Two separate plans for two separate areas of the city may be completed under one contract if council awards the downtown and Marwell planning work as proposed.

City planning manager Pat Ross has suggested that council award a contract worth $159,811 to Urban Systems Ltd. to come up with plans for each neighbourhood.

Urban Systems was one of three consultants to submit a proposal for the work with 3Pikas and Stantec also putting in a proposal.

3Pikas didn’t meet the minimum technical threshold of 80 per cent for the first part of the evaluation. That looks at the project team, methodology and approach, past experience and performance, and schedule.

Thus, the envelope detailing their proposed fees was returned to them, leaving Urban Systems and Stantec in the running for the work.

Then, looking at Urban Systems’ and Stantec’s adjusted fees and local content, Urban Systems ended up with an overall higher evaluation, ranking at a 89.28 compared to Stantec’s 82.10 marks.

Both came in under the $160,000, though Urban Systems was just slightly under that while Stantec had the lowest fee at $151,756.

Stantec got a full 10 marks on its fees compared to 9.15 given to Urban Systems in the evaluation, along with a higher mark of 3.75 compared to Urban Systems’ 1.25 for local content.

Urban Systems ranked higher in all other categories, including project team, methodology, past experience/performance and schedule.

While the city normally awards such planning contracts separately, Ross explained to reporters after the meeting in this case, the city was looking for continuity between the two plans, given the relationship of the areas next to one another.

“There’s so much overlap,” Ross said, noting there’s no significant transition between the two areas, as is the case in other neighbourhoods.

As Ross said, area plans enable the city to consider matters specific to that neighbourhood.

The downtown plan, for instance, can address issues like parking, which can play a role in the economic development of the city along with influencing other city policies and plans.

“The proposed downtown and Marwell plans will be practical and innovative documents that outline the actions, policies and steps needed to ensure these two areas remain important, vital and economically strong part of the city,” he told council in his report.

“The documents help inform the upcoming Official Community Plan review, which is tentatively scheduled to begin in late 2017.”

Ross then went on to list the objectives in the planning, including to:

• establish visions for each neighbourhood;

• identify and understand key issues;

• engage with the public and partners;

• build on existing plans;

• develop final plans that are comprehensive, innovative, inclusive, functional, practical, professional, and visually appealing; and;

• in the case of the plan for downtown, develop an action plan “that identifies a list of top action items and drills down into the additional specifics of each item.”

Reaching out to the public for input will be a major feature of each plan, Ross said.

Council will vote on the contract for the planning work next week.

Councillors Samson Hartland and Dan Boyd were absent from Monday’s meeting.