RFP for Consulting Services to Develop a Comprehensive Parks, Recreation, Pathways, and Open space Master Plan

The City of Caldwell (“City”) is soliciting proposals from qualified consulting firms, or a team of consultants, to provide consulting services for the preparation of a new city-wide Comprehensive Parks, Recreation, Pathways, and Open Space Master Plan (“Master Plan”) with a 20-year planning horizon.

The completed Master Plan will provide a 20-year vision and roadmap for parks, recreation, pathways, and open space. The Master Plan shall be financially sustainable, with realistic goals and outcomes. The plan will include research, heavy public engagement, and provide a clear set of goals, policies, standards, and recommendations for the City. Improvements and capital expenditures for existing and future parks, pathways, recreational programming, and open space should be outlined for the next twenty years, at a neighborhood, community, and regional level. The plan should provide recommendations for all capital expenditures and operating investment of Caldwell’s parks, pathways and open space systems, including but not limited to, analyzing the city’s current staffing capacity and policies in place to maintain these facilities and meet the needs of all residents, community groups, and other stakeholders now and in the future.

The goal of the Master Plan is to ensure that all residents in Caldwell have close-to-home opportunities where residents feel invited and engaged in the city’s outdoor spaces, which is vitally important to the overall quality of life of the community.

The City of Caldwell completed the last Parks and Recreation Master Plan in 2010, which is quite out of date due to the rapid growth in the community over the last 16 years since it was adopted. That plan is no longer able to appropriately guide the City in expending impact fees for new park development. Other plans adopted by the City include the Caldwell Pathways and Bicycle Route Master Plan, which was adopted in November of 2020 as well as the 2040 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, adopted in 2017. Those two plans are also outdated due to growth. The 2017 plan does provide maps for the entire City area, however, they are confusing because they are divided up into different pathway types as well as City quadrants, which are displayed on different sheets so the connectivity between pathway types is unclear. The 2020 plan does not provide any new maps, however, it does highlight some connection priorities, desired infrastructure improvements, and street section recommendations for pedestrian infrastructure. Because all of this information is located in three separate plans, it can be challenging for both staff and the public to know where to look for recommendations when considering potential improvements.

It is the desire of the City to combine parks, recreation, and pathways into a single Master Plan that can replace the previous plans. This will make it easier for anyone looking for guidance to access a single resource when considering new parks or pathway development. The City recently also completed a new Comprehensive Plan as well as a Strategic Parks Plan, both of which can help guide the direction of the new Master Plan, which should prioritize the integration of the City’s vision statements from the recently adopted Comprehensive Plan (February 2025). Creating a GIS map layer that can integrate into the City's existing GIS, is also crucial so that there is one map that shows the connectivity between all parks, pathways, and open space infrastructure, both existing and desired.