§ 27-457. Landscaping requirements for vehicular use areas.

(a)

Generally. This section provides two (2) landscaping methods which are intended to set minimum requirements for the landscaping of vehicular use areas. Method 1 addresses shading by specifying landscape placement throughout and around the vehicular use area. These requirements are illustrated in 27-457-1. Method 2 provides flexibility in the design of vehicular use area landscaping in order to accommodate unique site considerations.

(b)

Method 1 prescriptive landscape requirement.

(1)

Perimeter requirements.

a.

All vehicular use areas shall be separated by a perimeter landscaped area, a minimum of nine (9) feet in width, from any public right-of-way and from any boundary of the property on which the vehicular use area is located.

b.

Exceptions. This landscape area is not required:

1.

When the paved ground surface area is completely screened from adjacent properties or public rights-of-way by intervening buildings or structures;

2.

When an agreement to operate abutting properties as essentially one (1) contiguous parking facility is in force. The agreement shall be executed by the owners of the abutting properties, and shall bind their successors, heirs and assigns. Prior to the issuance of any building permit for any site having such a contiguous parking facility, the agreement shall be recorded in the public records of the county;

3.

When the paved area is at least one hundred fifty (150) feet from the nearest property line; or

4.

When the required landscape strip would be in conflict with utility installations, and such conflicts cannot be resolved, such areas may be reduced to five (5) feet and planted with shrubs and such understory trees as may be acceptable to the utility;

5.

For property within the city's central business district (CBD).

c.

Location of perimeter landscape area. The landscape area shall commence within five (5) feet of the paved surface area, except that when a grass parking area is provided the landscaped strip may be located around such area. Where the perimeter landscape area and a required buffer overlap, the more stringent requirements shall be applied.

d.

Modification of requirements. The community development board or staff, when only staff review is required, may determine that:

1.

Screening is better achieved by relocation of the landscape strip;

2.

There is an unresolvable conflict between other element(s) of the development plan and the location, width or height of the perimeter landscape area, and that the public interest is therefore best served by relocation of the landscape area, lowering the height of required material or the substitution of a solid fence or wall in conjunction with a reduction in width; or

3.

That the screening would only serve to emphasize a long driveway that would otherwise be unobtrusive.

e.

Required plant material. The perimeter landscape area shall contain:

1.

Shrubs, arranged to provide a visual screen of seventy-five (75) percent opacity and achieve a height of at least three (3) feet within three (3) years; and

2.

At least one (1) shade tree planted for each fifty (50) linear feet, or part thereof, of the boundary of the vehicular use area. The distance between such trees shall not exceed fifty-five (55) feet.

f.

The community development board, during development plan review, may determine that natural vegetation is sufficient to screen adjacent properties and rights-of-way. In such instance the existing vegetation, including understory plants and bushes, is protected from pruning and removal, except that diseased plant material and invasive nonnative species may be replaced in accordance with this section. Where encroachments are made for utility connections, replacement plants appropriate to the ecosystem shall be required.

(2)

Interior requirements.

a.

Interior areas required to be landscaped include terminal parking islands, interior islands, divider medians, and islands at T-intersections.

b.

The placement of landscaped areas throughout the interior of the paved area shall average one (1) interior landscaped island for each ten (10) parking spaces, with a terminal island at each end of five (5) or more contiguous parking spaces. At no time shall a row of parking have landscape areas greater than one hundred thirty-five (135) feet apart or closer than thirty-five (35) feet. Standards for minimum landscape islands are included in article IV.

c.

Minimum planting requirements: (See Figures 27-457-2 through 27-457-4 at the end of article IX.)

1.

Terminal islands: One (1) shade tree per three hundred (300) square feet of interior landscape area, minimum one (1) shade tree per terminal island area. Shrubs or groundcovers shall be planted to cover thirty-five (35) percent of terminal islands, with a two-foot strip of mulch or sod adjacent to parking spaces, and a three-foot strip of mulch or sod adjacent to access drives.

2.

Interior islands: One (1) shade tree per three hundred (300) square feet of interior landscape area, minimum one (1) shade tree per interior island area.

3.

Divider medians: One (1) shade tree per thirty (30) linear feet of divider median, or fraction thereof. A continuous shrub hedge shall be planted in all divider medians that separate parking from access drives.

d.

The community development board, or city council and city manager or designee, through development plan review, may allow the relocation of such landscape areas to preserve existing trees, or where it is determined, upon review and recommendation of the city manager's designee, that the relocation is necessary for the safe maneuvering of vehicles or pedestrians.

(c)

Method 2 performance landscape requirements.

(1)

Method 2 requires that at least fifty (50) percent of the vehicular use area be shaded. Alternative landscaping objectives are provided that can reduce the required amount of tree shade that must be provided in the vehicular use area. Method 2 is encouraged in the following circumstances:

a.

The site contains unique geologic features or a tree grouping which may be adversely impacted if the requirements of Method 1 are adhered to;

b.

The preservation and enhancement of cultural, architectural or historical elements on the site would be better achieved by Method 2; or the design proposes a unique design element that serves as a focal point, a site unifier, or as an element which articulates a specific portion of the development and cannot effectively be integrated into the overall design through the use of Method 1; or the design of on-site stormwater facilities requires greater flexibility in the arrangement of landscaped areas.

(2)

Method 2 requirements.

a.

The vehicular use area shall be planted with trees sufficient to shade fifty (50) percent of the total vehicular use area. Tree types shall not be substituted except as would maintain the required shading. Shrubs, groundcover and trees shall be chosen and arranged to conform with the guidelines of section 27-455.

b.

All landscape plans shall be accompanied with calculations and shadow studies in order to evidence fifty (50) percent coverage of the interior of the vehicular use area, or meet alternative landscaping requirements as detailed later in this section. In determining the area shaded, the following methodology shall be used:

1.

Calculate the proposed shading of pavement assuming that the shaded area is only that area directly under the tree canopy or drip line. The estimated crown for a twenty-year-old shade tree shall be used to calculate the percent of shaded area.

2.

Landscaped areas within the vehicular use area containing trees shall be counted in the calculation of shaded area.

3.

Paved areas under structures (such as second stories of buildings, canopies, etc.) may be deducted from the total paved area to be shaded.

c.

When shade trees are planted on the perimeter of a parking area, they must be planted no closer than four (4) feet and no farther than nine (9) feet from the edge of the pavement, and must provide shade to either the parking area, the primary structure or an adjacent pedestrian area. If an existing tree is used to fulfill shading requirements, it should be in the vehicular use area, or within nine (9) feet of the vehicular use area; however, a tree located further from the vehicular use area may be counted towards the fulfillment of the shading requirements, provided city staff finds that the tree casts shading equal to the minimum canopy of any parking lot tree on the city shade tree list, onto the vehicular use or pedestrian areas.

d.

When any portion of a vehicular use area is not screened by buildings or required street buffer and is within fifty (50) feet of a property line or a public right-of-way, a perimeter landscaped area or vegetated berm shall be provided so as to effectively screen any adjacent property or right-of-way.

e.

Exception to the fifty (50) percent shading requirement. When Method 2 for minimum landscape requirements is used, a reduction to thirty (30) percent shading of the vehicular use area may be allowed two (2) or more of the following conditions are present on a site:

1.

Vehicular use area located on the north side of a structure, on the same lot, and receives fifty (50) percent shading in the afternoon by the structure.

2.

Existing tree groupings are to be preserved, in an amount of at least one thousand (1,000) square feet or twenty-five (25) percent of the square footage of the groupings, whichever is greater.

3.

Preservation of existing wetlands that are not otherwise protected from encroachment by federal, state, regional or local regulations. A transitional buffer, having a minimum width of fifteen (15) feet, shall be provided. The total area so preserved shall have a minimum size of one thousand (1,000) square feet. The petitioner shall present competent evidence that such area is a viable wetland.

(Ord. No. 2004-10, § 1, 10-4-04; Ord. No. 2010-14, § 45, 9-7-10)