(a) Shade Trees. All parcels located within Village business districts shall provide a minimum of one parkway shade tree for every fifty feet of street frontage or fraction thereof.
(b) Buffering. Where a business district abuts a more or less intensive land use, including a residential, business, and/or manufacturing district, parking lot, railway, or arterial streets, a minimum twenty-foot buffering strip shall be provided to reduce the impacts of or on adjacent development, including noise, light, heat, and odor. Buffering may be achieved using a variety of arrangements, including parallel, serpentine, or broken planting rows, landscape berms, or any combination thereof.
Buffering materials shall be designed to provide a year-round visual and acoustic screen of four feet in height in three growing seasons. Landscape berms shall be a minimum of three feet in width and may not exceed a fifty percent slope. Openings in landscape buffers shall be provided along dedicated easements, rights of way, and, where necessary, for emergency vehicle access.
(c) Ground Cover. All lot areas not covered by site improvements or required buffering, trees, bushes, or other vegetation, shall be covered using sod, seed, hydro-seed or some combination thereof.
(1) New development. All new commercial development shall be required to sod all yard areas of the lot prior to issuance of a certificate of occupancy.
(2) Existing development. Where ground cover is removed, destroyed, or dies for any reason, the property owner shall replace said ground cover using one or a combination of the methods described above.
(d) Parking Lot Landscaping. A minimum of ten percent of the interior parking area shall be reserved for landscape plantings, including, but not limited to, parking islands, hedges, berms, rocks, ground cover, and trees. One interior parking area shade tree shall be planted for every fifteen parking spaces. Interior shade tree requirements are in addition to the required number of street trees.
(1) Location. All landscaping shall be planted within center islands, at the ends of parking bays, and along sidewalks, so as to provide protection from automobile and pedestrian traffic. All plantings and trees shall be installed so as to not impede sight lines between four and eight feet.
(2) Plant type. The selection of planting shall be at the discretion of the developer subject to approval of the Planning Commission. Evergreens, berming, and other dense vegetative materials shall be provided along parking lot perimeters to reduce the impact of automobile noise and lights on surrounding land uses. Deciduous trees shall be planted in the parking lot interior to provide shade and improve the aesthetic appearance of the lot.
Paving block, curbs, and other such devices shall be used to prevent automobiles from overhanging landscaped areas. Any area that will be under the overhang of an automobile shall be mulched or paved.
(e) Paving Materials. A variety of designs and paving materials, including concrete, asphalt, paving block, brick, cobblestone, tile, and other materials, are permitted in business districts. Paving materials must meet the established Village specifications and be installed with due consideration of function, cost, availability, appearance, and the user. (See Appendix A following the text of this chapter.)
All paved areas shall be designed to meet the minimum weight requirements for emergency vehicle access as established by the Village Fire Department.
(f) Privacy Walls and Fences. Walls and fences may be erected where necessary for privacy, screening, separation, security, erosion control, or other reasonable function.
The design and materials used shall be functional and compatible with the surrounding environment and meet the requirements of Section 4.00, entitled "Fences," of the Zoning Ordinance.
(g) Street Furniture/Ornamentation. Street furniture, including, but not limited to, benches, sculptures, flagpoles, lighting, and ornamentation shall be regulated as accessory structures in business districts according to the Zoning Ordinance. The location and size of all furniture and ornamentation shall be in accordance with the function served and the applicable regulations for the district in which it is to be located.
All trash containers shall be located in the rear of the principal structure and required to be screened from sight using solid wood or masonry fencing.
All street furniture and accessory structures shall be compatible in form, material, and finish, to the principal building. Street furniture shall be selected with due consideration of theme, function, durability, maintenance, and overall cost.
(Ord. 940. Passed 4-14-97; Ord. 1143. Passed 6-23-03.)