All parking and loading areas shall be properly screened and landscaped as hereinafter set forth. It is the purpose and intent of this section to require adequate protection for contiguous property against undesirable effects from the creation and operation of parking or loading areas and to protect, improve, and preserve the appearance and character of the surrounding neighborhoods and of the city through the screening effects and aesthetic qualities of such landscaping.
A. The landscaping shall include, to the extent necessary to further the intent of this section, shrubs, bushes, hedges, trees, decorative walls, or fencing as set forth below.
B. The frontage along the entire parking or loading area adjacent to any public or private street shall be landscaped with the provision of deciduous, hardwood street trees at not more than 35 feet on center located either within the right-of-way if approved by the Board of Public Works and Safety, or parallel to the right-of-way on the subject property.
C. When off-street parking or loading areas for any use other than one-family and two-family residential uses are located adjacent to a residential district, there shall be provided along the lot line a continuous, solid fence, masonry wall, hedge, or equivalent landscaped berm to prevent the direct light from automobile headlights being cast on adjacent residential units. No landscaped hedge shall be less than 4 feet in height at planting, nor placed more than 24 inches on center to maximize screening from adjacent property(s). Any solid fence, masonry wall, or landscaped earthen berm shall be constructed with a minimum height of 6 feet and not more than 8 feet. However, no such screening device shall exceed three feet within 15 feet of the public right-of-way or internal traffic lanes of parking lots.
D. In addition to any landscaped front, side, or rear yard areas required by this, or any other section of the ordinance, for parking areas encompassing, 30 or more parking spaces, interior landscaped areas shall be provided within the parking lot. The minimum gross total area of all interior landscaping required shall be based upon a unit figure often ten square feet per parking space. The total amount of required landscaping may then be divided into individual landscaped areas, providing the following requirements are met:
1. Each interior landscaped plot shall be raised and curbed, shall contain a minimum of 50 square feet, and shall have a minimum width of 5 feet.
2. The ends of parking rows abutting circulation aisles shall be defined by interior landscaped plots whenever possible.
3. Each interior landscape plot shall contain at least one deciduous shade tree of a type and size required by this ordinance or as recommended by City Tree Board.
4. There shall be one interior landscape plot within and up to every 100 lineal feet of parking for each parking row. This requirement may be modified by the Executive Committee.
E. Deciduous shade trees shall have a minimum caliper of one and one-half inches in the trunk measured one foot above the ground with a clear trunk of at least five feet where provided for screening, buffering, or aesthetic effect. Evergreen trees shall be a minimum of six feet in height at planting. All trees shall be properly planted and staked. The number of such trees shall be determined by the application of the above mentioned landscape standards; provided, however, that in no instance shall there be less than two such trees in conjunction with the development of any parking facility or lot.
F. Interior planting bed areas, which are used for the planting of trees, or which are used for landscaping treatment generally, may be treated with either grass and/or other types of vegetative ground cover, mulch, bark, decorative stone, or open spaced paves on a sand and gravel base located beneath and surrounding trees and shrubs.
G. All landscaping shall be permanently maintained in good condition with at least the same quality and quantity of landscaping as initially approved. In the event that landscaping approved as part of site plan review should die and is not replaced by the property-owner in a timely fashion, taking into consideration the season of the year, it shall be deemed a violation of this ordinance and subject to the penalties outlined in § 1.14, legal provisions.
H. A perimeter landscaped buffer strip shall be provided and maintained at a width of not less than five feet between a parking lot or driveway and the abutting property line at a side or rear yard. Said landscaped strip shall be at least ten feet in width along any front or side property line abutting a public or private street, subject to the exception provided in § 10.04 G. other more restrictive standards for yards or buffering shall govern where required by this ordinance.
Note: A landscaped buffer strip shall be constituted by the actual placement of landscape planting materials and shall not consist of simply a grassed area.
I. All landscaped areas in parking areas or adjacent to parking or loading areas, or that can be encroached upon by a motor vehicle, shall be provided with a permanent portland cement concrete curb as approved by the City's Director of Community Development and/or the Board of Public Works and Safety to restrict the destruction of the landscaped areas by vehicles. Adequate scuppers and/or weep holes shall be provided through the curbing to permit drainage.
J. Innovative landscape plans: It is recognized that standardized requirements are not always responsive to all situations and circumstances. In order to provide an avenue for the development of creative approaches to landscaping, the Plan Director, in conjunction with the City's Director of Community Development and/or the Board of Public Works and Safety shall have the authority under this section to approve innovative landscape plan. Such plans may vary the arrangement and location of landscaping and landscape areas, such as clustering of trees, berming, and locating of plots for traffic-control purposes that provide for a unique and functional designs using topography and existing site characteristics provided the total area of all landscaping and the total amount of landscape materials is maintained.
In those instances where a plan is denied, or the applicant is aggrieved of any decision of the Plan Director and City's Director of Community Development, the applicant may appeal said decision to the Board of Zoning Appeals.
(1980 Code, Ch. 156, § 10.04) (Ord. 1995-7, passed 6-5-1995)