Facility Plans

Good plans shape good decisions…

Community Planners begins many of its engagements providing communities a long term capital plan and reserve study.

However, Community Planners feels this work, as understood by many HOAs and Property Managers, does not adequately describe the important and necessary tasks communities should perform in regard to long term capital needs and their funding. “Reserve study” implies that all it takes is money to address a community’s capital improvement and planning needs as they develop over time. Anyone who has engaged in comprehensive planning knows this is not so.

For Community Boards, planning for capital improvements, raising the future funds to pay for them, and building community consensus that the Board is making sound choices are the most important tasks HOA Boards undertake. This work requires commitment, time, resources, and communication…lots of communication. Therefore, Community Planners prefers a name that describes this work as a more comprehensive and inclusive community event – i.e., “Facility Plan”.

There are three essential phases to our Facility Plan process; Information Gathering, Plan Draft and Community Presentation.

All Facility Plans begin with a thorough on-site inspection of building components, a review of original construction drawings and maintenance records as they are available, as well as quantifying Community site and building elements.

In order to achieve a full understanding of the community’s needs and a historical perspective of the property, Community Planners may incorporate resident surveys, interviews with management/staff responsible for upkeep or repair of the property, and archival research with local building departments.

In addition, we are often contacted to perform:

• Structural Reviews (by licensed P/E)
• Water Damage documentation and subsequent Leak Prevention Plans
• Site Improvements (Hardscape and Softscape)
• Environmental Review
• Code Compliance Review

Cases requiring additional investigation, reporting or trouble shooting are often morphed into a new or existing Facility Plan or can stand alone as separate events.

Upon completion of information gathering, a draft of the Facility Plan is presented to the Board for review and approval. This includes both a Schedule of Annual Projects and the Schedule of Cash Outlays.

The Schedule of Annual Projects sets forth the timing of anticipated replacements or repairs to site/ building elements, their anticipated year of replacement, their costs today, their projected cost when the work is scheduled for replacement, and construction details that define the intended construction purchase (warranties and system performance information).

The Schedule of Cash Outlays for the term the Plan covers – i.e., 10, 20, or 30 years – sets forth the community’s long-term financial projection over time. It details the amount of funding required each year, the source of funding, and the amount of reserves the HOA has at the start and end of each year.

Upon Board approval of the Facility Plan draft, the final product is delivered to the Board for use and distribution.

A Facility Plan gives property owners, board members, potential buyers and community association managers assurance that future major property expenses are identified and that a funding plan is in place to pay for those expenses.

This important information is best delivered in a public manner that gives all community stakeholders’ access to the Plan as well as the ability to ask questions and receive answers. In our opinion purely written narratives, typical of most Facility Plans do not offer this crucial communal opportunity. Community Planners prefers to present its materials, once finalized, to the community in a personal and easily understandable manner.

Community Planners typically combines the Schedule of Values and Schedule of Cash Outlays into an electronic narrative, typically a PowerPoint presentation, which includes pictures and other information that supports the findings of the reports.