Full details available at: http://crcog.org/rfprfq/

The Capitol Region Council of Governments (CRCOG) intends to hire a consultant to provide services to update the region's Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS), integrating eight municipalities that were not part of the previous CEDS. This project will also develop a broad regional strategy focusing on a strategic situational assessment of the metropolitan region, identification of a limited set of "game changer" initiatives and of the organizational and partnership capacities that will be necessary to implement them. Funding for this project is provided by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), so the final product must meet the requirements of an EDA funded CEDS.

CRCOG will procure consultant services in accordance with the established policy of CRCOG and requirements of the EDA terms and conditions of the grant award. The project will commence upon selection of a consultant and issuance of a notice to proceed.

II. INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Capitol Region Council of Governments (CRCOG) is the largest of Connecticut's nine regional planning organizations. We are established under the Connecticut General Statutes as a voluntary association of municipal governments serving the City of Hartford and 37 surrounding communities. In 2014, due to a reorganization of regional planning agencies by the State of Connecticut, CRCOG grew from 30 member municipalities representing over 770,000 residents in an 806 square mile area to its current 38 municipalities, representing nearly one million residents in a 1,047 square mile area.

The region's previous CEDS was restricted to the region's former boundaries, comprising 30 municipalities. Four municipalities on the west side of the CRCOG region were part of the former Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency and its CEDS. Four municipalities to the east were part of the Windham Council of Governments and the Northeastern Economic Development Partnership's CEDS. This updated CEDS will cover all 38 municipalities in the metropolitan region.

As an EDA-funded CEDS, the final product must meet basic CEDS requirements. That includes the following:

• Summary of background information
• Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis
• Strategic Direction/Action Plan
• Evaluation Framework
• A discussion of resilience

In addition to meeting these requirements, CRCOG is interested in having the CEDS form the core of a broader strategic framework for the metropolitan region. A number of existing plans, recent reports, and agency-wide discussions have identified trends and situations with significant implications for the region. Some of those include: inner-city educational attainment, workforce training, declining population, aging population (and workforce), budgetary problems (local and state), stagnant job growth, new investments in transportation infrastructure, increased interest and investment in "active transportation", and shifting preferences regarding urban living. To develop a broad strategy focused on moving the region's economy forward, CRCOG envisions the following next steps as part of the CEDS update:

• Goal-Setting: Build consensus around the need for accelerating inclusive/equitable economic growth; that is raising incomes across the income distribution with particular attention to opportunities for engaging those who have often been left behind.
• Situational Analysis: Do a clear-eyed assessment of our situation: who, what, where to identify opportunities that we should be pursuing as a metropolitan region (i.e., SWOT with an emphasis on context and opportunities).
• Strategic Planning: Formulate a limited number of "game changer" strategies that will move the trajectory of inclusive economic growth in the right direction.
• Capacity-Building: Identify organizational forms and collaborations that we will need to implement and sustain the strategies over time.

To a large extent, existing reports and plans have identified the trends shaping the metropolitan region, which this effort will build upon. Previous plans and reports have asked the right questions, and some offered useful strategic actions. The focus of this plan is to first re-assess the trends that have been identified and questions that were previously asked in light of a strong situational analysis for the metropolitan region. It will then take a closer look at solutions that have been proposed in the past, and those that have worked in other regions around the country. This planning effort will then ask: "what capacities are necessary to implement and sustain these solutions, and how can the region develop those capacities?" Critically, through stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and working groups, the region will begin to develop those capacities.

CRCOG envisions the broad strategy that comes out of this CEDS update as serving as a key basis for the priorities addressed in CRCOG's other planning efforts. CRCOG is a multidisciplinary agency that coordinates transportation, land-use, economic development, hazard mitigation, and public safety planning. The agency maintains regional plans that touch on all of these areas, some of which are being updated in the near future. CRCOG's Long-Range Transportation Plan will be updated during the next two-year period. CRCOG is in the process of developing a Complete Streets Plan for the region. While CRCOG's Plan of Conservation and Development (which covers land-use, among other topics) is not required to be updated until 2024, the agency would like to begin the update process early to incorporate its eight new member municipalities. These other planning efforts are separate from the work that will be done under this project, but they will be influenced by it.