A. Scope. This section provides general standards for parking and circulation, landscaping, site design, signs, and architectural design. Development must be consistent with the Gateway Development Guidelines Manual.
B. Parking and Circulation.
1. Design Objective. Provide functional, efficient, parking facilities and circulation corridors that are visually attractive and unobtrusive from off-site. Use landscape and other design features to interrupt large expanses of paving in large parking lots to create smaller areas of connected parking facilities.
2. Standards.
a. Parking facilities shall be designed in compliance with Chapter 18.75.
b. Pedestrian facilities are required adjacent to or within the arterial or collector rights of way and shall be designed in accordance with County Subdivision and Development Street Standards Manual.
c. Internal pedestrian facilities shall be designed according to the following:
(1) Pedestrian facilities adjacent to buildings shall be connected to pedestrian facilities within parking lots.
(2) Internal and adjacent off-site pedestrian facilities shall be interconnected.
d. Parking lots for non-residential and multiple dwelling uses shall be screened by a minimum three-foot-high decorative masonry wall placed at the inside boundary of any required bufferyard. Minor variations may be allowed. This wall shall satisfy any Chapter 18.72 bufferyard structure requirement.
C. Landscaping Standards.
1. Objective.
a. To provide for physical, and visual buffers and transition between different land uses.
b. To break up large expanses of paving within large parking lots by creating small scale areas of connected parking facilities.
c. To create an aesthetically attractive site design.
2. Standards.
a. Gateway Overlay Zone setback areas shall be landscaped in accordance with Chapter 18.73 (Landscaping, Buffering and Screening Standards) unless otherwise indicated in this chapter.
b. Emphasis shall be placed on retaining and enhancing any existing indigenous vegetation. Introduced landscape plants must be chosen from the Buffer Overlay list of plants contained in the Landscape Design Manual.
c. Bufferyards.
(1) In no case shall bufferyards along arterials and collectors be less than 20 feet in width.
(2) Bufferyards shall be in common areas for residential subdivisions.
(3) Slopes in bufferyards may not exceed a ratio of four-to-one horizontal to vertical distance, except in natural bufferyards.
(4) Splash pads and other limited areas of stormwater drainage structures may be allowed with the approval of the planning official and the county engineer, unless a natural bufferyard option specified by the Pima County Landscape Design Manual is utilized.
(5) Non-hard surface trails required by Pima County Natural Resources Department may be located within bufferyards, provided that the width of the trail does not exceed eight feet.
d. Internal Site Landscaping.
(1) All disturbed areas not used for buildings, parking, access, approved trails, or stormwater drainage structures shall be landscaped with a minimum of 1 tree, 4 shrubs, and 10 accent plants per every 200 square feet and shall be curbed or otherwise protected when adjacent to vehicular use areas, unless otherwise required.
(2) A landscaped area with an average width of five feet shall be provided along the frontages of buildings visible from off-site. The area shall be located between main building entries and parking areas. The landscaped area shall contain a minimum of 8 shrubs, and 10 accent plants for every 40 linear feet and may be used to meet amenity landscape requirements.
D. Site Design.
1. Objective.
a. Improve the quality of commercial, industrial, multi-family, and single-family development design through comprehensive site design that provides internal and external connectivity.
b. Connect the building and pedestrian pathways to the street and adjacent sites by coordinating its placement with properties that conform to these design standards and guidelines.
c. Encourage creativity and design through the use of guidelines.
2. Standards.
a. Parcels larger than five acres and under one ownership shall be planned as one development.
b. Non-residential development and parcels larger than five acres shall be designed to promote internal circulation for pedestrians.
c. Linkages shall be provided to adjacent preserves, parks, and trails where connections may be made.
d. Outdoor lighting shall conform to Chapter 15.12 of the Pima County Code.
e. All drainage structures shall be landscaped as required or recommended by the storm water drainage manual, and shall be shown on the landscape plan submitted with development plans and plats.
f. Utilities shall be underground. Utility plans shall be coordinated and consistent with development and landscape plans. Proposed utility easements may not be located within required bufferyards except to cross the bufferyard perpendicularly.
g. Sidewalks are required along all arterial and collector routes and shall be a minimum of four-feet-wide. If a sidewalk is located within the required bufferyard, a minimum six-foot-wide planting area containing 1 tree spaced at a minimum of 40 feet on center shall be located between the sidewalk and the right-of-way. This strip may be used to meet bufferyard width requirements, provided that all other requirements are met.
h. No parking area may be larger than 48,000 square feet on sites larger than five acres containing more than one building pad without separation, by a building pad or building's associated landscaping, from other parking areas by a minimum five-feet-wide curbed landscape strip containing a minimum of 1 tree, 4 shrubs, and 10 accent plants for every 40 linear feet. The landscape strip may contain site-lighting fixtures. The landscaped strip may contain pedestrian walkways to connect interior pedestrian circulation paths constructed perpendicular to the length of the landscape strip.
i. Parking lots adjacent to property lines closest to the nearest public preserve shall be screened using a minimum 20-foot-wide landscape buffer, planted at the density of a type D bufferyard as required by the Landscape Design Manual, except where the Design Review Committee determines that the additional bufferyard will not provide visual screening of the development.
E. Signs.
1. Objective.
a. Provide for an effective form of communication while minimizing visual impacts on and off-site.
b. Ensure that the signage is clear, and compatible with the character of the Gateway Overlay Zone.
c. Enhance the potential economic value and encourage quality development within the community.
2. Standards.
a. All signs shall be designed to be architecturally compatible with the development complex as approved by the Design Review Committee.
b. Illumination. Illumination of signs may be accomplished only by one of the following methods:
(1) Halo Illumination
(2) Internal illumination to the extent that only the sign characters and logos emit light.
c. Illumination time restriction.
(1) An illuminated wall sign shall be turned off no later than one hour after the closing of a business.
(2) An illuminated sign in the interior of a business, which is visible from the outside, cannot be illuminated when the business is closed.
d. Prohibited lighting. The following types of light sources are prohibited as means to illuminate or attract attention to any sign:
(1) Blinking, flashing, rotating and animated light sources.
(2) Search lights.
F. Architectural Design.
1. Objective. To improve the quality of development in the Gateway Overlay Zone through instituting design standards and guidelines for new construction and alterations. The design guidelines and standards are intended to reflect the historic, natural, southwestern, or rural character of Pima County.
2. Standards for non-residential developments.
a. Building Façades. All façades, except as noted, shall have visual elements designed to break up large scales and shall prevent a uniform appearance by:
(1) Incorporating wall plane projections or recesses with a depth of at least 3 percent of the length of the façade. Such features shall include at least 20 percent of the length of the façade.
(2) Limiting uninterrupted length of any façade to a maximum of 100 horizontal feet.
(3) Designing ground floor façades longer than 100 feet facing public streets with arcades, entry areas, awnings or other features along no less than 60 percent of the façade.
(4) Including no less than 3 of the following items in a pattern that repeats at intervals of no less than 30 feet:
(a) Color change;
(b) Texture change;
(c) Material module change;
(d) Expression of architectural or structural bay through a change in plane no less than 12 inches in width, such as an off-set, reveal, or projecting rib.
b. Architectural Colors.
(1) All exposed exterior walls and roofs of buildings, retaining walls, and accessory structures that are visible from a designated Gateway Overlay Zone shall be consistent with the natural colors of the surrounding area and shall blend in with the natural setting. Corporate colors are prohibited if they are not compatible with existing natural colors as outlined in Section 18.78.030(F)(2)(b)(2)
(2) Allowable colors include, but are not limited to, blues, greens, yellows, browns, rusts, sepias, sands, tans, buffs, olive and grey as they occur in nature at the site.
(3) Applicant shall demonstrate that colors complement and blend with surrounding development landscape colors.
(4) Colors shall complement and blend with surrounding vistas.
(5) Colors shall not exceed a light-reflective value (LRV) of 48 percent.
(6) These colors do not apply to a roof screened by a parapet wall extending at least three feet above the building or to building accessories with minor accent colors that are part of the architectural design such as decorative tiles, fixtures, striping, awnings, or decorative entryways.
c. Building Height.
(1) Commercial and multi-family building heights may not exceed 34 feet anywhere along the roofline and may not exceed an average height of 28 feet.
(2) Average building height shall be determined by measuring from finished grade five feet from the building to the highest point on the building at intervals of five feet around the building perimeter and then averaging the results.
(Ord. 2006-30 § 2 (part), 2006; Ord. 2001-162 § 2 (part), 2001)