This section describes the minimum requirements that shall be met in regard to interior and perimeter landscaping for vehicular use areas, and perimeter landscaping for non-compatible land uses areas.
(A) Perimeter landscaping requirements. Unless otherwise provided, landscape materials shall be installed to provide a minimum of 50% winter opacity and a 70% summer opacity between one foot above finished grade level to the top of the required planting hedge, fence, wall, or earth mound within four years after installation. The required landscaping should be provided either in easements in certain zones or adjacent to vehicular use area. A “plant list” shall be maintained by the Planning Department to provide more detailed information on the acceptable plant material.
(1) Property perimeter requirements. When the following adjoins the following, a minimum landscape easement of this average widths (with three feet as the least dimension) is required, which will contain this material, to achieve opacity required.
A. When the following | B. Adjoins the following | C. A minimum landscape *1 easement of this width is required | D. Which will contain this material *3 to achieve opacity required. |
A. When the following | B. Adjoins the following | C. A minimum landscape *1 easement of this width is required | D. Which will contain this material *3 to achieve opacity required. |
1. Any Residential Zone except Mobile Home District | Any Mobile Home District | Ten feet, adjacent or astride to all common boundaries, including street frontage | One tree 40 feet of lineal boundary, OFT *2, from Group A, B, or C of plant list plus continuous six feet high planting, hedge, fence, wall, or earth mound. |
2. Any Single-Family Residential Zone except Mobile Home District | Any Multi-Family Residential | Ten feet adjacent or astride to all common boundaries except street frontage. | Same as 1(D) |
3. Any Residential Zone including Mobile Home District | Any Office Zone | Six feet, adjacent or astride to all common boundaries except street frontage | One tree 40 feet of lineal boundary, OFT *2, from Group A or B of plant list plus continuous six feet high planting, hedge, fence, wall, or earth mound. |
4. Any Residential Zone including Mobile Home District | Any Business Zone | Same as 1(C) | Same as 3(D) |
5. Any Residential Zone including Mobile Home District | Any Industrial Zone | Twenty feet adjacent or astride to all common boundaries except street frontage | One tree 40 feet of lineal boundary, OFT*2, from Group A of plant list plus continuous six feet high planting, hedge, fence, wall, or earth mound. |
6. Any Office or Business Zone | Any Industrial Zone | Fifteen feet adjacent or astride to all common boundaries except street frontage | Same as 3(D) |
7. Any Professional Office Zone | Any Business Zone | Same as 3(C) | Same as 3(D) |
8. Any Recreational Zone | Any zone except Agricultural Zones | Same as 3(C) | Same as 3(D) |
9. Any zone except Agricultural Zones | A freeway or arterial street prohibiting driveways | Twenty feet for residential zones including Mobile Home Districts and ten feet for all other zones, adjacent to freeway or arterial | One tree 30 feet OFT *2, from Group A or B of plant list, plus continuous six feet high planting, hedge, wall, fence, or earth mound. |
10. Railroads (except spur tracks) | Any zone except Agricultural and Industrial Zones | Twenty feet for residential zones including Mobile Home District and ten feet for all other zones, adjacent to railroad boundaries. | Same as 9(D) |
11. Any property including street rights-of-way | Utility substation, junk yards, landfills, sewage plants, or similar uses | Fifteen feet adjacent to all boundaries, except only five feet for utility substations measured adjacent to the enclosure. | Same as 9(D) |
*1 Grass or ground cover shall be planted on all portions of easement not occupied by other landscape material. *2 OFT means “or fraction thereof”. Trees do not have to be equally spaced, but may be grouped. *3 To determine required area of landscape easement, multiply required average width by length of common boundary. Using item 1(C) as an example, the ten feet average required width times as assumed 100 feet of common boundary equals 1,000 square feet of required landscape area. Thus, if some sections of the easement are only three feet in width, other sections will have to be greater than ten feet in width in order to obtain the required 1,000 square feet of landscape area. | |||
(2) Vehicular use area perimeter requirements. When the following adjoins the following, a minimum landscape easement of this width is required, which will contain this material *3 to achieve opacity required.
A. When the following | B. Adjoins the following | C. A minimum landscape *1 easement of this width is required | D. Which will contain this material *3 to achieve opacity required. |
1. Any residential office, educational institutional, or business building (except in B-2 Zones) | Any vehicular use area *2 on any adjacent property. | Four foot minimum to all trees from edge of paving where vehicles overhang, and a three-foot strip (that prohibits any overhang) for other areas, adjacent to portion of vehicular use area *2 that faces building on adjacent property. | One tree 40 feet of boundary of vehicular use area *2, OFT *4, from Group A, B, or C, plus a three foot average height planting, hedge, fence, wall, or earth mound. |
2. Any public right-of-way (except freeways) | Any vehicular use area outside B-2 (except vehicular sales facilities or service stations) in any zone.*2 | Same as 1.C. above except applies to V.U.A. *2 portion facing public or private street right-of-way. | One tree 40 feet OFT *4 from Group A or B, plus a three feet average height continuous planting, hedge, fence, wall, or earth mound. |
3. Any public or private right-of-way (except freeways) | Any vehicular sales area or service station. | Same as 2(C) | One tree 50 feet, OFT from Group A or B, plus one low shrub ten feet OFT (opacity requirements do not apply). |
4. Any public or private right-of-way (except freeways) | Any vehicular use area (except loading and unloading areas) in B-2. | Three-foot strip adjacent to the portion of a vehicular use area *2 that faces a public or private street right-of-way. | The foot average height continuous planting, hedge, fence, or wall. |
*1 These provisions may be included within the property perimeter required by division (A)(1) above, where landscape easements are also applicable. *2. A vehicular use area (V.U.A.) is any open or enclosed area containing more than 1,800 square feet of area and/or used by six or more, of any type of vehicle, whether moving or at rest, including, but not limited to, parking lots, loading and unloading areas, mobile home parks, and sale and service areas. Driveways are considered to be vehicular use areas whenever they are adjacent to public streets or other vehicular use elements described previously in this paragraph (and intervening curbs, sidewalks, landscape strips, and the like, do not eliminate adjacency). *3 Grass or ground cover shall be planted on all portions of the easement not occupied by other landscape material. *4 OFT means “or fraction thereof”. | |||
(3) Who provides easement. The landscape easement and material required adjacent to any street under division (A)(2) above should be provided by the property owner adjoining street, unless the authority building the street has fully met all requirements on the street right-of-way. When adjacent to other common boundaries, the landscaping easement and materials, may be placed on either adjoining parcel, or astride the boundary, if both are owned and being processed by the same owner; or generally should be placed on the activity listed under divisions (A)(1) and (A)(2), when adjoining parcels having different owners; or may be placed astride the boundary or adjoining parcels having different owners if there is a written agreement, as a public records; or should be placed on the activity or parcel being processed when adjoining property is already developed with the exception of division (A)(1) item 9 above.
(4) Requirement conflicts. Whenever a parcel or activity falls under two or more of the categories listed in the table of divisions (A)(1) or (A)(2) above, only one category (that with the most stringent requirements) should be enforced.
(5) Easement conflicts. The required landscape easement may be combined with a utility or other easement as long as all of the landscape requirements can be fully met, otherwise, the landscape easement should be provided in addition to, and separate from, any other easement. Cars or other objects should not overhang or otherwise intrude upon the required landscape easement more than two and one-half feet, through the use of wheel stops or curbs.
(6) Existing landscape material. Existing landscape material should be shown on the plan, and any material in satisfactory condition may be used to satisfy these requirements in whole or in part when, in the opinion of the public approval authority, such material meets the requirements and achieves the objectives of these guidelines.
(7) Landscaping at driveway and street intersections. To ensure that landscape materials do not constitute a driving hazard, a “sight triangle” should be observed at all street intersections of driveways with streets. Within this sight triangle, no landscape material nor parked vehicles except for required grass or ground cover should be permitted. Within the sight triangle, trees should be permitted as long as, except during early growth stages, only the tree trunk (no limbs, leaves, and the like) is visible between the ground and eight feet above the ground, or otherwise does not present a traffic visibility hazard. The sight triangle is defined in the following sections.
(a) Driveway intersection sight triangle. At intersections of driveways with streets, the sight triangle should be established by locating the intersection of the street curb with the driveway edge perpendicular to the curb.
(b) Street intersection sight triangle. At street intersections, the sight triangle should be formed by measuring at least 35 feet along curb lines and connecting these points.
(B) Interior landscaping for vehicular use area. Any open vehicular use area containing more than 6,000 square feet of area or 12 or more vehicular parking spaces, shall provide “interior” landscaping in addition to the previously required “perimeter” landscaping.
(1) Landscape area. For each 100 square feet, or fraction thereof, of vehicular use area, five square feet of landscaped area shall be provided.
(a) Minimum area. The minimum landscape area permitted shall be 64 square feet, with at least dimension of eight feet.
(b) Maximum contiguous area. In order to encourage the required landscape areas to be properly dispersed, no required landscape area shall be larger than 350 square feet, in vehicular use areas under 30,000 square feet in size, and no required area shall be larger than 1,500 square feet in vehicular use areas over 30,000 square feet. In both cases, the least dimension of any required area shall be eight feet. Landscape areas larger than above are permitted as long as the additional area is in excess of the required minimum.
(2) Minimum trees. A minimum of one tree shall be required for each 250 square feet, or fraction thereof, of required landscape area. Trees shall have a clear trunk of at least five feet above the ground, and the remaining area shall be landscaped with shrubs, or ground cover, not to exceed two feet in height.
(3) Vehicle overhang. Parked vehicles may hang over the interior landscaped area no more than two and one-half feet, as long as concrete or other wheel stops are provided to ensure no greater overhang or penetration of the landscaped area.
(Prior Code, § 13.3) (Ord. 94-6, passed 8-25-1994)