Conceptual Park Planning

December 27, 2023

The City of Muskegon is seeking proposals from qualified firms to provide comprehensive park planning services at various parks throughout the City. The City has an active Parks & Recreation Master Plan, but is also currently engaged in a more robust public engagement and capital planning effort as updates to that Master Plan. The conceptual park plans developed under this RFP will be a component of the updates to the Master Plan, and will help guide the public and staff regarding capital investment at certain parks.

The City of Muskegon has budgeted substantial resources for capital investment in existing parks over the next three fiscal years. While the majority of those funds are intended to improve existing features in parks throughout the City, new and upgraded amenities in certain parks is also a goal of the department. The conceptual plans should account for upgrades to existing amenities and should also identify type, location and scope of new amenities that the consultant, in discussion with department staff, feels matches the public’s desires (as expressed via the aforementioned public engagement effort) and fits a park’s character. Survey results from the public engagement efforts will be made available to the selected consultant to help direct the planning efforts.

The conceptual plans should include sufficient detail to allow the City to use them in grant applications, and should include budgetary cost opinions broken down by amenity. They should include additional details for items that are not sufficiently specified on the main plan. The plans should be understandable by the public, but specific enough to allow the City to hire a final design consultant at some time in the future using only the provided plans and budgetary information as a supplement to this RFP format. Providing the park planning services will not exclude a consultant from consideration for final design.

The services should include engagement efforts as plans are developed. Since the plans will be developed largely using ideas submitted by the community and supported by survey data, these efforts should be after the plans are created. The plans should be presented to the community for feedback, and then be revised accordingly or the feedback addressed in another way.

The specific parks identified for complete conceptual plans encompassing the entire park are:
• Norman F. Kruse Park
• Richards Park
• McGraft Park
• Campbell Park

The firm shall provide a schedule for the proposed project. The schedule will be subject to negotiation and modification with the selected firm, however the goal of the City is to have the conceptual plans available for inclusion in the updates master plan prior to April 1, 2024.

RFQ – Conceptual Park Planning