMENTS
Prior to the award of any work, the City and the selected consultant firm shall enter into a
written contract. The City will negotiate the contract with the preferred Consultant based
upon the Consultant’s proposal. The contract will be presented to the City Council for
approval. If the City and the prospective Consultant fail to reach a contractual agreement,
the City may negotiate with any other top-selected consultant.
A copy of the City’s Consulting Services Agreement is attached. The consultant firm
proposal, this RFP, and all subsequent modifications to either document will be included
as appendices to the contract. The consultant firm must identify and explain any
proposed changes or exceptions to the language and content of the Agreement in the
response submitted. If no changes or exceptions are noted by the consultant firm, then
the consultant firm agrees to be bound by, and thereby represents its ability to satisfy all
terms of the Agreement, if selected.
ATTACHMENT
1. Standard Consulting Services Agreement