BEAUTIFICATION SUBCOMMITTEE STAFF MEMO
Meeting Date: July 13, 2026
From: Maz Bozorginia, Public Works Director
Subject: Beautification and Landscape Maintenance Overview Recommendation
Provide an overview of how the City currently manages its landscaped and public spaces and discuss opportunities to develop a long-term beautification strategy for various maintenance areas throughout the community.
Background
The City maintains a wide variety of public spaces, each with unique maintenance needs, service expectations, and funding considerations. Rather than managing all areas under a single maintenance approach, these spaces are maintained through a combination of in-house staff, landscape maintenance services, and annual weed abatement activities.
For discussion purposes, City-maintained areas can generally be grouped into the following categories:
• Parks and recreational facilities
• Sports fields
• Open space and natural areas
• Streetscape medians and roadway landscaping
• City facility landscaping
• Rights-of-way and undeveloped City-owned parcels
• Other miscellaneous landscaped areas
Each category has different maintenance objectives, ranging from intensive landscape care to basic vegetation management. Today, the City generally utilizes two primary maintenance approaches:
1. Landscape Maintenance
• Routine mowing, pruning, irrigation, planting, litter removal, and general landscape care.
• Performed through a combination of City staff and landscape maintenance contractors depending on the location and service level.
2. Weed Abatement
• Periodic vegetation removal focused on fire prevention, public safety, visibility, and general appearance.
• Typically performed on undeveloped or low-maintenance properties where full landscape maintenance is not practical.
Discussion
As staff continues evaluating the City's overall maintenance program, there may be opportunities to develop a more tailored long-term strategy for individual locations rather than applying the same maintenance approach citywide. Potential strategies could include:
• Restoring landscaping in selected locations and incorporating those areas into the City's routine maintenance program.
• Converting certain areas to lower-maintenance treatments, such as decorative rock, native landscaping, or hardscape where appropriate.
• Continuing periodic weed abatement in locations where that remains the most practical and cost-effective approach.
The goal is to evaluate each area individually based on its purpose, visibility, maintenance requirements, and long-term cost rather than treating all properties the same. Staff is seeking feedback from the Beautification Subcommittee on potential long-term strategies and priorities, which will help inform future recommendations to the City Council regarding beautification and landscape maintenance throughout the community.