Request for Tender OC Future City Planning & Development Framework

⁠⁠⁠The City of Orange is seeking to engage suitably experienced consultants from a single firm or consortium (The Consultant) to deliver a FutureCity Strategy. This strategy will become the defining document through which the city centre will be repositioned over the coming decades. It will set out the broad vision and aims of the city centre that will be delivered over the long term through major projects and initiatives, as well as providing detailed direction for the day-to-day decisions that are made on minor adjustments and design details. It is critical that all components of change in the city centre, from the big picture, long-term macro moves right through to the micro adjustments that are delivered through minor works and individual actions are done in a co-ordinated fashion, and are all working towards an agreed goal. In this way, the desired changes can be achieved, and the solutions can be additive, whereby each new initiative can learn from the previous ones, and the best result can be achieved.

The Strategy will provide a means to review and confirm development towards its goal, or adjust accordingly by the following statements and criteria under the headings of Vision, Aims and Outcomes.

The Vision
The vision for the City core transformation is to create a space for the region for the next 50 years where our community and businesses will thrive and employment will grow. The core will be brim full of services, shops, open space, innovative businesses and cultural/recreation spaces for a contemporary, intelligently enabled, growing City that respects its history, heritage, environment and visual identity.

As the first point of contact for visitors and investors, Orange will present as an innovative, connected, globally oriented community and business environment that is a catalyst for new investment and job attraction across the local government area.

The concept for the project is to build a Regional City Leading Strategy and Design for the City core, layer by layer, interactively moulding the layers towards an integrated and cohesive urban design, one which remains dynamic and responds to both the challenges and opportunities that are Orange.

Aims
To facilitate this vision and concept, the FutureCity Strategy should aim to deliver a well utilised, dynamic place that is the focus of the Orange community and supports business attraction, environmental sustainability and jobs growth for decades to come. The City of Orange has identified a number of layers or components of the plan to be incorporated into the project, which include:
* The humanistic design of the space and the physical elements in the space to create a fulfilling affect within users to the amenity of the City core.
* Modern, responsive and scalable technically enabled features for City core users to fit the modern lifestyle, as well as intelligent, data-based management information to streamline the CBD for users.
* Day and night time economy elements fully integrated into design and strategy to build upon the thriving hospitality and retail sector of Orange inclusive of the needs and expectations of all users.
* Contemporary, efficient and environmentally sound infrastructure elements/layers.
* Research, analysis and strategy/design responses to contemporary challenges to retailing, incorporated into the design as well as other risk responses.
* Contemporary design both respecting and incorporating the history of the Indigenous people in the area and the stock of heritage elements and streetscapes within the City core, of which Orange is very proud.
* Incorporating local materials into the built fabric of the City core, particularly hard landscaping elements.
* A showcase of art, events, culture and celebration opportunities.
* The relationship between the City centre and adjacent business (current and future e.g Old Orange Hospital site), and northern and southern retail and services precincts.

Outcomes
In order to evaluate whether we have achieved what we set out to do, we need to describe the key attributes our City will have as a result of this planning strategy. The outcomes will be subject to the outcomes of community consultation already undertaken but might include:
* Improved community satisfaction and use of our City because of its enhanced amenity, design, services and convenience;
* Our City centre responds effectively to the diverse needs of different groups such as young people, older people, migrants and Indigenous people;
* Our City centre defines and facilitates Orange's ambition for growth in jobs, inbound investment and economic diversification;
* Our City is recognised leader in technology, sustainability, health and liveability;
* Our City enhances our reputation as a tourist destination.

Consultant Team
The scope of this project will require a broad spectrum of professional skills to complete. The time frame available necessitates that the consultant team be a highly integrated, able to work cohesively and liaise effectively with relevant Council staff, materials and resources. To this end, the successful firm or consortium should be built around a tight central team, ideally focused on the key expertise of:
* Urban Design and Master Planning
* Landscape Architecture
* Place-making and Public Domain Activation
* Economic Development and Cost-Benefit Analysis
and include a support team comprising specialist expertise required for specific inputs at appropriate stages or activities throughout the program. These support members would be from fields such as, but not limited to:
* Smart City Initiatives
* Communications and Stakeholder Engagement.
* Traffic Planning and Parking
* Environment and Sustainability
* Lighting and Services
* H