All developments shall include the following required landscaping for parking lots:
(a) Interior Parking Lot Landscaping: For parking areas in any district designed to accommodate twenty (20) or more vehicles, a minimum of ten percent (10%) of the parking lot shall be planted as landscaped island areas, developed and distributed throughout the parking lot so as to provide visual and climatic relief from broad expanses of pavement and designed to reduce the amount of runoff from the site. Each individual landscaped island shall be a minimum of ten (10) feet in width in any horizontal direction and shall provide at least one (1) major shade tree having a clear trunk height of at least six (6) feet and a minimum caliper of two (2) inches. For the purposes of this section, the parking area shall be the total surface area including access and circulation aisles.
(b) Additional Plantings along Public Streets: Whenever parking areas consisting of five (5) or more spaces are located such that the parked cars will be visible from a public road right-of-way, landscaping, in addition to the required interior parking lot landscaping in subsection (a) above, shall be planted and maintained between the street and the parking lot. Such landscaping shall be a minimum of three (3) feet in height and located adjacent to the perimeter of the parking lot and placed to effectively screen parking areas from the view of public road rights-of-way without impeding vision sight lines from a motor vehicle, either to the right or left with respect to an adjacent private drive or public road right-of-way. In lieu of landscaping, parking areas may be screened by the use of decorative elements such as building wall extensions, berms, mounding or other innovative means so as to screen parking areas from the view of public road rights-of-way without impeding vision sight lines from a motor vehicle, either to the right or left with respect to an adjacent private or public road.
(Ord. 2008-133. Passed 12-16-08.)