Request For Qualifications (RFQ) for Planning Services on Development Applications and Long-Range Planning Projects

Location:	California
Posted:	Jun 26, 2026
Due:	Jul 13, 2026
Agency:	City of Foster City
Type of Government:	State & Local
Category:	C - Architect and Engineering Services - Construction R - Professional, Administrative and Management Support Services
Publication URL:	To access bid details, please log in.

Bid/RFP Status:

Open - accepting bids and proposals

Bid/RFP Due Date:

Monday, July 13, 2026 - 5:00pm

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The City of Foster City (“City”) is seeking qualified consulting firms (Consultants) to submit Statements of Qualifications to perform planning services on development applications and long-range planning projects on an “on-call” basis.

The consulting firm will be able to assign staff members to perform professional planning services on development applications and long-range planning initiatives on an “on-call” basis. The City is requesting Statement of Qualifications from persons or firms with the expertise necessary to process development applications including architectural review, implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and compliance review with federal, state, and local regulations. The selected consultant may also facilitate, lead, or assist City planning staff with long-range planning initiatives. Upon review of responses to the RFQ, the City plans to compile a list of qualified consultants and select at least three (3) consulting firms to be awarded agreements for the on-call services.

All inquiries regarding this RFQ shall be directed to Thai-Chau Le, Interim Community Development Director, via telephone at (650) 286-3244, or, preferably, via email at tle@fostercity.org .

Supporting Documents

Planning On Call Consultant Services RFQ (649 KB)

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REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS

On-Call Planning Consultant Services

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ)

The City of Foster City (“City”) is seeking qualified consulting firms (Consultants) to submit

Statements of Qualifications to perform planning services on development applications and

long-range planning projects on an “on-call” basis.

Date of Issuance: June 26, 2026

Responses Due/Deadline: July 13, 2026, by 5:00 PM

The consulting firm will be able to assign staff members to perform professional planning

services on development applications and long-range planning initiatives on an “on-call”

basis. The City is requesting Statement of Qualifications from persons or firms with the

expertise necessary to process development applications including architectural review,

implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and compliance review

with federal, state, and local regulations. The selected consultant may also facilitate, lead, or

assist City planning staff with long-range planning initiatives. Upon review of responses to the

RFQ, the City plans to compile a list of qualified consultants and select at least three (3)

consulting firms to be awarded agreements for the on-call services.

The responses shall be addressed to:

City of Foster City

Community Development Department

Attention: Thai-Chau Le, Interim Director

610 Foster City Boulevard

Foster City, CA 94404

Subject: Response to RFQ for On-Call Planning Consulting Services

Statements of Qualifications must be submitted electronically to tle@fostercity.org with the

subject labeled “Response to RFQ for On-Call Planning Consultant Services for City of

Foster City.” It is the responsibility of the responding consultant to ensure that its

submission is received by 5:00 PM on July 13, 2026. Responses received after the deadline

will not be considered. For this reason, the City encourages submission of responses early.

The City shall acknowledge receipt of the submission once it is received, but will not

review any submission prior to the submission deadline.

All inquiries regarding this RFQ shall be directed to Thai-Chau Le, Interim Community

Development Director via telephone at (650) 286-3244, or, preferably, via email at

tle@fostercity.org.

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS

On-Call Planning Consultant Services

CITY OF FOSTER CITY

Foster City

I. BACKGROUND

Foster City is located midway between San Francisco and San Jose on the western shoreline

of the San Francisco Bay, east of U.S. 101, which provides convenient access to the San

Francisco Airport and San Francisco to the north and Santa Clara County to the south. The

City is bisected by State Route 92 (the J. Arthur Younger Freeway), which runs between Half

Moon Bay to the west and Highway 880 to the east via the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. The

City encompasses 12,345 acres, of which 9,726 acres are part of San Francisco Bay and

Belmont Slough, and 2,619 acres are land area.

The City of Foster City is a full-service, General Law City with a Council-Manager form of

government. The City Council also serves as the Board of Directors for the Estero Municipal

Improvement District (“District”). The District, although a separate legal entity, encompasses

the same geographical area, is inhabited by the same citizens, and governed by the same

bodies and procedures as the City. The City/District collectively call (‘City”) has approximately

164 employees who deliver high quality municipal services to its 33,693 residents.

The Community Development Department (CDD) is composed of Planning, Code

Enforcement, Housing, Building, Economic Development, and Sustainability.

The requested consultant services for On-call Planning Services are for the Planning Division.

II. SCOPE OF SERVICES

The City is requesting responses from persons or firms with expertise necessary to process

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS

On-Call Planning Consultant Services

development applications including architectural review, application of California

Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and conformance with federal, state, and local regulations.

The selected consultant may also facilitate, lead, or assist planning staff with long-range

planning initiatives.

Selected firms will be placed on an official list of qualified consultants who will be called upon

to perform Planning services for project specific proposal and/or long-range planning

initiatives, as needed. From the list, the Planning Division intends to select at least three (3)

consulting firms to provide on-call planning review services for planning projects under the

terms of the City’s standard Agreement for Professional Services, which is attached with this

RFQ. The term of the Agreement for Professional Services to be executed by the successful

consultant will be for three (3) years with an option of a one-year extension at the City’s

discretion.

The required scope of work shall include, but is not be limited to:

• Analyze development projects for compliance with the City’s General Plan, Zoning

Ordinance, Subdivision Map Act, Objective Design and Development Standards,

applicable specific plans, and other policies.

• Compile and analyze data on economic, social, environmental, and physical factors

affecting land use.

• Meet with developers, engineers, property owners, contractors, and other individuals to

discuss, advise, explain processes and suggest improvements regarding potential

projects, pre-applications, development applications, feasibility analysis, conceptual

development plans and code interpretation.

• Coordinate implementation of development applications during the construction phase

to ensure compliance with project conditions of approval and mitigation measures.

• Develop and maintain good working relationships with Community Development

Department staff, other City departments and divisions, other jurisdictions, agencies,

and the public.

• Ability to write Planning Commission and City Council staff reports, memorandums,

resolutions, ordinances, conditions of approval, and give oral presentations.

• Attend public hearings, study sessions, subcommittee meetings and community

meetings, as necessary.

• Present projects at the Interdepartmental Evaluation Committee meetings.

• Analyze projects for CEQA compliance or coordinate with on-call consultants for CEQA

compliance.

• Ability to review projects and provide comments within timelines specified by the Permit

Streamlining Act and the City (shorter timelines may be required for certain projects).

• Provide strong emphasis on the management of multiple projects and competing

priorities while maintaining quality, meeting schedules, and staying within budget.

• Facilitation of special projects as authorized by Council.

Minimum Qualifications:

Consultants must meet the following minimum qualifications in order to be considered

responsive to this RFQ:

1. As of the submission deadline, the consultant or person proposed to perform work on

behalf of the Consultant shall have a minimum of three (3) years of experience

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS

On-Call Planning Consultant Services

satisfactorily providing the same or similar services requested under this RFQ. Prior

experience working with municipalities or other public entities preferred.

2. Carries the types and amounts of insurance required under the attached Agreement for

Professional Services.

Any consultant that does not meet these minimum requirements shall not be eligible to be

considered for placement on the list of qualified on-call consultants.

Invoicing

Consultant will submit invoices, not more often than once a month during the term of this

Agreement, based on the cost for services performed prior to the invoice date.

Invoices will contain the following information:

• The beginning and ending dates of the billing period;

• Serial identifications of progress bills; i.e., Progress Bill No. 1 for the first invoice, etc.;

• Task Summary describing the services provided by person doing the work, the hours

spent by each person, and a brief description of the work.

III. PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE

The following is a preliminary schedule for the project.

Distribution of RFQ

June 26, 2026

Responses Due

July 13, 2026, by 5:00 pm

Finalize List of Qualified Consultants and August 2026 (tentative)

Enter into an agreement with qualified firms

Note that this schedule is preliminary. The schedule may be adjusted, as needed, by the City.

The deadline for submitting responses may be extended by 30 days if the City does not

receive adequate responses from qualified firms. Accordingly, the date for awarding the

contract will change if the deadline for submissions is extended.

IV. DEADLINE FOR WRITTEN QUESTIONS

All inquiries regarding this RFQ shall be directed to Thai-Chau Le, Interim Community

Development Director, via telephone at (650) 286-3244, or, preferably, via email at

tle@fostercity.org.

Except as specified above, consultants and their representatives may not communicate with

any officer, director, employee, or agent of the City with respect to this RFQ except as may be

reasonably necessary to carry out the procedures specified in this RFQ. Nothing herein

prohibits consultants or their representatives from making oral statements or presentations in

public to one or more representatives of the City during a public meeting. The City will not

respond to verbal inquires and interested consultants are specifically discouraged from

contacting the city in person or by telephone during this RFQ and selection process.

V. PROPOSAL BUDGET

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS

On-Call Planning Consultant Services

All tasks within the enclosed Scope of Services shall be included within the proposal’s fee

schedule and itemized according to required and optional tasks.

VI. PROPOSAL CONTENT

All submittals must follow the format guidelines and content requirements listed below.

Nonconforming submittals may be rejected as nonresponsive.

A statement demonstrating that the Proposer understands the scope of work required.

• Billing Structure – A proposed cost structure (preferably hourly rates for the staff

proposed to perform work).

• Relevant Experience – List projects completed by the Consultant relevant to the scope

of services contained herein that have been completed in the last five (5) years. Discuss

the firm’s uniqueness to best perform these on-call services for the City.

• Key Team Member Summary – Identify the individual(s) or key team members that may

be available to assist the City of Foster City in response to this RFQ. Summarize each

person’s experience and include their resume.

• References – A statement of the Proposer’s two (2) references from current or past

clients, preferably California agencies. References must have worked with the proposed

project manager and other key staff proposed to be assigned to for such services.

References should include the following:

o Name, address, and telephone number of the agency

o Time period for the project

o Brief description of the scope of work

o Reference contact name, email, and telephone number

• Acknowledgement of the City’s Agreement for Professional Services – Submissions

must include a statement that the proposer has reviewed the template Agreement for

Professional Services included with this RFQ and agrees to execute and comply with an

agreement in the form of that template if the consultant is chosen to provide on-call

planning review services to Planning Division. This statement should also indicate that

the proposer will be able to fulfill the insurance requirements included in the template

Agreement. If the proposer intends to request changes to the template Agreement,

those requested changes must be included in a redlined “track changes” draft of the

template Agreement included with the Submission. If no changes are requested, the

selected proposer shall be expected to execute the Agreement without alteration.

VII. CONSULTANT SELECTION PROCEDURE

A. EVALUATION CRITERIA

Submittals received by the deadline will be reviewed by selected City staff. Staff will determine

those consultants who are qualified and recommend the City Council award contracts to at

least three (3) consultants based on evaluation of each response considering the following

criteria:

• A statement demonstrating that the Proposer understands the scope of work required.

• Billing Structure.

• Relevant Experience.

• Key Team Member Summary.

• References.

• Acknowledgement of the City’s Agreement for Professional Services.

This is the opportunity summary page. It provides an overview of this opportunity and a preview of the attached documentation.

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Request For Qualifications (RFQ) for Planning Services on Development Applications and Long-Range Planning Projects

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