Community Wide Landscaping Replacement - how to start??

We are a 44 unit townhouse condo association built in 1995 in Virginia - so about 25 yrs old - so time to start planning and establishing the cost for a landscaping replacement project and start accumulating some $$.

I have been Board Treasurer for the past 5 years and stepped down this summer and recently joined the Landscaping Committee - so wearing a different hat. In 2018, the Committee obtained a proposal from our landscape contractor for $125K for a replacement project - so this is not going to be a cheap project. Subsequently, the Board did establish a $10K Landscape Operating Reserve, but our Replacement Reserve Study does not include any landscaping. While I know little about landscaping, my goal to help the Committee establish a business process for determining a general requirement for the landscape replacement project, obtain some bids, modify design proposals as needed, and obtain Board approval for the Committee adopted landscape strategic plan as well as the required funding.

Following are my questions and any comments would be most appreciated.

1. Does your COA Reserve Study include landscape replacement? If so, how was the costs determined? Does the Association have an option to set up a separate Replacement Reserve annual contribution for Landscaping based on an adopted Landscape Replacement proposal?

2. Any tips on how to establish a general landscaping requirement to request bids? Of course, we will establish basic factors as low maintenance, disease tolerant, etc - but how about a budgetary range? Do we state that we want a low, medium, or high budget proposal? Or do we provide a dollar figure such as $100K (bit hesitant to do this since we have no reasonable basis for providing such a figure)? Is it reasonable to ask that the proposal be priced in stages due to funding limitations?

3. Last question: We will likely have about $1500 in unspent funds budgeted for landscaping in our annual budget. I have proposed that the Board approve that any such unspent funds be transferred to the Landscape Operating Reserve at the end of the year before the books are closed. I think that this should be allowable given the Board has the discretion to make revisions in the annual operating budget. Would appreciate any comments from others on this proposal.

Thanks for any assistance/suggestions - with someone without a "green thumb".

Hey Melissa,

Thanks for your reply.

As stated previously, we are 44 townhouses with very little common area since we are a waterfront community directly on the Chesapeake Bay - most of the land surface is parking lot. So essentially our landscaping in priority for replacement are: (1) areas in front of 24 bay side townhouses & 4 areas at end of each building,(2) three breezeways (2 with sidewalks) leading down to the water, and (3)along the roadway. The plan is mostly for removal of and replacement of the shrubs - leaving large trees in place.

(1) The areas in front of the 24 townhouses is relatively small: no grass - just shrubs planted in front of the house and along a 15 ft walkway from the front door to a 2 car wide parking area for each house; separated by a 4 ft wide curbed peninsula about 20 ft long with shrubs. So maybe 8 to 10 evergreen type shrubs for each town home. The four areas at the end of each of the building are about 15 ft circumference area with shrubs which also need replacement.

(2) Three bay front breezeway areas: keeping the current ground cover which covers most of area along the two walkways - with the need to plant about 6 new shrubs along each walkway. The additional middle breezeway area has no shrubs currently in front of a fence where about 6 new shrubs,etc could be planted.

(3) Along the road, there is a 10 ft wide mulched strip with 20 ft high cedar trees with oleander shrubs, and a limited amount of ground cover which fronts about 350 ft of sidewalk - backed by a 8ft high wooden fence. No plans to replace the big cedar trees or ground cover. So only replacement of shrubs in this area as well.

Hope this helps.

Hey Kelley,

Thanks for your reply. Our Reserve Study doe NOT include any funds for landscape replacement. It is in the process of being updated and the first draft was received and being reviewed with a working session scheduled. Unfortunately, a relatively new Board member was in charge of the overseeing the Reserve study contractor and even though I had suggested many times in writing that a new reserve needed to be established for landscaping - I was totally ignored. So the draft Reserve Study once again excludes any funds for landscaping as well as other changes to keep the annual contribution to the Replacement Reserve as low as possible.

I totally understand your suggestion for the Association to hire a independent landscaper designer to develop a proposed plan with low, medium, and high budget along with the applicable plants. After a Board decision is made, then the approved plan can be used as the requirement to issue a Request for Proposal to various landscapers - so we are comparing apples to apples. Don't love spending extra funds to do this, but it is the proper business process to follow for the project. Keeping my fellow committee members from nit picking the suggested plants will be the most difficult part - LOL!

The Association hired a Consulting Engineering this year for our roof replacement project - costs about $5500 for a $280K replacement project. His biggest contribution was developing and issuing the technical specifications for the RFP. Since our community is on the bay front, we have very harsh coastal conditions - so requirements such as stainless steel ring shank nails and the FEMA standards were included in the technical specifications. Our Management Company is beyond a joke and would have issued a RFP for "new roofs" - with no other details provided.

Our landscaping reserve is broken up into a few areas, Park, both entrances and exterior two walls. Start there so you are not blowing up your reserves in one swoop.

It's regrettable that a new board member is handling the refreshing of your Reserve Study due to a lack of experience.

A possible $100,000 landscaping job is a huge job for any community so I'd recommend following the same process as you experienced in hiring a Consulting Engineer to craft your roofing RFP (though such scientific expertise isn't needed for a high quality landscape design). A 1% to 1.5% fee to draft a solid game plan will save you time and possibly money.

Don't skimp on the plan. You may get criticized but everyone in your community can get on the same page by looking at the same page.

Good luck!