(a) When an application for a building permit is made, the Building Commissioner shall determine if any of the landscaping or buffering requirements of Sections 1199.06 and 1199.07, or of any other section of this Zoning Code, must be applied. If he determines that the request comes under a specific landscaping or buffering requirement, the Building Commissioner shall so advise the applicant and shall submit a request to the Planning Commission that the matter be reviewed once the applicant has furnished the Commission with the following material:
(1) A copy of the site plan;
(2) The topography of the building site and surrounding area; and
(3) A complete description of the area and structure to be constructed or modified.
(b) The applicant shall provide the Planning Commission with a detailed description and sketch of all proposed buffering and landscaped buffers, preferably prepared by a landscaping expert, which visually and verbally outlines the nature and the effect of the proposed landscaped buffer.
(c) The Planning Commission may request photographs or other descriptive data if the Commission deems such data necessary.
(d) The Planning Commission shall notify all owners immediately adjacent to the property in question, by regular mail, prior to any meeting at which the landscaped buffer requirements, as set forth in Section 1199.06, will appear on the agenda.
(e) Where buffering is required, a building permit shall not be issued by the Building Commissioner until an agreement has been reached between the applicant and the City as to the buffering requirement. The agreement between the City and the owner and/or developer shall include, among other requirements, provisions for the following:
(1) Maintenance of the landscaped buffer on the part of the applicant;
(2) Replacement procedures for any portion of the landscaped buffer that is, for any reason, no longer viable;
(3) Replacement of the landscaped buffer involving plant material that does not extend beyond the next growing season;
(4) Replacement of landscape material, such as fences; and
(5) Replacement of landscape material within sixty days from the date of notification by the Building Commissioner of noncompliance.
(Ord. 138-90. Passed 12-16-91.)
(f) A certificate of occupancy shall not be granted until landscaped buffer requirements have been completed or until the posting of a cash equivalent or a performance bond in an amount determined by an estimate by a landscape contractor and confirmed by the City Engineer and the Building Commissioner.
If compliance with landscaped buffer requirements is delayed because of the growth season, the bond shall be retained to ensure compliance by the next growing season. Such delay shall not extend beyond the next growing season following the date upon which the certificate of occupancy is requested.
(Ord. 194-92. Passed 9-8-92.)