A new committee will review and ultimately select which design-build team will construct Oxford’s first public parking garage on the Square.

Mayor Pat Patterson announced the new committee Tuesday at the Oxford Board of Aldermen’s regular meeting at City Hall. The committee will be made up of three aldermen, three members of the Downtown Parking Advisory Commission, and five members of the community.

The aldermen also approved the Public Works Department to advertise for dual-phase design/build proposals for 500-slot downtown parking garage.

Assistant City Engineer Reanna Mayoral said design-build teams interested in the project will receive a packet that has a scope of work statement to describe the requirements contractors will have to meet when bidding on the project.

Specific architectural information in the scope of work statement will include, but not necessarily be limited to: a site plan showing building location, topography, adjacent buildings, and utilities; representative building floor plans with major dimension lines; diagrammatic building sections indicating ramp slopes and clearance requirements; and building elevations indicating material preferences, scale, relationship to context, and other information pertinent to the project, the proposal states.

“We wanted to keep it as bare-bones as possible because we wanted to encourage and allow as much creative freedom as they can come up with in their plan,” Mayoral said.

Anyone interested in building the garage will submit their plans to the city. The committee will review the proposals and come up with the top three to five companies. Those companies will be asked to provide a more detailed plan and will be interviewed by the committee, who will then make a recommendation to the Board of Aldermen on who to select to build the garage.

Companies or teams submitting proposals must be familiar with the design-build style of construction, which means that team will be responsible for designing and constructing the garage, rather than the city hiring separate companies to design the garage and then a contractor to build the garage.

Submittals must be received at City Hall on or before 2 p.m., March 16 in a sealed envelope.