TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Dustin Anderson, Director of Community Development
SUBJECT:
title
Award of Contract for the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Planning Coordinator to Borderless Studios in the Amount of $308,880.00
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BACKGROUND:
At the October 15, 2024 Regular Meeting, the City Council voted to authorize the acceptance and implementation of a 2024 Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) Planning Grant in the amount of $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The CNI program leverages significant public and private dollars to support locally driven strategies that address struggling neighborhoods with severely distressed public housing and/or HUD-assisted housing through a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation. The program helps communities transform neighborhoods by redeveloping severely distressed public and/or HUD-assisted housing and catalyzing critical improvements in the neighborhood. To this end, CNI is focused on three core goals:
1. Housing: Replace severely distressed public and HUD-assisted housing with high-quality mixed-income housing that is well-managed and responsive to the needs of the surrounding neighborhood.
2. People: Improve outcomes of households living in the target housing related to income and employment, health, and education; and
3. Neighborhood: Create the conditions necessary for public and private investment in distressed neighborhoods to offer the kinds of amenities and assets, including safety, good schools, and commercial activity, that are important to families' choices about their community.
Once the Transformation Plan is formed, the CNI Team can apply for Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant, which is between $25 million and $50 million.
CONCLUSION:
To facilitate the creation of the Transformation Plan, the City of Joliet issued a request for proposals (RFP) for planning coordinator services on January 17, 2025.
This RFP sought partners that would assess existing conditions, identify needs for housing, people and neighborhoods, engage with residents and stakeholders, develop strategies and plans, and develop the Transformation Plan based of the synthesization of the community outreach and market conditions.
A complete copy of the RFP is included as an exhibit to this memorandum for reference.
Four proposals were received on February 5, 2025. Three proposals were under the grant award amount and were interviewed on March 5, 2025 by the Housing Authority of Joliet and the City.
|
Borderless |
$ 308,880.00 |
|
Camiros |
$ 325,000.00 |
|
EJP |
$ 585,471.00 |
|
GDT |
$ 301,692.00 |
Borderless was the consensus selection of all evaluators. Their proposal is included as an exhibit to this memorandum for reference.
Their scope is broken into five phases:
1. Listening and Learning
2. Visioning
3. Strategy Development
4. Draft Plan
5. Final Plan
It is estimated that this will be a two-year long process. Highlights of Borderless’ process include intentional and significant community outreach and involvement, design and communications experience, and demonstrated past success within the CNI context.
RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
Based on the above, it is recommended that the Mayor and City Council award the Contract for the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Planning Coordinator to Borderless Studios in the amount of $308,880.00.
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