Property and Easement Acquisition Services

The vendor is required to provide all services necessary to acquire right of way, permanent easements, and temporary easements related to the construction, operation, and maintenance of town.
- Project management and document control services
• Establishing property acquisition protocols, procedures, and schedule (including a timeline for notifications, appraisals, claims, offers, negotiation, and acceptance/rejection, etc.; limits on offers and negotiations; approval and signatory authority for offers and claim reports, etc.), in compliance with local, state, and federal requirements.
• Developing a secure, collaborative system for tracking property acquisition progress and quality control, including notifications, negotiations, offers, acceptance/rejection, claims/payments, condemnation proceedings, and document recording.
• Preparing and maintaining a complete paper file for the settlement of each parcel, including a copy of relevant easement agreements or deeds, contact letters/e-mails, contact information, negotiation diary explaining any issues, exceptions, or unsuccessful attempts to contact the owner of record, and all other related documentation.
• Participating in project risk reduction activities, including a full-day act risk review workshop (anticipated in summer 2025).
• Supporting updates to agency real estate cost estimates, in consultation with agency and design consultant, as right of way and easement acquisition activities progress.
• Attend bi-monthly project update meetings with agency and the project’s design consultant to provide property acquisition status updates for the duration of the project’s property and easement acquisition phase.
- Notification and communication services
• Providing clear and consistent information allowing agency to inform and educate impacted property owners about the acquisition process and timeline, promoting transparency, and mitigating misinformation and confusion about the scope, duration, and intent of encroachment and/or acquisition activities.
• Creating templates for all required letters, forms, and documents (i.e., introduction packet/ property owner notifications, requests to donate, offers, claim reports, final reports, closings, etc.), in compliance with all federal, state, and local requirements, in consultation with the town’s legal department, strategic communications department, and agency .
• Contacting and following up with all owners of record within 7-10 days of sending introduction packet, making a good faith attempt to meet with all local property owners, and/or providing out of town property owners with the opportunity to attend an in-person or virtual meeting.
• Providing appraisals (including all required property information), communicating the project’s temporary and permanent property impacts to property owners, describing the impacts of acquisition on subject properties, and advising property owners of their legal rights and alternatives, in compliance with all state and federal requirements.
- Contract Period/Term: 3 years
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: April 30, 2025