RFP 26-015 Environmental Master Plan Background Research

Rocky View County (the “County”) is seeking a qualified environmental planning consultant or multidisciplinary consulting team to complete background research, analysis, and reporting that will establish the technical and policy foundation for a future Environmental Master Plan (EMP). The assignment will organize existing information, identify gaps and opportunities, compare leading municipal approaches, and provide options to guide the subsequent EMP process. The future EMP is envisioned as an outward-facing plan focused on the County’s role in land use planning, development, stewardship, partnerships, and community-facing environmental programs. It is not intended to be a corporate sustainability plan addressing internal buildings, fleet, procurement, energy use, greenhouse-gas accounting, or other internal operations. The Contractor must maintain this distinction throughout the assignment and identify corporate matters that should be considered through a separate future process. The preliminary EMP focus areas are: • Water, watersheds, riparian areas, and wetlands; • Natural areas and landscape systems; • Biodiversity and ecological connectivity; • The agriculture–environment interface, with emphasis on environmental matters not fully addressed through the Agriculture Master Plan; • Environmental development standards, conservation tools, and community stewardship; and • Natural assets and the ecosystem services they provide must be considered across the focus areas. Climate adaptation, particularly flood, drought, wildfire, water-supply, and landscape-resilience considerations, must be integrated throughout the analysis rather than treated as a stand-alone topic. Scope boundary: The base assignment does not include full EMP drafting, broad public engagement, statutory-plan amendments, primary field investigations, or a complete County-wide natural asset valuation. It must, however, provide evidence-based roadmap and engagement questions for later phases.