Planning for Longevity: Maintenance Plans for Public Spaces

Author: Maddie Olson

As public spaces evolve to meet the needs of growing communities, long-term maintenance planning becomes essential. These plans are more than technical documents—they’re strategic tools that help ensure parks, plazas, and public facilities remain safe, functional, and beautiful for years to come. 

Understanding Maintenance Plans 

Maintenance plans, often referred to as Operations and Maintenance manuals, or just OandM manuals, outline the ongoing care required for a variety of systems—from stormwater infrastructure to seasonal planting elements. These documents typically include inspection schedules, cleaning protocols, and manufacturer-recommended upkeep for proprietary systems such as storm filters. 

“We prepare an operation and maintenance manual … usually for all the stormwater infrastructure we do since that’s typically the items that needs to be maintained consistently,” said Tom Dargan, civil engineer and project manager at AHBL. 

Beyond stormwater, these plans also consider the lifespan of pavement, utility systems, and other infrastructure. Coordination with landscape architects is often necessary to ensure that systems like bio-retention areas meet both functional and aesthetic goals. Landscape architects play a crucial role in this process, as they bring a unique perspective that balances the practical needs of maintenance with the aesthetic goals of the design. 

Designing With Maintenance in Mind 

Meredith Sessions, a senior landscape architect at AHBL, emphasized the importance of engaging maintenance teams early in the design process. 

“One of the steps early in the project that I always want to do is talk to the maintenance team and figure out what their budget is and what their capacity is,” Sessions said. This early engagement not only ensures that the design is feasible within the maintenance team’s resources but also fosters a sense of ownership and collaboration that can lead to better long-term outcomes. 

Maintenance plans help align the project-lifespan design intent with ongoing care and upkeep, to ensure success in meeting that long-term goal. 

“It’s where you can also say, in the first year after it’s installed, it’s going to need special treatment, and that could even be part of the contractor’s responsibility,” she added. 

A great example is the SeaPORT Entry Plantings project, where AHBL developed a detailed landscape management plan that includes seasonal and annual care instructions. The plan outlines a 10-to-12-year refresh cycle for lavender plantings, recommending species replacements and soil amendments to maintain the design’s alternating mounds of color. 

“You’ve got the every-year plan, the five-year plan, and the 10-year plan,” Sessions said. “Ten years from now, could be to call AHBL, have us go look at it again.” 

The SeaPORT plan also includes monthly maintenance tasks such as mulch-mowing turf, pruning ornamental grasses, and adjusting irrigation systems based on seasonal evapotranspiration rates. Sessions suggested integrating these tasks into digital calendars to help maintenance teams stay on track. 

Budgeting for the Future 

Dargan highlighted the importance of including maintenance costs in the overall project budget; a lesson learned from working on capital projects for a local parks district. 

“They had all these new facilities to manage and maintain, but sometimes the maintenance staff didn’t get increased budgets, nor was that included in the overall capital costs” he said. “Once you build it, it’s all on them.” 

The SeaPORT plan reflects this philosophy by recommending contract growing for replacement plants in year 8, allowing for budget forecasting and species selection that aligns with the original design intent. 

Looking Ahead 

Maintenance planning is more than a checklist; it’s a philosophy of care. By embedding maintenance into the design process, collaborating across disciplines, and listening to the needs of those who will care for these spaces, planners, engineers, and landscape architects play a vital role in creating public environments that thrive over time. 

As AHBL continues to support communities through thoughtful design and engineering, integrated maintenance planning remains a cornerstone of building spaces that last.